Income tax bands and credits
Ireland has no tax-free allowance at the bottom. Income tax is charged at the standard rate up to your Standard Rate Cut-Off Point and at the higher rate on the balance — and the tax-free effect arrives afterwards, when your annual tax credits are subtracted from the tax charge. This page shows the cut-off points for each assessment status and the credits the calculator applies.
Two rates, then the credits
Irish income tax has only two rates and one dividing line. Income up to your Standard Rate Cut-Off Point is charged at 20%; every euro above it is charged at 40%. There is nothing underneath: no tax-free slice, no personal allowance, no nil-rate band. The charge starts at the first euro you earn.
Tax brackets is the phrase most people search for, and in Ireland it means these two rates. The thing worth knowing is that the line between them is not a fixed threshold everybody shares: it is your Standard Rate Cut-Off Point, and it moves with how you are assessed. The table below is that line, for each assessment status.
That sounds harsher than it is, because the relief has not been skipped — it has been moved to the end. Once the tax has been calculated, your annual tax credits are subtracted from the tax itself. Revenue puts it plainly: the amount of the credit is deducted from the tax you owe, which means a credit has the same value whether you pay at the standard rate or the higher one.
An allowance and a credit are not two words for the same thing. An allowance comes off your income, so it is worth whatever rate you would have paid on that slice — more to a higher-rate taxpayer, less to a standard-rate one. A credit comes off the tax, so it is worth its face value to everybody. Ireland chose the second design, and once you can see it happening, most of the confusion about Irish payslips goes away.
Standard rate cut-off points
Your cut-off point depends on how you are assessed, and it moves for the same reasons your personal credit moves — in Ireland the band and the credit travel together.
| How you are assessed | Cut-off point |
|---|---|
| Single or widowed, no qualifying childThe base cut-off point, and the one most PAYE workers are on. | €44,000 |
| Single or widowed, qualifying for the child carer creditThe base band plus €4,000 more at the standard rate. The increase comes automatically with the credit — you do not claim it separately. | €48,000 |
| Married or civil partners, one incomeJointly assessed with a single earner. The whole band sits with the earning spouse. | €53,000 |
| Married or civil partners, two incomesThe one-income band increased by the LOWER earner’s income, capped at €35,000. The increase is not transferable, so no one person can ever use the couple’s full band. | up to €88,000 |
Which side of the cut-off are you on?
The table above gives the cut-off points; this works out where a salary actually falls against yours — how much of the band is used, what is left over the line, and what the credits then take off the charge.
Pay before deductions, for the year. Income tax only on this page — USC and PRSI are separate charges with their own bases.
On this salary
Part of it is over your cut-off point.
€44,000 of your €44,000 cut-off point is used. €1,000 is over the line.
- Cut-off point applied
- €44,000
- Income charged at the standard rate (20%)
- €44,000
- Income charged at the higher rate (40%)
- €1,000
- Band left unused (not refunded, not carried forward)
- —
- Tax charge for the year at the standard and higher rates
- €9,200.00
- Less your annual tax credits
- −€4,000.00
- Income tax payable for the year
- €5,200.00
Income tax only, on the cumulative basis at level pay for a full year. A jointly assessed couple is computed at household level. An estimate — not an assessment.
The two-income increase, and the catch in it
A jointly assessed couple with two incomes gets more band than a couple with one — but not double. The one-income band of €53,000 is increased by whichever is lower: the second earner’s income, or €35,000. The couple’s ceiling is therefore €88,000, and it exists only when both people are genuinely earning.
The catch is that the increase is not transferable. It belongs to the second income and cannot be handed to the first, so a couple where one person earns everything can never reach that ceiling however the band is allocated between them. A calculator that quietly gives one earner the couple’s whole band overstates take-home pay, sometimes badly.
One more interaction is easy to miss: in any year the couple claims the Home Carer Tax Credit, the two-income increase is not allowable at all. It is one or the other, whichever leaves the household better off — and this calculator enforces that rather than quietly granting both.
Unused band behaves like unused credits: it is not refunded and it does not carry into another tax year. If your income never reaches your cut-off point, the rest of the band simply goes unused.
Tax credits the calculator applies
Credits are annual amounts subtracted from the tax charge. These are the ones this calculator models directly, and the amounts come from the same rate payload the engine reads.
| Credit | Amount |
|---|---|
| Personal Tax Credit — singleSingle, widowed or surviving civil partner. Everyone assessed as a single person holds it. | €2,000 |
| Personal Tax Credit — married or civil partnershipThe couple’s credit on a joint assessment — one credit for the household, not one each. | €4,000 |
| Employee (PAYE) Tax CreditPer earner and non-transferable — a second earner brings a second one. Below €10,000 of PAYE income it is capped at 20% of that income. | €2,000 |
| Single Person Child Carer CreditFor a single carer with a qualifying child. Carries the automatic rate-band increase shown above. | €1,900 |
| Home Carer Tax CreditFull while the carer’s own income is below €7,200, then reduced by 50% of the excess, and gone entirely from €11,100. Claiming it blocks the two-income band increase. | €1,950 |
Other credits exist and can matter a great deal — the earned income credit, the widowed person and widowed parent credits, the incapacitated child credit, the blind credit, the age credit, the dependent relative credit and the rent credit among them. They are named here without amounts on purpose: this site publishes only figures its rate payload carries and its engine checks. A later version will take them as an “other credits” total you enter yourself, which is exactly how they behave in the arithmetic — one more amount coming off the same charge. Two of them have quirks worth knowing now: the earned income credit and the employee credit are capped together rather than separately, and the rent credit reduces income tax only, never USC or PRSI, so it cannot be used beyond your income-tax liability.
Two credits with rules of their own
The Employee (PAYE) Tax Credit is capped for low earners. Once your PAYE income reaches €10,000 you are entitled to the full amount; below that the credit is limited to 20% of your PAYE income — the same figure as the standard rate, which is what makes the cap feel invisible: the credit can extinguish the standard-rate tax on your earnings, but it will not manufacture relief beyond it. Like the band increase, it is non-transferable: it belongs to the person who earned the income.
The Home Carer Tax Credit tapers rather than stopping dead. While the carer’s own income stays below €7,200 the full credit is due. Above that it is reduced by 50% of the excess, and from €11,100 it cannot be claimed at all. It is available only to jointly assessed married couples and civil partners, and it is a single credit however many dependants are being cared for.
The subtraction, worked through
A single PAYE employee on €45,000 a year with no pension contribution. Every figure below is computed by this site’s engine from the rate payload — none of it is typed into the page.
| Standard rate cut-off point applied | €44,000 |
| Tax charge at 20% and 40% | €9,200.00 |
| Less annual tax credits (personal and employee) | −€4,000.00 |
| Income tax payable | €5,200.00 |
Read the last two rows together and the Irish system explains itself. The charge is what the rates produce; the credits are what you hold; the difference is what Revenue collects. Because credits are non-refundable, that difference can fall to nil but never below it — and anything left over is neither paid out nor carried into another tax year. This is also why a pay rise and a credit change do not feel the same on a payslip: the rise moves the charge, the credit moves the subtraction.
Scope and limits
The figures on this page follow Revenue and the Irish Statute Book, cited where they are used. If a rule changed recently it may not be reflected here yet — for an official amount, check the cited source or ask Revenue.