Differences between tax credits, reliefs and exemptions

What are tax credits?

Tax credits reduce the amount of Income Tax that you pay. Revenue will apply them after your tax has been calculated. You can find out more about how tax credits work in Calculating your Income Tax.

The tax credits you are granted depend on your personal circumstances. Revenue will give some tax credits automatically. There are others which you must claim.

Any tax credits that Revenue give you, or you can claim, are for a full tax year. This means that any unused tax credits in a pay period, will be used in later pay periods in the same tax year. You cannot get a refund of any unused tax credits or carry them over into another tax year.

You can divide your tax credits between your jobs if you have a second or multiple jobs. Splitting tax credits and rate bands between jobs explains how you can do this.

Note

You can see your tax credits on your Tax Credit Certificate (TCC).

Basic personal tax credit

If you are resident in Ireland, Revenue will automatically give you a Basic personal tax credit. The amount of basic personal tax credit you get depends on whether you are:

• single
• married or in a civil partnership
• widowed or a surviving civil partner
• separated
• divorced or a former civil partner.

You must tell Revenue if your circumstances change.

Additional tax credits

You may be able to claim additional tax credits depending on your personal circumstances, for example:

• Age Tax Credit
• Blind Person's Tax Credit
• Dependent Relative Tax Credit
• Employee Tax Credit
• Home Carer Tax Credit
• Incapacitated Child Tax Credit
• Fisher Tax Credit
• Sea-going Naval Personnel Tax Credit
• Single Person Child Carer Credit
• Widowed Parent Tax Credit.
  

All tax credits are in the Tax rates, bands and reliefs chart. The amounts of each tax credit for this year and the previous four years, are also in these charts.

You can use myAccount to claim additional tax credits for 2021 by selecting the icon ‘Manage your tax 2022’.

What are tax exemptions?

You may be exempt from paying tax on certain types of income you receive. You must meet certain conditions to qualify for an exemption. The exemption covers all your income from a specified source, or up to a specified amount.

The exemptions you can claim depend on your personal situation. You can find them the different sections of Personal tax credits reliefs and exemptions. For example:

• Marginal Relief
• some Department of Social Protection (DSP) payments
• a basic, or increase exemption, for Lump sum payments from your employer
• Artist’s Exemption
• Scholarship Exemption.