Who qualifies
Married couples or civil partners who are jointly assessed and tax resident in Ireland for the relevant year.
How to claim
Register your marriage or civil partnership through myAccount under Manage My Record, then choose Joint Assessment in Manage Your Tax 2026. Revenue will reissue an RPN to both employers showing the combined credit.
Detailed explanation
Joint assessment effectively doubles the Personal Tax Credit to 4,000 euro for a couple in 2026 and allows the standard rate cut-off point to expand from 44,000 to up to 53,000 euro where one spouse is the sole earner, or to 88,000 euro when both spouses earn at least 9,000 euro each. The credit itself is the joint Personal Tax Credit. To register you both need PPSNs and access to myAccount; Revenue may ask for the marriage certificate number from the General Register Office. In the year of marriage the couple are normally still assessed individually, with a year of marriage refund computed at year end if joint taxation would have been more beneficial. Joint assessment is automatically continued each year unless either spouse opts out. Separate assessment splits the credits 50/50 but still allows transfer of unused balances at year end. Single assessment is the default for newlyweds and treats each spouse independently with no transfers. Where one spouse has very low or no income, the higher earner can absorb the unused 2,000 euro Personal Credit and most of the unused standard rate band, generating substantial savings of up to 1,800 euro per year. The PAYE Employee Credit cannot transfer between spouses because it relates to actual employment of each individual.
Worked example
Sean earns 70,000 euro, his wife Roisin is a stay at home parent. Joint assessment gives Sean a 53,000 euro standard band. Tax: 20 percent on 53,000 = 10,600 plus 40 percent on 17,000 = 6,800. Less Personal Credit 4,000, PAYE Credit 2,000, Home Carer Credit 1,950 leaves 9,450 euro tax. Without joint assessment he would have paid roughly 1,750 euro more.