Irish Tax Credits
Explained (2026)
Every tax credit available to PAYE employees in Ireland: who qualifies, how much each is worth, and which ones people miss.
By the IrishPAYE.ie team · Reviewed for the 2026 tax year
What is a tax credit?
A tax credit is an amount that is subtracted directly from your income tax liability, not from your income itself. This is an important distinction. A tax credit of €1,000 reduces your tax bill by €1,000, regardless of whether you are a standard-rate or higher-rate taxpayer. A tax relief of €1,000, by contrast, reduces your taxable income by €1,000, saving you €200 if you pay 20% tax or €400 if you pay 40%. That mechanism, and how credits and reliefs slot into the wider PAYE calculation, is covered in full in our guide to how PAYE tax works; this page is about which credits exist and who is entitled to each one.
Tax credits in Ireland are non-refundable. If your credits exceed your income tax liability, the excess is not paid to you in cash, it simply reduces your tax bill to zero. Any unused credits, other than the transferable elements between spouses, are lost.
Credits are claimed through Revenue's myAccount system, on your annual tax return, or via your employer's payroll for standard automatic credits. The calculator on IrishPAYE.ie models the effect of every credit on this page on your own take-home pay; the worked example further down shows exactly what the two automatic credits are worth to a €55,000 salary.
Core credits: applied automatically for all PAYE employees
Personal Tax Credit
Every taxpayer receives a Personal Tax Credit. For 2026, this is €2,000 for a single person and €4,000 for a married couple or civil partnership assessed jointly. Widowhood changes which personal credit applies, and can add a further declining credit on top where there are dependent children: see the widowed persons' credits table below.
Employee (PAYE) Credit: €2,000
Every PAYE employee automatically receives the Employee Credit, also known as the PAYE Credit, worth €2,000 in 2026, capped at 20% of your own PAYE income if you earn less than €10,000 a year. It is not available to self-employed individuals or company directors taxed outside the PAYE system. Combined with the Personal Credit, a single PAYE employee starts 2026 with €4,000 in credits, effectively making the first approximately €20,000 of annual income tax-free.
Second Earner PAYE Credit: up to €2,000
Where a married couple is assessed under the "married, two incomes" filing status and both spouses have their own income, the second earner gets their own Employee (PAYE) Credit, worked out the same way as the primary earner's: 20% of their own income, up to a maximum of €2,000. It exists so a two-income couple is not disadvantaged next to two single people earning the same amounts separately.
Family and caring credits
Home Carer Credit: €1,950
Available to married couples or civil partners where one spouse cares for a dependent person, typically a child, but also an aged or incapacitated relative, at home. The full €1,950 credit applies where the home carer's own income is €7,200 or less. Above that it tapers on a sliding scale, reducing by 50 cent for every euro the home carer earns over €7,200, and is fully extinguished where the home carer earns €11,100 or more. The Home Carer Credit and the increased standard rate band that applies to dual-income couples are mutually exclusive: you cannot claim both, and whichever produces the lower tax bill is the one that should be applied.
Single Person Child Carer Credit: €1,900
This credit of €1,900 is available to a single parent who is the primary carer of a qualifying child and who is not cohabiting. Only one person can claim this credit for a given child, typically the parent with whom the child lives. The other parent may hold it as a secondary claimant if the primary claimant surrenders it. This credit is automatically applied for single parent and widowed with children filing statuses in the calculator, but you can untick it if you are not the primary claimant.
Dependent Relative Credit: €305
A modest credit of €305 is available where you maintain a relative who is unable to maintain themselves due to age or incapacity. The credit may be reduced if the relative's own income exceeds the specified limit set by Revenue each year.
Widowed persons' credits
Widowhood changes which personal credit applies, and, where there are dependent children, adds a further credit that declines over five years:
| Situation | Credit |
|---|---|
| Year of bereavement | €4,000 |
| Widowed, no dependent children | €2,540 |
| Widowed with dependent children (personal credit) | €2,000 |
| + Widowed Parent Credit, Year 1 | €3,600 |
| + Widowed Parent Credit, Year 2 | €3,150 |
| + Widowed Parent Credit, Year 3 | €2,700 |
| + Widowed Parent Credit, Year 4 | €2,250 |
| + Widowed Parent Credit, Year 5 | €1,800 |
The Single Person Child Carer Credit above is also automatic for a widowed parent with dependent children, since no living co-parent can claim it instead.
Housing credits
Rent Tax Credit: €1,000 / €2,000
The Rent Tax Credit is available to private tenants renting their principal private residence in Ireland. For 2026, the credit is worth €1,000 for a single person and €2,000 for a jointly assessed married couple. To qualify, the property must be registered with the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB). Tenants in receipt of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) or the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) are not eligible for this credit. Unlike the Personal and PAYE credits, it is not applied automatically: you have to add it yourself, which is one reason it is a commonly missed credit (see below).
Mortgage Interest Tax Credit: up to €625
For 2026, this credit is worth up to €625 per household, half the €1,250 cap that applied for 2023 to 2025. It is not a flat amount: the relief is 20% of half the increase in mortgage interest actually paid over what you paid in 2022, so a household whose interest cost has stayed flat, or fallen, since 2022 gets nothing from it regardless of mortgage size. Enter your own qualifying amount on the main calculator to see the effect.
Age, disability, and health credits
Age Tax Credit: €245 (single) / €490 (married)
Taxpayers aged 65 or over in 2026 receive the Age Tax Credit: €245 for a single person and €490 for a married couple (where either spouse is 65 or over). In addition to the credit, taxpayers aged 65 or over may benefit from the income tax exemption under Section 188 of the Taxes Consolidation Act. Where total income is below €18,000 (single) or €36,000 (married), no income tax is payable at all. The calculator models both the credit and the Section 188 exemption, applying whichever results in the lower tax liability.
Incapacitated Child Credit: €3,800
This credit of €3,800 is available to a taxpayer who maintains a child who is permanently incapacitated (either physically or mentally), such that the child is unable to maintain themselves. The incapacity must have existed before the child reached age 21, or have arisen as a result of studying full-time. One credit applies per qualifying child.
Blind Person's Tax Credit: €1,950 (single) / €3,900 (both spouses)
Taxpayers who are certified as blind or with severe visual impairment may claim this credit. For 2026, the credit is €1,950 for an individual and €3,900 where both spouses or civil partners are certified blind. The Guide Dog Allowance (see below) can be claimed in addition to this credit.
Guide Dog Allowance: €165 credit
A statutory annual allowance of €825 is available to blind taxpayers who keep a trained guide dog. This allowance is given at the standard rate of 20%, producing a credit of €165. It is claimed in addition to the Blind Person's Tax Credit.
Medical Insurance Relief
Where you or your employer pays a private health insurance premium, tax relief is available at the standard rate of 20% on the eligible premium, capped at €1,000 per adult and €500 per child covered by the policy, so a €1,200 adult premium only earns relief on the first €1,000, or €200. Where your employer pays the premium as a benefit-in-kind, this is what offsets the tax you would otherwise pay on it.
How credits interact with each other
Revenue's process is to first calculate your gross income tax liability, applying the standard and higher rates to your income, and then subtract your total credits from that figure. If the result is positive, that is your income tax bill. If the credits exceed the tax due, the excess is not refunded; it simply reduces the bill to zero, as the "what is a tax credit" section above explains.
Most credits on this page simply add together: the Blind Person's Credit and the Guide Dog Allowance stack, and the Personal and PAYE credits sit underneath every other credit a person qualifies for. A small number are deliberately mutually exclusive rather than additive. The clearest example is the Home Carer Credit against the increased standard rate band for dual-income couples: a married couple can have one or the other, never both, whichever produces the lower bill. The Blind Person's Credit works the same way: the €3,900 "both spouses" rate replaces the €1,950 single rate rather than sitting alongside it.
For married couples assessed jointly, unused credits and unused rate band from one spouse can transfer to the other, the one genuine exception to credits otherwise being lost if unused, and what makes joint assessment beneficial when income is uneven between spouses. None of this touches USC or PRSI, which are calculated separately and unaffected by any tax credit; see our guide to how PAYE tax works for how the three deductions fit together.
Which credits people most commonly miss
The dividing line is automatic versus self-declared. Only the Personal Credit and the Employee (PAYE) Credit are applied to every PAYE employee without you doing anything. Every other credit on this page, the Rent Tax Credit, Home Carer Credit, Single Person Child Carer Credit, Dependent Relative Credit, Incapacitated Child Credit, Blind Person's Credit, Guide Dog Allowance, Medical Insurance Relief paid directly rather than through an employer scheme, and the Mortgage Interest Tax Credit, exists on paper for everyone who qualifies, but only reaches your tax bill once you add it to your Tax Credit Certificate or a tax review. Revenue has no independent way to know your marital home has a carer in it, or that you privately pay a health premium, unless you tell it.
The Rent Tax Credit is the most visible gap, since it applies to such a broad group of PAYE tenants yet is not one of the two automatic credits: the RTB registration number is required to add it. The Home Carer Credit is missed in both directions: some households never claim it despite qualifying, and others compare it against the dual-income rate band by rough guess rather than working out which actually produces the lower bill at their specific home carer income.
Adding a missed credit for a past year, not just the current one, is covered in our guide to filing a tax return, including how far back Revenue allows a claim to go.
Worked example: what your credits are actually worth
Take a single PAYE employee aged 35 on €55,000 in 2026, with no pension and only the two automatic credits. Before any credit, the 20% and 40% bands alone produce a gross tax bill of €13,200.00. The Personal Credit takes €2,000.00 off that and the Employee (PAYE) Credit a further €2,000.00, leaving actual PAYE due of €9,200.00. The two automatic credits alone are worth €4,000 to this person, regardless of part of their income being taxed at 40%, because a credit's value never depends on the rate it is set against.
| Gross income tax, before credits | €13,200.00 |
| Less: Personal Credit | − €2,000.00 |
| Less: Employee (PAYE) Credit | − €2,000.00 |
| PAYE actually due | €9,200.00 |
Add the Rent Tax Credit, the Home Carer Credit, or any of the others on this page you qualify for, plus USC and PRSI which credits do not touch, on the full calculator.
Frequently asked questions
What tax credits does every PAYE employee get automatically?
The Personal Tax Credit (€2,000 single, €4,000 married) and the Employee (PAYE) Credit (€2,000). Together they are worth €4,000 to a single employee, which is why roughly the first €20,000 of a single person's income is effectively tax-free in 2026.
Can I get the Home Carer Credit and the increased rate band for a working spouse at the same time?
No. They are mutually exclusive: a married couple where one spouse cares for a dependent person at home can have the Home Carer Credit or the increased standard rate band that applies to dual-income couples, never both. Revenue applies whichever gives the lower tax bill.
At what income does the Home Carer Credit taper to zero?
The full €1,950 credit applies where the home carer's own income is €7,200 or less. Above that it reduces on a sliding scale and reaches zero once the home carer's income hits €11,100.
What is the Second Earner PAYE Credit worth?
For a married couple assessed as two incomes, the second earner gets their own Employee (PAYE) Credit calculated the same way as the primary earner's: 20% of their own income, capped at €2,000.
How much is the Mortgage Interest Tax Credit worth in 2026?
Up to €625 per household for 2026, half the €1,250 cap that applied for 2023 to 2025. It is relief at 20% on half of the increase in your mortgage interest paid over what you paid in 2022, so it only helps if your interest cost has actually risen since then.
Are unused tax credits refunded to me in cash?
No. Credits only ever reduce your tax bill to zero; they are never paid out as cash. Married couples assessed jointly are the one exception where unused credits and unused rate band can transfer between spouses.
Do tax credits reduce my USC or PRSI as well as PAYE?
No. Tax credits only come off your income tax (PAYE) bill. USC and PRSI are calculated completely separately and are not affected by any tax credit at all. See our guide to how PAYE, USC and PRSI work for why.
Which tax credits are most commonly missed in Ireland?
Ones that are not applied automatically, so Revenue has no way to know you qualify unless you tell it: the Rent Tax Credit, the Home Carer Credit, the Dependent Relative Credit, the Incapacitated Child Credit, and Medical Insurance Relief where you pay a premium directly rather than through an employer scheme.