DUBLIN: Almost two-thirds of people in Ireland are unaware of the existence of the home carer tax credit, a new survey shows. There is a particular problem of families where there is just one income not claiming the tax credit, according to a Taxback.com nationwide questionnaire.
The credit of €1,000 can be claimed by any married couple, where one spouse is the home carer and cares for one or more dependent persons, which includes children under 18.
Senior manager at Taxback, Barry Flanagan, said there are 230,000 households caring for children, based on data from the Central Statistics Office.
“Our most recent figures are for tax returns in 2014, and indicate a total of 80,900 claimed the credit at a cost to the Exchequer of €60.9m, or an average of €752 each,” he said. Mr Flanagan said Revenue treats taxpayers as units which means 80,900 families claimed the credit.
“If we contrast this with the estimated 230,000 households with children where one parent is looking after the home, it appears only about one-third are claiming their entitlement which is not surprising when you consider the number of people that are aware of its existence,” he said.
This means 65pc of families are not claiming the credit.
