Budget 2019 – The Details

Budget 2019 was  announced at 1pm  Tuesday October 9th 2018  . This is a summary of the measures that will have a direct affect on people’s income and expenditure.


Taxes

Income Tax : Some small cuts to Income Tax were made in Budget 2019. The income threshold at which the 40% income tax rate kicks in – will  rise by €750 to €35,300 from €34,550 for a single earner. (Worth €150 a year)
It will increase  from €43,550 to €44,300 for married one earner couples.
(Confirmed from Jan 2019)

USC : The 4.75%  rate of the Universal Social Charge will be cut to 4.5% . (This is the rate on incomes between €19,300 and €70,000) . (Confirmed)

USC: The ceiling of the second USC rate band will be increased from €19,372 to €19,874 in order to ensure that the salary of a full-time worker on the minimum wage will remain outside the top rates of USC . ( Confirmed from Jan 2019)

Click here to see the effect of these cuts on take home pay in 2019.

Tax Credit for self employed people will be raised by €200  to  €1350 (Confirmed)

Home Carer Tax Credit increasing by €300 to  €1500 (Confirmed)

Landlords : An increase to 100% on the amount of  mortgage interest repayments  landlords can  write off against rental profits . This is worth €18 million a year to landlords.   (Confirmed from Jan 1st 2019)

The reduced VAT rate of 9% on tourism related services will be increased to 13.5%  . The 9% rate for  sports facilites and newspaper publications is retained , and the VAT rate on   electronic publications wil be cut from 23% to 9%. (Confirmed from Jan 2019)

Corporation Tax is not to be changed from 12.5% (confirmed)

Carbon tax  – No increase. (confirmed)

Inheritance Tax (CAT) –  thresholds raised by €10,000 for Children. (Now €320,000)  (Confirmed from 10th Oct 2018)

Property Tax :- Mr Donohoe has previously hinted at plans to make changes to the Local Property Tax, which is still calculated on 2013 property values. But he said any changes would be “modest” and are not expected to affect homeowners until 2020. (Confirmed)


Duty

An increase to the levels of duty on tobacco – meaning a 50c rise in a pack of 20 cigarettes.
Plus
  –  all cigarettes sold below €11 will have the same excise duty applied as cigarettes sold at €11. This will also take effect from midnight on 9 October 2018. (Confirmed from midnight 9th Oct 2018)

Betting duty raised from 15% to 25% for online and intermediaries . Also Raised from 1% to 2% for bookmakers .(confirmed from Jan 2019)

No increases to petrol or diesel – BUT  an extra 1% VRT surcharge is being brought in for diesel engine passenger vehicles registering from 1 January 2019. (confirmed)

Alcohol duty – no change (It has not been touched since 2014.)

 


Welfare and Pensions

All weekly welfare benefits and all state pensions are to be increased again by €5 a week for everyone .  Details here  (Confirmed from the end of March 2019).

The Qualified Child addition on all social welfare payments will rise by €2.20 a week for under 12s and by  €5.20 a week for 12 and over. (Confirmed)

The Christmas Bonus will go up to 100% (from  85%) (Confirmed)

Self-employed to become eligible for Jobseeker’s Benefit from December  2019

Fuel Allowance payment increased by a week to 28 weeks –  starting this year .(confirmed)

Back to School allowance will be increased by €25 per child in 2019  for all ages . (Confirmed)

One Parent Family Payment  and Jobseeker’s Transition Payment :-
Earnings disregard for Working Lone Parents increased by €20 to €150 per week (confirmed  from March 2019)

Working Family Payment : a new maintenance disregard of €95 per week in respect of housing costs, with the remainder to be assessed at 50% (confirmed)

Daily Expenses Allowance (formerly Direct Provision Allowance) to increase to €38.80 for adults and to €29.80 per week for children. (confirmed)

Prescription charges – cut by 50c  to €1.50 per item for medical card holders aged over 70. (Confirmed)

New Social Insurance Parental Benefit payment to be paid for 2 weeks for each parent –  (Confirmed to commence in November 2019)

Free GP Visit cards – income threshold to rise by €25 a week (confirmed)

Drugs Payment Scheme  – threshold reduced to €124 a month. (From April 2019 Confirmed)


The 2019 Budget  formally announced the upcoming increase of the minimum wage by 25 cent per hour, from €9.55 to €9.80. (Jan 2019)

26 thoughts on “Budget 2019 – The Details

  1. Had hoped that something might have been done to increase investment in early years education, we currently only invest 1/3 of the oecd average,

  2. Finance minister should look at reason why so many private landlords are leaving the market. he should make being landlord attractive. Currently it is too much hassle and tax to be a landlord and individual landlords are being replaced by institutional ones

  3. if wages increase and prices increase on par ,people win that hold mortgages from 15 -20 yrs ago .

  4. 100% right there dermot , currently in the process of removing a house from the market which had a family of three ,due to the effect renting the property out has on my captial gains situation and the high costs of tax ,usc, prsi .

  5. I am so fed up with working hard and getting no where…. I get an extra 27 a year back from usc… wow really !!! I am 50 year old woman divorced living in rented accommodation that I can barely afford, attached to a negative equity home that my ex is living in …because he is on welfare the courts won’t put him out …My commute is wearing me down I can’t afford to live…. I honestly see no way out. Life is too hard I don;t think I can go on much longer.

    • I know how you feel Brenda, this country is a joke. Only people who benefit is those who play the system. Chin up

    • Your post is touching, Brenda. While I can’t offer any meaningful advice, I hope things get better for you.

    • Dear Brenda. I really feel for you. It’s a very difficult and painful situation you’re in.

      Keep going. Just keep putting one foot on front of the other until your circumstances improve….and they will one day…you’ll see.

      I will pray that God gives you His strength and new opportunities that will improve your life.

  6. Are there any rises in disability allowances. Why are only the over 70’s getting 0.50 € off per item in their prescription but not people on disability allowance.

    • Disability allowance will be going up €5 a week in MArch – just like all other benefits.

    • No – they have increased the child component of all other benefits instead.

  7. My daughter just turned 18 and is in leaving cert year in schoosing…. because she is 18 my children’s allowance was automatically stopped…. however she is in school so im wondering was any scheme put in place to replace the loss of the childrens allowance payment or can I get it reinstated? The loss of 140e a month is a huge dent in my income….. Regards, Caroline

  8. Hello,
    Was there any increase in the ‘LIVING ALONE ALLOWANCE PAYMENT’ of €9.00 per week. Cannot find any update on any websites. Proposals back in August 2018 this year had recommended between €3-€5 weekly increase.
    Many thanks,
    Stephen.

    • No increase to the Living alone Allowance. Some groups were asking for an increase – but none was ever proposed.

  9. How are the changes to WFP being implemented? I see there is a new disregard of 95 Euro for household costs, what does this mean, what cost are included. They have left the rates unchanged so effectively wiped out 60% of the NMW increase.

    • The new disregard relates to maintenance payments received . Previously none was disregarded – now the first €95 per week that is paid in respect of housing costs will be fully disregarded.
      Half of the remainder above €95 per week will also be disregarded.

      • Ok thanks for that, that is what I thought but could not find the specifics on it. It effectively means anyone getting WFP that doesn’t have a maintenance component got royally screwed by having 60% of their NMW increase taken away.

  10. I am a Pole working in Ireland for 12 years and I see how the government feeds on the middle class. These people work hard and they have no time for protests like jobless. Dear Irish people, this is sad story. I came to you 12 years ago because it was a different country (I mean taxes). Do you know that the real tax for the middle class is 37.5% .Big corporation pay only 12.5% but realy about 6% because governmant love them.
    I wish you lots of perseverance , Krzysztof

  11. What about supporting middle class? I have been working very hard for the last 11 years paying very high taxes. I would like to start a family but I will get no support from the government on child care. Creches are madly expensive!!! Not even tax reductions for families with children. All my taxes are going for people who are taking benefits and working unofficially. I am really sick of this unfair system to those who are working hard and make huge contributions to the Irish economy! I think I will get more when I stop working.

  12. This thing of people getting paid more for working less, e.g. I’ve just taking up full time hours (not by choice as employer wouldn’t sign dockets as there was full hours available )40 per week & earning €435 weekly (€290 goes on bills weekly) but up till now I was doing 3 days per week €350 plus on jobseekers allowance claiming for wife & 3 kids roughly €277 per week as well as fuel allowance of €22, around €630 weekly in total, I’ve now lost J.A & earning nearly 200 less, my wife is waiting 6 months for carers allowance which still hasnt been looked at yet for our son so I can’t claim fis, & I’ll loose out on Xmas bonus this year too, it’s a nightmare,

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