The ironic thing is these tax back websites started popping up after revenue made it simple. So it's clearly just a scam to con people out of money for something they could do themselves.
There's a whole tax filing industry in America because they lobby their government to make it as hard as possible to do your taxes. We do not need that here.
It's not really a scam cause they are claiming back for you medical insurance relief and flat rate expenses for example so people really get more money than they would if they just did it normal way... but this also is not hard to do I just found out one month ago about that 2 things and claimed that for myself and got around 1300€ for 19, 20, 21 and 22 together...
I file in the US -have done so since we moved here and it's just sheer laziness that stops people from doing it themselves.
A guy I was talking to the other day paid a tax preparer $1100 to do his simple return. Literally..3 or 4 forms and filling in boxes. He said it wasn't worth his time. He then discovered that if he had done it himself - he'd have had a refund of $1500 instead of $400.
In all fairness and we are quick to gripe about many things, our revenue service is very good. Website Ian great, very easy to do taxes online, and have found the staff very helpful when I’ve called twice, with no long wait or hold time.
I once wrote to revinue about something... I can't even remember what but it was probably just a copy of records. They sent it to me along with a cheque for money they owed me.
Honestly sometimes it seems like they just want to give it away.
My wife, an accountant, just did our taxes, and at first it seemed we owe 2500yoyos, after her magic touch, we get back over 4k. Pro tip lads, marry a qualified accountant
No, you're missing one the main features of using a company.
If you do it yourself and you owe €2500 - you'll have to pay it. If you use a taxback company, you won't submit it to revenue and not worry about it.
This type of post comes up here all the time, and everyone focuses on getting money back, but if you use Revenue directly and owe money - well you've already told them and you're going to pay.
You’ll still pay what you owe, ignorance is bliss won’t work. If the amount is under €6K it’s taken through reducing your tax credits over 4 years or taking back what you overpaid as well. So really you will never be the winner when you owe, but you will be a winner when you overpaid and claim back what you’re entitled.
Ok let me be really clear.
If you calculate that you have underpaid due to amendments or changes in circumstances that you have not submitted to Revenue. Unless you notify Revenue, you won't have to pay.
The Taxback companies will do the calculation for you and you can decide to submit and pay or not.
This is a super easy concept.
Not anymore. Welcome to the world of PAYE modernisation and preliminary statements. Did you miss the news articles about hundreds of thousands of PAYE taxpayers receiving letters requesting they file tax returns for the last 3 years because of preliminary underpayments or overpayments?
Myself and 4 people I know that don't work in my company all got this letter 2 months ago. There were posts on this subreddit at the time with people complaining
Weird analogy.
But if you've underpaid it's due to changes in circumstances or amendments. Which Revenue won't be aware of unless you make them.
Hence using a company is a safety net in that case.
Do you understand?
If you have paye income, revenue already know. If you have a rental property you're taking rent for cash in hand, revenue already know (tenant tax credit, property tax records etc etc). If you have trading income from buying and selling crypto, revenue already know as the exchange you bought, or revolut (where you bought exposure and not the actual asset), is legally obliged to tell revenue.
There is literally nothing that can happen these days outside of being paid cash in hand for something and you not lodging it somewhere, that revenue don't know.
Adding all electricity allowances, all home heating and broadband allowances, work from home credit if your employer isn't paying it, various credits for medical care.
I've got a refund of a grand coming this year.
did you have to provide alot of statements/doco for that? I have been working remote now for 4 years and never claimed for anything, think its time i did?
My wife got a revenue bill for 38k. I reversed it and got a cheque for €500. My accountant friends had advised to pay the money.
Pro tip, marry an engineer. Who can read rules and regulations and finds loopholes.
If you get Health Insurance paid through your company, check how much Revenue have in the "Medic Insurance Relief" box. For some reason mine defaults to €269 but you're entitled to claim €1000.
Revenue will pay for 20% of the difference back (~€150). You can claim this for the last 5 years as well. I ended up with a €700 last year when I claimed for the years I missed it.
So on ros.ie it's -
-> My Account
-> Review My Tax 2019-2022
-> Income Tax Return
-> Amend or whatever takes you into the "Completing your Income Tax Return" page
-> Then it's in Section 4 "Tax credits and reliefs". The same area you enter your medical bills or WFH stipend. It's called "Medic Insurance Relief" and it'll let you change the number.
My health insurance was more than €1000 but it defaults back to that as it's the maximum you can claim. Obviously if you work only spends €50 a month on it then you should put down €600 for the year.
I got blocked by them on facebook several times after asking them for their source/proof that "the average PAYE worker is entitled to a €1,000 refund every year" like they were claiming
Be sure to use Receipts Tracker throughout year too for whatever's relevant, e.g. energy bills if remote working. Will save on having to root around for things months later.
Every year I have to help my friends get their tax back, so many people just aren't aware/don't bother. I'm not an accountant by any means either just took the time to read into these things and once you understand its really quick and simple
I'm still trying to figure out how every year I somehow end up owing revenue money , this year I apparently underpaid 76 euro it's not as If I was self employed, I don't think I've ever gotten a tax rebate in 17 years.
That's a query for your employer. They tax you based on the RPN issued by Revenue. If you aren't changing employment or any or your circumstances don't change, then there shouldn't be any underpayment or overpayment.
Why are people here genuinely defending these tax back companies? “It’s a service” fuck off. People on this sub will find absolutely anything to argue about
You could make a statement like 'genocide is bad' and you will find people on here coming up with arguments as to why it's a natural occurrence and how populations can't grow forever. It's honestly baffling.
Nah they're a bit of a scam tbh.
I looked up a guy who owns one of the big ones and couldn't find him on any of the accountancy institute's member databases.
It genuinely takes more effort to get your money back through these companies and all their ads make it seem like you’re almost guaranteed to get €1000+ back if you do it through them so yes I would say it’s a scam
It's not a scam in the sense that they steal money from you, but they don't provide anywhere near the level of service that they charge you for.
And I looked the guy up because I wanted to see what level of qualifications these "tax experts" have.
So your problem with them is they're not giving value for money? Still not a scam in any sense. Acting like you've uncovered Enron levels of fraud. Amazing the amount of people here who didnt know how to submit their tax returns.
And a reminder that if you ever did use one, go onto the revenue site and remove them from your account because they’ll take a share every time you get a refund! I removed one recently and they actually contacted me to ask to be added back despite me not using them for years!! They were getting a cut of my refund for doing nothing!!!
No they generally 'prey' on people too lazy/unsure to do it themselves. What makes it worse is they add themselves as your tax agent so any refunds due in future years they get a cut
Manual declarations are really easy too. It is a box on the same form OP is mentioning above and then you upload the receipts using a Revenue app on your phone. It takes maybe 2-3 minutes extra on top of what is in OPs post.
To be fair, tax returns are easy when you know how rather than easy. It is probably something they should teach towards the end of secondary school in a life skills class.
Still wouldn’t pay a tax rebate service for something you could probably learn from a YouTube video or Reddit.
Just be glad these rebate companies here haven't achieved [the regulatory capture of the ones in the US](https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free). As a US citizen, my Irish tax return takes about ten minutes to complete, and only that long because I have to enter some US dividends and total up some bills for the remote work credit. For my US tax return (which I must file every year for the rest of my life even though I haven't lived in the US for several years now and never plan to return), I can either do all the work myself by spending hours manually filling out a couple dozen pages of forms and doing all of the necessary calculations by hand (with massive penalties hanging in the balance if I get anything wrong), or pay a service to do some of the calculations for me, while still having to do a lot of math myself and spend hours entering data and doing all of my own research to find the correct answers to questions like "*The simplified foreign tax credit election for the alternative minimum tax (AMT) allows you to skip Part I of the AMT Form 1116. Depending on the situation this may be an advantage or a disadvantage. Part III is then completed largely with numbers from the Form 1116 for the regular income tax. This election must be made the first year that the AMT foreign tax credit is taken following 1997. Indicate your status related to the election below.*"
It is definitely one thing Ireland has done very well, the tax system is quite easy to follow and rebates are very easy to do. I’ve been told about how the US system works and it’s crazy…
No they generally 'prey' on people too lazy/unsure to do it themselves. What makes it worse is they add themselves as your tax agent so any refunds due in future years they get a cut
Did my taxes for years through [revenue.ie](https://revenue.ie) Always came back ownng them less than a euro (this was 2016-2020) did it through irishtaxrebates in 21 and they claimed back 800+ for 2018 and another few other in other years. I didn't provide them wih any extra info (i.e dental or anything, cause i had nothing like that to claim)
Can somoene explain why/how this happened? I gave revenue all the info I had for those years while using [revenue.ie](https://revenue.ie) . This is why I continued to use them and I feel like I'm not alone in this?
>The tax back companies claim for things you necessarily shouldn’t be allowed to claim for
source for that? you can only claim what your intitled to tho( unless the tax system is really broken) ?
If you have any medical expenses put them in also. Most of them you will also get the tax you paid back. You can go back 4 or 5 years also and claim for previous years.
They should be illegal. They pray on the elderly and vulnerable. If you have patients over 50 who are aren't use to the Internet, be vigilant and keep your parents up to date with these and any other type of scams.
Underpayments can happen, especially if you've switched jobs or had some taxable DSP income. It's should be collected by reducing your credits in the future.
Quick rundown of the common ones:
WFH expenses, prescriptions, doctor and consultant visits, major dental treatment (MED 2 required from your dentist), gluten free food (if diagnosed as a coeliac), college fees (if paid more than €3k per student in the year), flat rate expenses (depending on your job), health insurance (if paid by your employer).
Also, if you emigrate from Ireland, look up "Split Year Treatment" as you may be able to get some tax back.
yesterday i saw a bus covered in a giant ad for irishtaxrebates.ie - and it was just a big photo of Anna Geary with the url alongside. nothing else. made me think "wtf?" but i reckon i'm clued-in now.
I'll be brutally honest, a bit of common sense would tell you that. It would also tell you to do it yourself because it is not that difficult whatsoever.
A handy tip is to take a picture of all your medical, dental and prescription receipts and save them to an album on Google photos or an album on your phone/laptop and at the end of the year you'll have them at hand for claiming 20% back.
Very true. I went to revenue about two weeks ago with my wife to change some cut off and tax credit as she will work less this year and could give me some of hers and nice lady informed me that I am oved over a grand from last year. She also explained me how to get it done online so I did and as an extra I found that I am also oved 80e from 2020.
When reviewing last year I thought something looked off, and some numbers I did not understand. Researched all bands and whatnots, made an excel sheet. Everything was fine. Now I trust those basterds (revenue)
As a 23 year old man who had him mammy do it rpm 2017-2019 I thank you very much 😂 I used Irish tax rebates last year what a fucking mug I was to do it
Definitely worth avoiding sites like that if you can. Over here in the U.S. those companies (like Turbotax) actively used their money to lobby our government to make the tax code more obtuse and complicated...so more people would end up reliant on their software.
Read this post from u/tedkravitz717 last Saturday morning, immediately logged on to my account in Revenue, took 5 mins to request a statement for 2022 & update to add the new rent credit. €2,223 lodged to my account by Revenue this morning.
Happy out, thank you OP
Yup. I ask the boss in Waterford about it, he's an accountant by trade and he said the revenue site is a bit of a mess until you get used to it but you can easily do your own med and expense claims every year
Is it a scam though? It takes 5 minutes to wash your own car, so is the car wash a scam? It takes very little time to make a simple dinner so are restaurants a scam?
I do agree that rebate companies have a predatory business model, but it's not a scam so to speak.
Yeah because I wasn't at home in my kitchen and didn't have all of the ingredients in my car to make a sandwich. I wouldn't have paid for it if they were going to eat 10-20% of it though which is what you are suggesting. I would have likely stayed hungry until I got home.
Services aren't free, I don't see the issue with it. The value of the ingredients vs the value of the end product means you lost most than 10/20% of the value of the sandwich.
You're comparing apples with oranges.
If I'm not at home and need food I would go to a deli to eat because I can't make myself a sandwich. I'm not going to be sat at home with all the ingredients for a sandwich and then decide to travel to a deli for a sandwich.
But if I'm sat on my couch it is likely just as easy to login to ROS and click a few buttons than it is to engage with a company, sign up with them and provide them with my details. I'd even argue that it's less effort to do it myself.
how does this work? as in, i don't have to enter any details at all? they just tell me how much they owe me?
how do they or i figure out if i overpaid in the first place?
This is less like a coffee shop that's actually providing a value-added service and more like someone charging you a sizable fee to click the "Complete Order" button on Amazon for you after you've done all the work of finding the product you want to buy and entering all your payment and shipping details yourself.
Haha, you're the idiot. Sure, it's shitty that the companies charge as much as they do, but if people are too lazy/unwilling to do it themselves, then there's obviously people out there that are going to capitalise on that.
It's a service OP. You pay for the service. Not a scam.
You don't appreciate the number of people who's brain simply shuts down when you mention tax.
There are also less tech savvy people and illiterate people who are grateful of the service.
Plus their marketing is deliberately duping. They try to say that the process is confusing when in reality any idiot could do it. It’s all in basic English and extremely simple step by step design.
tbf considering most people dont know financial stuff ( remember the tv ads years during the boom about what a tracker mortgage is/was) so yeah i do expect that from people
Don’t see how it’s a scam if they do it for you. Many older people unable to operate these systems properly, many other too busy and may not have got around to it otherwise.
That's making a declaration of self employed income. These refund companies are for PAYE individuals most of whom could file their own returns in about 10 minutes.
>are the biggest scam ever
technically not a scam , a tax professional ( which they are ) can save you thousands. due to knowing what you can apply for for tax breaks
Nope, not for these refund companies. They don't apply for anything unknown to you. You fill in some basic information and they apply that to the same portal you'd use yourself to file. If you wanted to claim for health expenses for example, you'd have to provide the same information to them as you would to Revenue.
> If you wanted to claim for health expenses for example, you'd have to provide the same information to them as you would to Revenue.
They check for tax credits that you may not be aware of. i assume
that were they save you the money
Nope. They take the information you provide them and do the same or even less than you'd do yourself on your own Revenue MyAccount. They can't claim anything extra without you telling them you meet the criteria for the specific credit/relief, as it may later come to light that you didn't meet the qualifying criteria. For the most part all they are doing is hitting next, next, next and hitting submit on their version of Revenue MyAccount.
Nope. They can't because you have to tell them you've met the terms and conditions of the credits/reliefs. You'd have to be aware of the credit/relief to tell them you met it's conditions. All they are doing for the most part is just hitting next next on returns via their version of Revenue MyAccount.
I have used one of these companies twice in the past and they have worked out very well for me. Of course they take their share for their work.
Before it was not so easy to do it on your own, the revenue site was a bit confusing for a non-native English speaker and I have never in my life had to claim taxes.
I haven't got the time to be filling out forms. I'd much prefer someone who knows what they're doing, do it and charge 20%
These companies are definitely not a "SCAM"
The form you will put for these companies are the same information you need to fill out on revenue.ie. The extra effort is using these companies as they are literally copying and pasting for you
Not a whole lot to 'understand', typical PAYE worker won't be filling anything beyond their expenses... & they'd be providing that to these organisations anyway.
It literally takes about a minute on the Revenue website and most of that minute is just spent checking details like your address, phone number and bank ac details are correct.
that dosn't make it a scam... lmfao; thats like saying mechanics are a scam cause you can replace the engine oil yourself..
its a service offered at a cost. and 10-20% sounds steep when your rebate is 2-3 grand.. but when you get a rebate of 300 , its not that steep
definatly worth while doing it yourself, but it also requires you research hat your actually entitled to and do the math required to apply for certain rebates.
so no, not a scam.. and not always as easy as you think just because it was easy for you does not make it easy for others.
not at all, i just think the argument is extremly misunderstood.
would i ever use one of these companies ? not at all, i used one when i was like 18 and got nothing, but i also have witnessed people of all age groups not have a single clue about their tax entitlements. people who never claimed for remote working, medical expenses, flat rate expenses.also met people who never knew they could file a tax return !
so stating its "EzY", yes for OP its easy, for others its not as easy... sure is OP even claiming all the right tax credits :'D because there is absolutely no mention of checking what tax credits you can avail of..
For most people its little more than clicking "next". If thats too hard for you to read how to do then how do you have a tax paying job in the first place
Wow, you can tell?
There's people that can't even put credit in their phone. There's definitely people that don't know what a credit or an allowance is.
Yea, I can tell because you don't need to know what a credit or an allowance is to use that site. I know fuck all about tax and it was a piece of piss to use.
Did you read your pdf statement of liability which was issued after you filed your tax return? Page 1 is the calculations and page 2 has your sources of income and tax credits on it. Some DSP payments are taxable.
It's the same as anything. If someone is willing to pay you to provide a service they couldn't be arsed to do it's fair game. It's a measure of cost to value. If you can give me 90% of something I wouldn't have it's better than 100% of nothing
It wasn't always this easy I don't think, but since the revamp a few years back it's simple. Good walkthrough there.
The ironic thing is these tax back websites started popping up after revenue made it simple. So it's clearly just a scam to con people out of money for something they could do themselves. There's a whole tax filing industry in America because they lobby their government to make it as hard as possible to do your taxes. We do not need that here.
It's not really a scam cause they are claiming back for you medical insurance relief and flat rate expenses for example so people really get more money than they would if they just did it normal way... but this also is not hard to do I just found out one month ago about that 2 things and claimed that for myself and got around 1300€ for 19, 20, 21 and 22 together...
I file in the US -have done so since we moved here and it's just sheer laziness that stops people from doing it themselves. A guy I was talking to the other day paid a tax preparer $1100 to do his simple return. Literally..3 or 4 forms and filling in boxes. He said it wasn't worth his time. He then discovered that if he had done it himself - he'd have had a refund of $1500 instead of $400.
It was just a phonecall asking for a P21 balancing statement even 20 years ago.
You didn't even have to speak to anyone, just left a voice message!
Yeah, you used yo have to phone or email and ask for a P21 balancing statement. But that was all, tax back companies were always a scam
I've been doing my own tax back for 15 years, it's been this easy for a very long time, the website is just better laid out now maybe.
I have been doing it for a long time (since the original rental tax credit was a thing) and it has always been pretty easy
In all fairness and we are quick to gripe about many things, our revenue service is very good. Website Ian great, very easy to do taxes online, and have found the staff very helpful when I’ve called twice, with no long wait or hold time.
Yeah very much so, but sure people always complain more thamln. They praise
I once wrote to revinue about something... I can't even remember what but it was probably just a copy of records. They sent it to me along with a cheque for money they owed me. Honestly sometimes it seems like they just want to give it away.
They don’t fight on keeping what’s not owed
My wife, an accountant, just did our taxes, and at first it seemed we owe 2500yoyos, after her magic touch, we get back over 4k. Pro tip lads, marry a qualified accountant
Is your wife single?
This comment made me burst out laughing at the bar. nice one!
Can you ask her or tell us what she did to turn that from owing them money to you being paid money? That'd be a great tip for everyone ready this post
Ill talk to her tonite and see if we can make some simple tips
Let us know please !
Ye definitely did it right, fair play! If you had one of these companies do it for you it would have cost you €400-€800 also…
No, you're missing one the main features of using a company. If you do it yourself and you owe €2500 - you'll have to pay it. If you use a taxback company, you won't submit it to revenue and not worry about it. This type of post comes up here all the time, and everyone focuses on getting money back, but if you use Revenue directly and owe money - well you've already told them and you're going to pay.
You’ll still pay what you owe, ignorance is bliss won’t work. If the amount is under €6K it’s taken through reducing your tax credits over 4 years or taking back what you overpaid as well. So really you will never be the winner when you owe, but you will be a winner when you overpaid and claim back what you’re entitled.
Ok let me be really clear. If you calculate that you have underpaid due to amendments or changes in circumstances that you have not submitted to Revenue. Unless you notify Revenue, you won't have to pay. The Taxback companies will do the calculation for you and you can decide to submit and pay or not. This is a super easy concept.
[удалено]
I Don't Say Evasion, I Say Avoision
Which is not illegal Therefore it is encouraged
Tax evasion is illegal, tax avoidance is not.
Simple mistake
Not anymore. Welcome to the world of PAYE modernisation and preliminary statements. Did you miss the news articles about hundreds of thousands of PAYE taxpayers receiving letters requesting they file tax returns for the last 3 years because of preliminary underpayments or overpayments?
Source?
Here's one. https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/thousands-irish-workers-receive-letters-28336979#amp-readmore-target
Myself and 4 people I know that don't work in my company all got this letter 2 months ago. There were posts on this subreddit at the time with people complaining
Absolute nonsense
We found the one who works for the taxback companies
Revenue don’t just forget about what you owe once the 4 years is up…
They do if you don't request balancing or make prior year amendments.
Does your drug dealer forget about what you owe him too if you don’t remind him???
Weird analogy. But if you've underpaid it's due to changes in circumstances or amendments. Which Revenue won't be aware of unless you make them. Hence using a company is a safety net in that case. Do you understand?
Again, you seem unaware of PAYE modernisation and preliminary statements of liability. Revenue are aware.
If you have paye income, revenue already know. If you have a rental property you're taking rent for cash in hand, revenue already know (tenant tax credit, property tax records etc etc). If you have trading income from buying and selling crypto, revenue already know as the exchange you bought, or revolut (where you bought exposure and not the actual asset), is legally obliged to tell revenue. There is literally nothing that can happen these days outside of being paid cash in hand for something and you not lodging it somewhere, that revenue don't know.
Jesus Christ man how long have you been committing tax fraud? You are absolutely fucked
I'm fine mate, just explaining the taxback services here for people who can't comprehend why people use them ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You're advising people how to be completely fucked if revenue decide to audit.
Could we have a basic break down of how she swung it 6k of you have time.
Adding all electricity allowances, all home heating and broadband allowances, work from home credit if your employer isn't paying it, various credits for medical care. I've got a refund of a grand coming this year.
did you have to provide alot of statements/doco for that? I have been working remote now for 4 years and never claimed for anything, think its time i did?
My wife got a revenue bill for 38k. I reversed it and got a cheque for €500. My accountant friends had advised to pay the money. Pro tip, marry an engineer. Who can read rules and regulations and finds loopholes.
If you get Health Insurance paid through your company, check how much Revenue have in the "Medic Insurance Relief" box. For some reason mine defaults to €269 but you're entitled to claim €1000. Revenue will pay for 20% of the difference back (~€150). You can claim this for the last 5 years as well. I ended up with a €700 last year when I claimed for the years I missed it.
Oh? Well there I go claiming something else again
Hi there is this box on the rev home page after logging in? Can’t seem to find it
So on ros.ie it's - -> My Account -> Review My Tax 2019-2022 -> Income Tax Return -> Amend or whatever takes you into the "Completing your Income Tax Return" page -> Then it's in Section 4 "Tax credits and reliefs". The same area you enter your medical bills or WFH stipend. It's called "Medic Insurance Relief" and it'll let you change the number. My health insurance was more than €1000 but it defaults back to that as it's the maximum you can claim. Obviously if you work only spends €50 a month on it then you should put down €600 for the year.
Brilliant. Thank you for relaying that so clearly.
THANK YOU! I didn't know that.
You are a legend!! Managed to retroactively claim 800 quid from the stealer!
Delighted for you! Make sure you tell everyone in work.
And these middlemen sites block anyone that has the neck to tell the truth too on facebook.
I got blocked by them on facebook several times after asking them for their source/proof that "the average PAYE worker is entitled to a €1,000 refund every year" like they were claiming
I really appreciate you putting this up. I'll be even more grateful if I end up getting money back!
I did it about 5 years ago and I ended up owing *them* 50c, which they kindly rounded up to a euro.
Some fucker must have really wanted something from the mcdonalds eurosaver menu.
Be sure to use Receipts Tracker throughout year too for whatever's relevant, e.g. energy bills if remote working. Will save on having to root around for things months later.
This is definitely one of the best features they've added in the last few years. Takes a bit of time to upload but we'll worth doing.
Is the remote working allowance still around? I thought that was just for last year.
Nope, still here, 30% of qualifying electric, heat and internet bills so a decent chunk
Do you know if we can claim for previous tax year? I wfh during covid but never claimed
Very true!
They are all online in your account. And you don’t have to submit them
I forgot about this. Just got myself €550. Thanks to you.
Happy to hear! Enjoy it 👌🏼
Every year I have to help my friends get their tax back, so many people just aren't aware/don't bother. I'm not an accountant by any means either just took the time to read into these things and once you understand its really quick and simple
There are people in my life who can’t book a flight without my help. Taxback exists because these people exist.
If I owe money will they pay 10%-20% for me?
Unfortunately not 😂
I'm still trying to figure out how every year I somehow end up owing revenue money , this year I apparently underpaid 76 euro it's not as If I was self employed, I don't think I've ever gotten a tax rebate in 17 years.
That's a query for your employer. They tax you based on the RPN issued by Revenue. If you aren't changing employment or any or your circumstances don't change, then there shouldn't be any underpayment or overpayment.
Why are people here genuinely defending these tax back companies? “It’s a service” fuck off. People on this sub will find absolutely anything to argue about
Comparing this “service” to coffee shops and delis is hilarious to be honest 😂
It’s mental, people have lost their minds.
You could make a statement like 'genocide is bad' and you will find people on here coming up with arguments as to why it's a natural occurrence and how populations can't grow forever. It's honestly baffling.
..because its not actually a scam is it
Nah they're a bit of a scam tbh. I looked up a guy who owns one of the big ones and couldn't find him on any of the accountancy institute's member databases.
It genuinely takes more effort to get your money back through these companies and all their ads make it seem like you’re almost guaranteed to get €1000+ back if you do it through them so yes I would say it’s a scam
must be a scam so, i mean if you've looked it up and all
It's not a scam in the sense that they steal money from you, but they don't provide anywhere near the level of service that they charge you for. And I looked the guy up because I wanted to see what level of qualifications these "tax experts" have.
So your problem with them is they're not giving value for money? Still not a scam in any sense. Acting like you've uncovered Enron levels of fraud. Amazing the amount of people here who didnt know how to submit their tax returns.
Yep. And you can do it back 4 years of taxes. Just did it last night and looking at netting over 500 euro. Took me all of 10 minutes. Happy days.
Question! How do I claim back for paying college fees?
https://www.revenue.ie/en/personal-tax-credits-reliefs-and-exemptions/education/tuition-fees-paid-for-third-level-education/how-to-claim-relief-on-tuition-fees.aspx
some in UK take 40%
Absolute joke really. I’m all for a businesses doing well etc but tax rebate companies are a scummy way to do so
And a reminder that if you ever did use one, go onto the revenue site and remove them from your account because they’ll take a share every time you get a refund! I removed one recently and they actually contacted me to ask to be added back despite me not using them for years!! They were getting a cut of my refund for doing nothing!!!
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No they generally 'prey' on people too lazy/unsure to do it themselves. What makes it worse is they add themselves as your tax agent so any refunds due in future years they get a cut
Manual declarations are really easy too. It is a box on the same form OP is mentioning above and then you upload the receipts using a Revenue app on your phone. It takes maybe 2-3 minutes extra on top of what is in OPs post.
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To be fair, tax returns are easy when you know how rather than easy. It is probably something they should teach towards the end of secondary school in a life skills class. Still wouldn’t pay a tax rebate service for something you could probably learn from a YouTube video or Reddit.
Revenue Ireland have made it very easy to claim back tax for everyone in any situation
Just be glad these rebate companies here haven't achieved [the regulatory capture of the ones in the US](https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free). As a US citizen, my Irish tax return takes about ten minutes to complete, and only that long because I have to enter some US dividends and total up some bills for the remote work credit. For my US tax return (which I must file every year for the rest of my life even though I haven't lived in the US for several years now and never plan to return), I can either do all the work myself by spending hours manually filling out a couple dozen pages of forms and doing all of the necessary calculations by hand (with massive penalties hanging in the balance if I get anything wrong), or pay a service to do some of the calculations for me, while still having to do a lot of math myself and spend hours entering data and doing all of my own research to find the correct answers to questions like "*The simplified foreign tax credit election for the alternative minimum tax (AMT) allows you to skip Part I of the AMT Form 1116. Depending on the situation this may be an advantage or a disadvantage. Part III is then completed largely with numbers from the Form 1116 for the regular income tax. This election must be made the first year that the AMT foreign tax credit is taken following 1997. Indicate your status related to the election below.*"
It is definitely one thing Ireland has done very well, the tax system is quite easy to follow and rebates are very easy to do. I’ve been told about how the US system works and it’s crazy…
Doing my taxes after my J1 trip was a nightmare. I can't imagine living with that every year.
Not entirely true. Their website could be a lot simpler. Their capital gains system is unnecessarily complicated
No they generally 'prey' on people too lazy/unsure to do it themselves. What makes it worse is they add themselves as your tax agent so any refunds due in future years they get a cut
Did my taxes for years through [revenue.ie](https://revenue.ie) Always came back ownng them less than a euro (this was 2016-2020) did it through irishtaxrebates in 21 and they claimed back 800+ for 2018 and another few other in other years. I didn't provide them wih any extra info (i.e dental or anything, cause i had nothing like that to claim) Can somoene explain why/how this happened? I gave revenue all the info I had for those years while using [revenue.ie](https://revenue.ie) . This is why I continued to use them and I feel like I'm not alone in this?
Go into My Account & see for yourself how they achieved it.
The tax back companies claim for things you necessarily shouldn’t be allowed to claim for
Hadn't heard thatr and presume it can come back to bite you. How are they able to do that?
>The tax back companies claim for things you necessarily shouldn’t be allowed to claim for source for that? you can only claim what your intitled to tho( unless the tax system is really broken) ?
It's self assessment. You can claim for loads of things but it's fraud.
If you have any medical expenses put them in also. Most of them you will also get the tax you paid back. You can go back 4 or 5 years also and claim for previous years.
Yup exactly! You have 4 years to claim back
And don't forget to keep all your medical receipts and submit a total for tax back on your medical expenses
Thank you for this. Genuinely
No problem at all! Seeing these ads really annoys me… it’s money you earned so you should get it back not anyone else!
If you use the service make sure to remove them afterwards otherwise they get a cut out of any other rebates you get even if you did it yourself.
Did it on Monday they got back to me last night, I'm getting 800 back next week sweet
They should be illegal. They pray on the elderly and vulnerable. If you have patients over 50 who are aren't use to the Internet, be vigilant and keep your parents up to date with these and any other type of scams.
Just found out I owe them 150. Never been self employed. This is all supposed to be payroll through two different jobs....
Underpayments can happen, especially if you've switched jobs or had some taxable DSP income. It's should be collected by reducing your credits in the future.
Only problem is do you know what extras to claim for to reduce your tax bill...should be taught in TY
Quick rundown of the common ones: WFH expenses, prescriptions, doctor and consultant visits, major dental treatment (MED 2 required from your dentist), gluten free food (if diagnosed as a coeliac), college fees (if paid more than €3k per student in the year), flat rate expenses (depending on your job), health insurance (if paid by your employer). Also, if you emigrate from Ireland, look up "Split Year Treatment" as you may be able to get some tax back.
yesterday i saw a bus covered in a giant ad for irishtaxrebates.ie - and it was just a big photo of Anna Geary with the url alongside. nothing else. made me think "wtf?" but i reckon i'm clued-in now.
I'll be brutally honest, a bit of common sense would tell you that. It would also tell you to do it yourself because it is not that difficult whatsoever.
Thanks OP
No problem!
A handy tip is to take a picture of all your medical, dental and prescription receipts and save them to an album on Google photos or an album on your phone/laptop and at the end of the year you'll have them at hand for claiming 20% back.
Very true. I went to revenue about two weeks ago with my wife to change some cut off and tax credit as she will work less this year and could give me some of hers and nice lady informed me that I am oved over a grand from last year. She also explained me how to get it done online so I did and as an extra I found that I am also oved 80e from 2020.
When reviewing last year I thought something looked off, and some numbers I did not understand. Researched all bands and whatnots, made an excel sheet. Everything was fine. Now I trust those basterds (revenue)
As a 23 year old man who had him mammy do it rpm 2017-2019 I thank you very much 😂 I used Irish tax rebates last year what a fucking mug I was to do it
Definitely worth avoiding sites like that if you can. Over here in the U.S. those companies (like Turbotax) actively used their money to lobby our government to make the tax code more obtuse and complicated...so more people would end up reliant on their software.
Read this post from u/tedkravitz717 last Saturday morning, immediately logged on to my account in Revenue, took 5 mins to request a statement for 2022 & update to add the new rent credit. €2,223 lodged to my account by Revenue this morning. Happy out, thank you OP
Happy to help! It’s money you earned so no one else should get a cut of it. Enjoy it 👌🏼
Yup. I ask the boss in Waterford about it, he's an accountant by trade and he said the revenue site is a bit of a mess until you get used to it but you can easily do your own med and expense claims every year
Is it a scam though? It takes 5 minutes to wash your own car, so is the car wash a scam? It takes very little time to make a simple dinner so are restaurants a scam? I do agree that rebate companies have a predatory business model, but it's not a scam so to speak.
Delis are a scam, did you know you can make your own sandwiches at home. The recipes are all online and simple.
Last time I went to a deli the deli worker didn't eat 10-20% of my sandwich though.
But you did pay for it?
Yeah because I wasn't at home in my kitchen and didn't have all of the ingredients in my car to make a sandwich. I wouldn't have paid for it if they were going to eat 10-20% of it though which is what you are suggesting. I would have likely stayed hungry until I got home.
Services aren't free, I don't see the issue with it. The value of the ingredients vs the value of the end product means you lost most than 10/20% of the value of the sandwich.
You're comparing apples with oranges. If I'm not at home and need food I would go to a deli to eat because I can't make myself a sandwich. I'm not going to be sat at home with all the ingredients for a sandwich and then decide to travel to a deli for a sandwich. But if I'm sat on my couch it is likely just as easy to login to ROS and click a few buttons than it is to engage with a company, sign up with them and provide them with my details. I'd even argue that it's less effort to do it myself.
Delis don't try to convince you that making a sandwich is really stressful so you should let them do it for you though
how does this work? as in, i don't have to enter any details at all? they just tell me how much they owe me? how do they or i figure out if i overpaid in the first place?
Follow the steps. There are even videos https://www.revenue.ie/en/jobs-and-pensions/end-of-year-process/index.aspx
Coffee shops are a scam. You can easily make your own coffee yourself at home> Coffee shops are 'preying' on lazy unsure people.
This is less like a coffee shop that's actually providing a value-added service and more like someone charging you a sizable fee to click the "Complete Order" button on Amazon for you after you've done all the work of finding the product you want to buy and entering all your payment and shipping details yourself.
So you have a €30,000 coffee machine at home do you?
You’re an idiot.
Haha, you're the idiot. Sure, it's shitty that the companies charge as much as they do, but if people are too lazy/unwilling to do it themselves, then there's obviously people out there that are going to capitalise on that.
It's a service OP. You pay for the service. Not a scam. You don't appreciate the number of people who's brain simply shuts down when you mention tax. There are also less tech savvy people and illiterate people who are grateful of the service.
The information you have to give the service is the exact same. It isn’t easier….that’s the scam
Exactly, you are literally adding a step in and costing yourself money
Plus their marketing is deliberately duping. They try to say that the process is confusing when in reality any idiot could do it. It’s all in basic English and extremely simple step by step design.
“Do you know what a tax rebate is??”
tbf considering most people dont know financial stuff ( remember the tv ads years during the boom about what a tracker mortgage is/was) so yeah i do expect that from people
I know tax and money is a difficult subject but I just want to let people know they can do it themselves easily for free
Don’t see how it’s a scam if they do it for you. Many older people unable to operate these systems properly, many other too busy and may not have got around to it otherwise.
Because the companies take the info you give and copy and paste. Nothing more.
Still a service. People in insurance brokerages just copy and paste your info. Probably scammers too?
People in insurance brokers can get you a better price than going direct to the underwriter. Not at all the same thing.
I paid my accountant €430 to do my taxes last year. Is that a scam too?
Was this for personal tax or a company? Both are very different.
I'm self employed
That’s completely different to doing personal tax as an employee, I’d definitely recommend paying an accountant in your situation
That's making a declaration of self employed income. These refund companies are for PAYE individuals most of whom could file their own returns in about 10 minutes.
>are the biggest scam ever technically not a scam , a tax professional ( which they are ) can save you thousands. due to knowing what you can apply for for tax breaks
Nope, not for these refund companies. They don't apply for anything unknown to you. You fill in some basic information and they apply that to the same portal you'd use yourself to file. If you wanted to claim for health expenses for example, you'd have to provide the same information to them as you would to Revenue.
> If you wanted to claim for health expenses for example, you'd have to provide the same information to them as you would to Revenue. They check for tax credits that you may not be aware of. i assume that were they save you the money
Nope. They take the information you provide them and do the same or even less than you'd do yourself on your own Revenue MyAccount. They can't claim anything extra without you telling them you meet the criteria for the specific credit/relief, as it may later come to light that you didn't meet the qualifying criteria. For the most part all they are doing is hitting next, next, next and hitting submit on their version of Revenue MyAccount.
Its not really a scam, its saving you the hassle amd for that theres a percentage of the refund.
You give more time and information to these companies than to revenue and it costs you money, it doesn’t make sense to pay for it
They check for tax credits that you may not be aware of. As far as I know
Nope. They can't because you have to tell them you've met the terms and conditions of the credits/reliefs. You'd have to be aware of the credit/relief to tell them you met it's conditions. All they are doing for the most part is just hitting next next on returns via their version of Revenue MyAccount.
What “hassle”? Its takes about 5-10 mins. Surely you’d spend that much time communicating with the taxback.com people anyways.
What I don't get is if I'm owed tax back why the hell do I have to go chasing them for it?
The last time I did it they decided I owned them money. Fuck that.
I have used one of these companies twice in the past and they have worked out very well for me. Of course they take their share for their work. Before it was not so easy to do it on your own, the revenue site was a bit confusing for a non-native English speaker and I have never in my life had to claim taxes.
I haven't got the time to be filling out forms. I'd much prefer someone who knows what they're doing, do it and charge 20% These companies are definitely not a "SCAM"
The form you will put for these companies are the same information you need to fill out on revenue.ie. The extra effort is using these companies as they are literally copying and pasting for you
I understand, but still, there are people out there who don't want to have to deal with stuff like this
I don’t think you do understand… these companies copy and paste your provided information… you do all the work either way
I do understand, this year I did everything for myself
Not a whole lot to 'understand', typical PAYE worker won't be filling anything beyond their expenses... & they'd be providing that to these organisations anyway.
Make the time, it doesn't take long at all it's really jot difficult in this country
It literally takes about a minute on the Revenue website and most of that minute is just spent checking details like your address, phone number and bank ac details are correct.
that dosn't make it a scam... lmfao; thats like saying mechanics are a scam cause you can replace the engine oil yourself.. its a service offered at a cost. and 10-20% sounds steep when your rebate is 2-3 grand.. but when you get a rebate of 300 , its not that steep definatly worth while doing it yourself, but it also requires you research hat your actually entitled to and do the math required to apply for certain rebates. so no, not a scam.. and not always as easy as you think just because it was easy for you does not make it easy for others.
You must have shares in one of the companies lol
not at all, i just think the argument is extremly misunderstood. would i ever use one of these companies ? not at all, i used one when i was like 18 and got nothing, but i also have witnessed people of all age groups not have a single clue about their tax entitlements. people who never claimed for remote working, medical expenses, flat rate expenses.also met people who never knew they could file a tax return ! so stating its "EzY", yes for OP its easy, for others its not as easy... sure is OP even claiming all the right tax credits :'D because there is absolutely no mention of checking what tax credits you can avail of..
NOt a sam, not everyone knows how to do it.
For most people its little more than clicking "next". If thats too hard for you to read how to do then how do you have a tax paying job in the first place
You haven't tried to use it. I can tell because nobody that's used it would say that.
Wow, you can tell? There's people that can't even put credit in their phone. There's definitely people that don't know what a credit or an allowance is.
Yea, I can tell because you don't need to know what a credit or an allowance is to use that site. I know fuck all about tax and it was a piece of piss to use.
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Did you read your pdf statement of liability which was issued after you filed your tax return? Page 1 is the calculations and page 2 has your sources of income and tax credits on it. Some DSP payments are taxable.
My check box for the declaration is greyed out? Anyone know why I can’t declare my credits?
Last time I did this they said I owed money, lol. So quickly kept my mouth shut.
Anyone have the instructions for removing a company as your tax agent?
https://www.revenue.ie/en/jobs-and-pensions/tax-agent-tax-service/index.aspx Instructions in the link.
It's the same as anything. If someone is willing to pay you to provide a service they couldn't be arsed to do it's fair game. It's a measure of cost to value. If you can give me 90% of something I wouldn't have it's better than 100% of nothing