A PUBLIC awareness campaign needs to ensure that all those who qualify for the Home Carer Tax Credit in Limerick and throughout the country are actually aware of it.
Limerick TD and Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Jobs and Enterprise Niall Collins was commenting after a recent report indicated that two thirds of people were unaware of the existence of the credit.
“We recently heard of the results of a survey from taxback.com to the effect that almost two thirds of people in Ireland are unaware of the existence of this credit.
Deputy Collins said that this raised concerns that “many families are potentially missing out on a valuable tax credit because they are simply not aware of it.”
There is a strong case for the Revenue to take further steps to highlight the existence of this credit.
Deputy Collins’ comments came following confirmation in a Dáil reply to Fianna Fáil that some 81,000 taxpayers are currently availing of the credit.
“A Home Carer Tax Credit may be claimed by a married couple where one spouse cares for a dependent person such as child, elderly person or a person with a disability. This important tax credit was recently increased to €1,100 in Budget 2017,” added Collins.
“While the Revenue Commissioners do make an effort to automatically give this tax credit to some taxpayers, only 81,000 taxpayers are currently benefitting from it.
“Many people are not claiming this tax credit as the Government and the Revenue Commissioners are doing very little to make people aware of it, and to expand the number of claimants. The tax credit puts up to €1,100 back into the pockets of a couple where one person works and the other is a carer, including caring for children.
“Taxpayers who could benefit from this tax credit can claim it using Revenue’s online PAYE Anytime service, a claim form or their annual tax return,” concluded Collins.
