Budget 2022 Ireland – A Summary




Budget 2022 Details of Changes

The 2022 Budget was announced on October 12th 2021.

We will update this post with any news of Budget 2022 as we hear it and it will be updated on Budget day (Oct 12th) as changes are announced.

Updated Oct 13th


Income Tax

It was promised in the Program for Government that, from Budget 2022 onwards, (if wages are rising) that income tax credits and bands will rise in line with earnings.

Income Tax credits are increasing by €50 each from January 2022 . (confirmed)
The standard rate tax band is increasing by €1500. (confirmed)
See more here on how this will affect your Take Home Pay in 2022



Corporation Tax

The new corporation tax rates will be 15 per cent.
However – companies with revenues below €750 million will continue to pay the 12.5 per cent rate. (Confirmed)


USC

  • The lowest USC threshold will increase by €608 to €21295 from Jan 2022 (confirmed)

State Pension

  • State Pensions will be increased by €5 a week from January 2022. (confirmed)


Social Welfare

  • The Maximum Rates for all weekly social welfare payments will be increased by €5 a week.
    There will be proportional increases for qualified adults and people on reduced rates of payment (From January 2022).(confirmed). But those under 25 on reduced Jobseekers will get a €5 increase.
    • This increase also applies to employment programmes such as Community Employment (CE), Tús and the Rural Social Scheme
  • Back to School Allowance for 2022 will be increased by €10 (confirmed)
  • The Fuel Allowance will be increased by €5 per week from Oct 13 to €33 a week Confirmed
    • income threshold for Fuel Allowance will increase by €20 from €100 to €120 (January 2022)
  • Living Alone Allowance – €3 extra a week (confrmed) Jan 2022
  • The Qualified Child component of weekly welfare payments will increase by €2 to €40 for under-12s, and by €3 to €48 for over-12s . (confirmed)
  • Carers allowance income disregards will increase in June 2022. The income disregard for Carer’s Allowance will increase from €332.50 to €350 for a single person and from €665 to €750 for a couple. The capital disregard will increase by €30,000 from €20,000 to €50,000 .
  • The earnings limit on Disability Allowance will increase by €25 from €350 to €375 and the weekly means disregard will increase from €2.50 to €7.60 (June 2022).
  • Domiciliary care allowance will now paid for six months, not three. From Jan 2022
  • Parent’s Benefit will be extended by 2 weeks from 5 weeks to 7 weeks for the parents of children born or adopted from November 2019 (From July 2022).

Christmas Bonus :

  • There will be another 100% Christmas Bonus in 2021 for those on state pensions and long term welfare benefits. (confirmed)


Free GP care

  • Free GP visits for children up to the age of 7 (confirmed)

Drug Repayment Scheme

  • Drug Repayment Scheme limit to come down to €100 from €114

Student Grants

  • Student maintenance grants will rise by €200 a year in 2022 (Confirmed)
  • The income threshold for Susi student grants will increase by €1,000. (Confirmed)
  • The distance limit for non-adjacent” student grants will be reduced from 45km to 30km (confirmed)

Half Price Travel

People aged between 19 and 23 will get half-price travel on public transport from the middle of next year.

Childcare

  • The National Childcare Universal Subsidy Scheme will be extended to children under 15 years old from Sept 2022.

VAT Rates

  • There will be another extension of the reduced 9% VAT rate for the tourism and hospitality sector until the end of Aug 2022. (confirmed)

Minimum Wage

  • The minimum wage will be increased in January 2022 from the current €10.20 to around €10.50 an hour. (Confirmed)

Help to Buy Scheme

  • The HTB scheme is to be extended for past Dec 2021. (to be reviewed in 2022) Confirmed


Zoned Land Tax

This new tax will be based on the market value of the land and the rate will be set at 3 per cent. However, in his Budget speech Mr Donohoe said there will be a minimum two-year lead-in time before the tax is applied.


VRT

  • From Jan 2022 – increases of between 1% and 4% to VRT (confirmed).
    • A 1 per cent increase in the rates on cars with emissions between 111g/km and 130g/km;
    • a 2 per cent rise for cars with emissions of 131g/km to 145g/km; and
    • a 4 per cent rate increase for cars with emissions over 146g/km.

  • The €5,000 VRT relief for battery electric vehicles is extended until the end of 2023. (Confirmed)

Carbon Tax

The Carbon Tax , as expected, was increased again in Budget 2022. It is currently €33.50 a tonne and will increase by €7.50 a tonne to around €41 a tonne. That will mean will mean about a 2.5 cent increase in the cost of a litre of diesel and 2 cents on a litre of petrol from midnight 12th Oct.

Increases in the cost of other fuels like kerosene (900 litre tank up €19.40), natural gas (average annual usage up €16.95), coal (40kg bag up 89c) and peat briquettes (12.5kg bale up 20c) will not kick in until May .



Tobacco

  • There will be an increase in excise duty of 50c on 20 cigarettes . (Confirmed) Midnight Oct 12th

Alcohol

Alcohol duty has not risen in Ireland since 2014 – and there was no increase in Budget 2022 either.