Written answers

Wednesday, 20 September 2017

Photo of Michael Healy-RaeMichael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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146. To ask the Minister for Finance his views on a matter (details supplied) regarding a single person's child carer credit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39145/17]

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The One-Parent Family Tax Credit (OPFTC) was replaced by the Single Person Child Carer Credit (SPCCC) from 1 January 2014. The restructured credit is of the same value as the OPFTC, €1,650 per annum, and also includes the same entitlement to the additional €4,000 extended standard rate band, which increases to €37,800 per annum the point of entry to the higher rate of income tax.

The SPCCC (which is provided for under Section 462B of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997) is available to a single person who is the parent of a child or has custody of, and maintains, a child who is living with that person. The credit is granted in the first instance to the primary claimant, who is the person with whom the child resides for the whole or greater part of the year, normally 183 or more days per year. This could be either the mother or the father, or in some cases another carer such as a grandparent. In cases where there is an exact 50:50 split between parents, the credit is allocated to the parent in receipt of the child benefit payment from the Department of Social Protection.

The primary claimant may, if he or she wishes, relinquish the credit in favour of a qualifying secondary claimant who has the child residing with him or her for not less than 100 days in the year. Where a primary claimant relinquishes his or her entitlement to the credit, the relinquishment remains in place until the primary claimant withdraws it, i.e. the secondary claimant can continue to claim the credit, provided he or she continues to satisfy the conditions for claiming the credit, until the relinquishment of the credit is withdrawn by the primary claimant. 

If a parent believes he or she qualifies as the primary claimant in respect of a qualifying child but the credit has been granted to another individual, he or she should provide a completed Form SPCC1 to Revenue together with any relevant evidence in support of his/her claim that the child resides with him/her for the whole or greater part of the year. The primary claimant will be decided by Revenue on the basis of the facts in each case.  The Form SPCC1 is available on Revenue’s website at .

The possible automatic transfer of the credit has been considered in cases where a primary carer refuses to relinquish it. However, there are many reasons why this would not be feasible, including logistical, data protection and constitutional concerns. These issues are outlined in detail in the review of the SPCCC conducted by my Department in 2015 contained in the Report on Tax Expenditures, available online at: .

In particular this review identified that a partial or automatic transfer of the credit between spouses would still require the consent and co-operation of the primary carer, as it would require a declaration of income to be filed in order to confirm that the credit was not being fully utilised. It was therefore determined that any system of automatic transfer would provide limited additional benefit over the current provisions for transfer of the credit to a secondary claimant. I am satisfied that the SPCCC is targeting limited resources to where they are most needed.

If the Deputy has specific details regarding a claim to entitlement to the Single Person Child Carer Tax Credit, he can provide these to my officials and I will have the matter examined by Revenue.

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