Ireland Tax Refund FAQs

The Irish tax year is from January 1st to December 31st and you have up to four years to claim any overpaid tax back.

If you're working in Ireland in 2012: We can apply for your tax refund at the end of the tax year or if you leave the country permanently we can apply straight away. Register online today for your Irish tax forms and send them in once you leave work.

If you worked in Ireland between 2008 and 2011: We can apply for your Irish income tax refund now so let us get the process underway today.

PRSI refunds: We can apply for your PRSI refund as far back as 2008 so don't miss out – apply online today.

As Irish tax experts taxback.com ensures you get back all the overpaid Irish tax, expenses and credits you're owed. The amount you're entitled to claim depends on factors like:

• Your earnings
• Your expenses
• How long you worked for

The average refunds we get for our Irish tax clients are €840 for PAYE and €320 for PRSI.

Use our free online tax refund calculator to see how much money you could get back.

As soon as we have it, you'll have it, because we contact you immediately when we receive your refund from the tax office to organise the easiest way to get it to you.

When we receive your signed documents it takes us just 1-3 working days to get your Irish tax return ready for the tax office. This includes:

• Receiving and checking the documents
• Estimating your refund
• Completing your forms
• Sending them to the tax office

Once at the tax office your PAYE tax refund application will take about 3-4 weeks to be processed. If you're also applying for a PRSI refund, this can take several months to process at the PRSI office. Our tax team is in constant contact with the tax office to see how your application is progressing.

As soon as the tax office sends us your refund, we'll contact you to confirm the most convenient and quickest way to transfer it to you.

The total estimated time for your Ireland tax rebate is 3-4 weeks.

Throughout the entire process you can watch the step-by-step progress of your application on your online Tax Tracker account.

Firstly our team will provide you with a free, no obligation estimate of your tax refunds from the last four years.

Once you send us your documents and signed forms, we'll evaluate your refund and what additional services you need such as document retrieval. Then we'll let you know how much it will cost to file your return for you.

For Irish PAYE tax refunds we charge 10% + handling fee of the refund received, subject to a minimum processing fee of €40 + handling fee.

For self-employed clients who need to file a tax return our charge for this service is a flat, upfront fee of €400 + handling fee, plus €50 + handling fee for each supplementary schedule. If you are due a tax refund there is an additional fee of 10% of the received refund + handling fee.

Why the minimum fee?

Our fee covers all the things that make filing your application with us so easy such as:

• Customer support 24/7 by phone and Live Chat
• Online tracking service in seven languages
• Free phone and free fax
• Local staff to meet you and guide you through the process
• Tax technicians
• Researchers to identify new legal developments to maximise your refunds
• Quality team

Claiming your Irish tax back with us is a fast and easy process. Here's how the process works:

1. Register online and then download our TaxPack for Irish tax returns. Sign the forms and send them to us.


2. Once we receive your signed forms we'll estimate your refund and give you an online tracking account. If you're missing any documents we can get replacements for you.


3. We prepare and file your tax return. As soon as we receive your tax refund from the Revenue we contact you to organise transferring it to you.

We know it's easy to lose documents or to not even receive them in the first place. That's why we have a dedicated document retrieval team who deal with employers all over Ireland and can organise replacement documents for you.

If you need our document retrieval services for your Irish tax refund, our fee for this is €15 + levy per document.

If you earn any extra income in Ireland outside of your income as a PAYE employee, you will need to declare it by filing a self-assessment tax return at the end of the tax year. Extra income includes:

• Rental income
• Capital gains
• Foreign income
• Dividends

If you've paid qualifying health and dental expenses during the tax year, such as doctor's visits or laser eye surgery not completely covered by your VHI/Bupa/Vivas or insurance provider, taxback.com can claim tax relief on these expenses for you.

Examples of medical expenses:

• Costs of doctors' and consultants' fees
• Items and treatments prescribed by a doctor/consultant such as drugs and medicine, hearing aids, physiotherapy, wheelchairs, diagnostic procedures, orthopaedic treatments
• Hospital treatment
• Laser eye surgery
• Speech and language therapy
• Transport by ambulance
• Maternity care

Examples of dental treatments:

• Bridgework
• Crowns
• Veneers
• Root canal treatment
• Surgical extraction of wisdom teeth

To claim tax relief on all your expenses you must keep your receipts and document the total expense paid so that you can claim back all that you are entitled to.

If you're renting private accommodation in Ireland you may be eligible for rent relief. Relief for single persons under 55 is €400 for 2010 and will be granted by way of a tax credit at the standard rate of income tax.

Taxback.com can claim your rent tax credits and to do so we'll need information including:

• The tenancy dates and address
• The weekly/monthly amount of rent you were paying
• The name and address of your landlord

If you're studying in Ireland, you may be able to claim tax relief on your tuition fees. Tax relief is available for:

• Certain full-time and part-time undergraduate courses of at least 2 years duration. The relief applies to fees up to €5,000.
• Certain training courses in the areas of information technology and foreign languages. The relief applies to fees ranging from €315 to €1,270.
• Certain postgraduate courses effective from 2000.

To qualify for tuition tax relief, your course must be an approved course at an approved college. Get a free refund estimation and find out if your course will qualify.

Taxback.com can claim your tuition tax relief for you.

If your employer pays part or all of your medical insurance you may be due a refund because this tax relief is not granted at source. You need to claim for this through a tax refund application.

You can claim 20% off the cost of medical insurance through the Private Medical Insurance Tax scheme.

If you pay for your medical insurance either directly or if you pay it through your employer, this tax relief is granted at source and you are not entitled to a refund.

If you pay charges on bin or water services you may be able to claim tax credits of up to €400. Qualifying services are those paid to local authorities for domestic water supply, refuse collection and sewage disposal. To be eligible you must have paid your charges on time and in full in the year you wish to claim for.

Taxback.com can claim your service charges back.

If you've paid subscription fees to a Trade Union you may be eligible for up to €70 of trade union subscription relief. To be eligible you must be a member of a qualifying trade union so make sure you know the name of the union and the amount you paid so we can get it back for you.

The incapacitated child tax credit can be claimed by a parent or guardian if they have a child who is permanently incapacitated either physically or mentally from maintaining himself or herself.

To qualify, the child must have become incapacitated before turning 21-years-old or, if older than 21, have been in full-time education or training for a trade or profession for a minimum of two years when they became permanently incapacitated.

To apply for this tax credit, we'll need documentation including:

• The child's name
• Date of Birth
• Information on the incapacity
• Details of the child's income

In some cases a medical certificate may also be required.

The one parent family tax credit is available where an individual (whether widowed, single, divorced or separated) has a dependent child/children living with them for all or part of the tax year. To qualify you must meet the following criteria:

• You must not be entitled to the Married Personal Tax Credit
• You must not be living with another person as husband and wife
• The child must be under 18 years of age or if over 18 years of age the child much be in full-time education or permanently incapacitated.

You can follow the progress of your Irish tax return on your online TaxTracker ^® account. This secure account allows you to see every action taken on your application.

We also have our team available 24/7 to answer your questions through our Live Chat instant messaging system.

When you work in Ireland, your employer deducts Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) from your earnings. PRSI is made up of social insurance and health contributions. The social insurance part goes to social insurance funds to pay for social welfare and benefits in Ireland. The health contribution part goes to the Department of Health and Children to help fund health services in Ireland.

Even if you aren't due a PAYE refund, you may still be able to claim back some of the PRSI you paid. Our customers get an average PRSI refund of €320.

Your P45 is the official tax form that you get from your employer when you finish working for them. It outlines your earnings and the amount of taxes that you paid for that employer. If you leave your job to start another one in Ireland, you'll need to give your P45 to your next employer so make sure you keep a copy for yourself.

If you've misplaced your P45 or you never received it, our document retrieval team can obtain one for you.

A P60 is the tax certificate you receive from your employer in January after the tax year ends. It shows your earnings, tax paid and PRSI contributions deducted in that tax year.

If you've misplaced your P60 or you never received it, our document retrieval team can obtain one for you.

No, but we do guarantee to get you the most money back that we legally can.

Our estimate is based on your documents and our experience in filing thousands of tax returns every week since 1996. Once we have submitted your tax return the Irish tax authority has the final decision in your tax refund based on their systems and tax codes.

When our tax technicians prepare and file your return, they check for any allowances or benefits you could get and ensure we apply for the maximum rebate possible.

We file your Ireland tax return in order to organise your tax refund.

A tax return is the annual submission of tax forms documenting your earnings, taxes paid, deductable expenses and allowances that you send to the tax office for review. They review it according to the information submitted by your employer and the current laws that apply to your case.

If you get a tax refund, this means the tax office review found you had overpaid Irish tax and were due some back.

Our estimate of your tax refund is based on our prediction of what the tax office will decide when they review your tax return - providing they have the same information as us.

Use our free online tax refund estimator to see how much tax you could get back.