Irish Budget 2011 – Cross Border Impact

It is inevitable that the recently announced Irish Budget will have implications for the thousands of cross border workers on the Island.

The finer details will be presented here on the Border People website as they emerge.

Income Tax

We know that frontier workers living in the North and working in the South will pay more income tax in the South as a result of the budget.  This should mean that they will pay less of a top up amount to the HMRC at the end of each year via their annual Personal Tax Return.

While we wait for further details to emerge the Irish Time have produced an online calculator that will help identify the how much more tax you might have to pay – http://www.irishtimes.com/indepth/budget2011/calculator/

Universal Social Charge

The Health Levy and the Income Levy will be replaced by a Universal Social Charge which will be treated as a Tax for the purposes of Article 2 of the UK/IRL Double Taxation Treaty.

In the past cross border workers have been exempt from the INCOME LEVY (since April 2010 when prescription charges were dropped in the North).

As a consequence of the abolition of prescription charges in Northern Ireland on April 2010 all holders of Northern Ireland medical cards will qualify for the exemption from income levy for 2010.  The conditions which were applicable for 2009 will remain.

Your comments

The Border People team are always interested to hear of  the challenges that individuals face when crossing the border.

Your comments are very welcome, please contact us atborderpeople@qub.ac.uk