There are tax reliefs available for construction workers, below are three tips that may help you get tax back on your income.

1. Tools and uniforms

If you purchased tools or clothing to work on a construction site, you should keep the receipts. Many tradespeople are eligible to claim tax back on these expenses with the flat rate expense allowance. 

The flat rate expense allowance works differently to a tax credit; it reduces the amount of income that you have to pay tax on instead of directly reducing your tax liability. There are different allowances for different professions, some example: 

• Bricklayer: €175 per annum
• Electrician: €153 per annum
• General Operatives, Labourers etc. incl. Public Sector): €97 per annum

You can find the full list of flat rate allowances here.

2. Claim every possible tax credit

Every Pay As You Earn (PAYE) worker in Ireland is entitled to claim the Employee tax credit, formerly PAYE tax credit, the maximum for 2017 is €1,650. Bear in mind that the Revenue office doesn’t check that your tax credits are claimed and assigned correctly, so you need to be sure that you have applied for the credits you are entitled to. 

Here is a full list of tax credits available in Ireland.

3. Short-term construction contracts

Working in the construction industry may mean that you are moving from a short-term contract to a short-term contract. There may be short periods of time that you are not working in between contracts. When you start a new contract or job, register it with Revenue, they will automatically assign your proper tax credits across the 52 weeks of the year, this can result in a sizable tax rebate for short-term contracts.

You may be entitled to a tax rebate for Universal Social Charge. If you earned under €13,000 in 2017/2018, you might not be liable for USC.