Child Benefits Tax Entitlements

Child Benefits and tax entitlements

The back-to-school period is upon us and many families are feeling the pinch. Covering the cost of school books, uniforms, transport, stationary, etc. is leading many families to forgo paying household bills (according to recent research by Barnardos). To assist you with covering the back-to-school costs we have compiled tax entitlements, relating to children, and child benefits below.

Child benefits

Child Benefits (formerly “Children’s Allowance”) – this is a well-known benefit and one that you should be availing of if your child is under 16, or under 18 and in full-time education. Child Benefits is €140 per month per child (this rate changes for multiple births).

For further details on Child Benefit, click here.

Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance

This benefit provides assistance for uniform and footwear expenses specifically for children going to school. The value of the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance for 2022 is €160.0 for each eligible child between 4-11 years and €285.00 for each eligible child between 12-22 years.  There are specific qualifying conditions that must be met, including income limits and social welfare conditions. The Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance for 2022 will open in June 2022 with a deadline date of the 30^th September 2022.

For further details on Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance, click here.

Family Income Supplement

Family Income Supplement is a support payment for low income families (including one-parent families) that is tax free. To qualify you must be an employee working a minimum of 19 hours per week (if applicable your hours can be added to your partner’s working hours) and you must have a qualifying child.

The Family Income Supplement payment is 60% of the difference between your average weekly family income minus your weekly assessable income limit for your family size.

For more information on Family Income Supplement, click here.

Single Person Child Carer Credit (SPCCC)

Formerly the “One-Parent Family Tax Credit”, this tax credit is available to people caring for qualifying children on their own. This credit can be granted to a primary claimant (child must be living with this person for more than 6 months in the year) OR a secondary claimant (child must be living with this person for 100 or more days in the year). A qualifying primary claimant can surrender the SPCCC to a qualifying secondary claimant. The value of the SPCCC is currently €1,650 p/y. Once you are availing of the SPCCC you are automatically due an increased standard rate cut off band of €4,000.00 p/y.

For more information on Single Person Child Carer Credit, click here.

One Parent Family Payment

The One Parent Family Payment provides support to a person that is rearing at least one child without the support of a partner. There are specific rules and conditions that must be met to receive this payment, for example the person must be under 66 and satisfy a means test. The maximum weekly One Parent Family Payment rate (Personal Rate) is currently €208 per week.

For further details on One Parent Family Payment, click here.

Widowed Parent Tax Credit

A widowed person, that hasn’t remarried and isn’t cohabiting, with a qualifying child can claim Widowed Parent Tax Credit. The value of this tax credit reduces each year, for 5 years, after bereavement – commencing at €3,600 in year 1 reducing to €1,800 in year 5. Please note that Widowed Parent Tax Credit can be claimed for a maximum of 5 years and only 1 tax credit can be received regardless of the number of dependent children.

For further details on Widowed Parent Tax Credit, click here.

Medical Insurance Premiums

If you pay medical insurance for your dependants (including a dependent child) to an approved insurer you can claim tax relief. Your insurer calculates the tax relief and reduced the cost of your policy accordingly. The monetary value of this tax relief depends on when you renewed or commenced your policy.

For further details on tax relief for medical insurance premiums, click here.

Health Care for Children

If your child is under 18 or over 18 but in full-time education, you can claim tax relief for “additional health expenses”. There are several “additional health expenses” which can be found on the below revenue link, these include:

• Educational psychologist and speech and language therapy
• Life threatening illness or permanent disability
• Overnight accommodation
• Travel
• Travelling abroad
• Telephone
• Hygiene products and special clothing

For more information on tax relief visit revenue.ie

Home Carer Tax Credit

You can potentially claim Home Carer Tax Credit for your child, for whom you must receive Child Benefit, if your child is deemed a “dependant person” and if you’re married or in a civil partnership. Please note that you can only claim this tax credit for one dependent child/person regardless of the number of dependants that you care for. The current maximum Home Carer Tax Credit rate that you can receive is €1,600.

For more information on Home Carer Tax Credit, click here.

Incapacitated Child Tax Credit

You can claim Incapacitated Child Tax Credit if you have custody and support a child / children who cannot support themselves due to permanent physical or mental incapacitation. Currently the value of this tax credit is €3,300 per incapacitated child.

For more information on Incapacitated Child Tax Credit, click here.

Tuition fees (3^rd level education)

This one is a little out of the “children” scope, however, as many parents foot the bill for their child’s tuition fees we thought it best to include.

You can claim tax relief on tuition fees for approved 3^rd level courses / colleges once certain conditions are met (for example, an undergrad course must be a minimum of 2 years). Currently in 2022, the value of this tax relief is: 20% of the qualifying course fee (up to €7,000) minus the disregard amount (€3,000 for full-time and €1,500 for part-time courses). For more details, click here.

Similarly, there’s tax relief for qualifying “Foreign language and Information Technology (IT) courses”. If the fee is between €315# and €1,270 you can claim 20% tax relief. For more details, click here.

For more on Child Benefits and other Benefits and Allowances read:

Changes to Maternity Benefit Application Form

Maternity Benefit Revenue Guidelines Explained

Marriage Tax Benefits 2

Tax Free Childcare UK Employers

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