Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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216. To ask the Minister for Finance his views on adjusting the qualifications for single person child carer credit to apply to both parents when they are legally separated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21349/23]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The 2009 Commission on Taxation reviewed the One-Parent Family Tax Credit and acknowledged that it played a role in supporting and incentivising the labour market participation of single and widowed parents. However, in its recommendations, the Commission concluded that the credit should be retained but that it should be allocated to the principal carer of the child only. A feature of the One-Parent Family Tax Credit was that it could be claimed by multiple individuals in respect of the same child, resulting in an unsustainable position.

The One-Parent Family Tax Credit was replaced with the Single Person Child Carer Tax Credit (SPCCC) from 1 January 2014. The current value of the credit is €1,650 per annum. In addition to the credit, a qualifying claimant is entitled to an additional €4,000 on the standard rate income tax band.

However, the credit is more strategically targeted, in that it will in the first instance only be available to the principal carer of the child, who has a qualifying child resident with him or her for the whole or greater part of the tax year and who satisfies the other conditions of the relief. To qualify as a single person for the purposes of the SPCCC, the claimant must not be jointly assessed for income tax as a married person or civil partner, or be living with his or her spouse or civil partner. An individual can only receive one SPCCC irrespective of the number of qualifying children residing with him or her.

If both parents have equal custody (by court order) and the child resides with each parent for an equal part of the tax year, the primary claimant is the parent who is in receipt of Child Benefit from the Department of Social Protection. However, it should be noted that this ‘tie-breaker’ test is only relevant for the purposes of determining a primary claimant for this credit in this particular situation where the child resides with each parent for an equal amount of time.

A primary claimant can relinquish entitlement to the SPCCC to a secondary claimant. The secondary claimant can then claim the credit if he or she qualifies as a single person and the qualifying child resides with him or her for at least 100 days throughout the tax year. Detailed information on the SPCCC can be found on Revenue’s website at link: www.revenue.ie/en/tax-professionals/tdm/income-tax-capital-gains-tax-corporation-tax/part-15/15-01-41.pdf which may be of interest to the Deputy.

I am satisfied that the SPCCC in its current form is targeting State resources to where they are most needed. As such, I have no plans to adjust the qualification criteria for the SPCCC from its current form.