Budget 2027 Ireland: what it means for your pay

Budget 2027 at a glance

The Minister for Finance, Simon Harris, announced a personal income tax package of €1.3 billion. These are the figures that decide your take-home pay, from 1 January 2027:

The tax rates themselves stay at 20% and 40%. USC stays at 0.5%, 2%, 3% and 8%, with the 8% rate still starting at €70,044 and nothing to pay below €13,000. The Single Person Child Carer Credit and the Age Tax Credit are unchanged. In full: tax credits 2027, tax bands 2027 and USC rates 2027.

How much better off you are in 2027

Take-home pay for a single person under 65, in 2026 and from 1 January 2027 with the Budget 2027 changes. PRSI is 4.35% in both, so the difference is the Budget's alone. For your own situation, married or a one-parent family, use the Budget 2027 calculator.

On the minimum wage, a full-time 39-hour week goes from €28,696 to €30,298 a year before tax. After tax that is €2,110 a month now and €2,229 in 2027, €1,430 a year more. Minimum wage 2027 in full.

Who gains, and why

Tax, welfare, rent and childcare added up for nine typical households: how much better off are you?

• Earning above €46,500. You get the whole package: €2,500 more of your pay taxed at 20% instead of 40% (€500) and €250 more in tax credits, plus €16 less USC. That is €766 a year for a single person and about twice that for a couple where both earn above the band.
• Earning roughly €30,000 to €46,500. You are not paying 40% yet, so the band change does not reach you. The €125 rise in both the personal and the employee credit is worth €250 a year, with a little USC on top from about €28,700.
• On low pay. If your credits already cover all your income tax, as they do for a single person on about €20,000, the tax changes give you nothing. The minimum wage rise does: a full-time worker on €14.94 an hour earns €1,602 more before tax.
• Couples with one income and a carer at home. The Home Carer Tax Credit goes up €100 to €2,050, on top of the higher married band and credits.

Minimum wage 2027

The national minimum wage rises from €14.15 to €14.94 an hour from 1 January 2027, as the Low Pay Commission recommended. To go with it, the USC 2% band was widened to €30,300, so a full-time minimum wage worker (€30,298 a year on 39 hours) pays no 3% USC. Workers under 20 can still be paid less: €13.45 at 19, €11.95 at 18 and €10.46 under 18. Minimum wage 2027: rates by age and take-home pay.

Housing and energy

• Rent Tax Credit up €150 to €1,150 for a single renter and €2,300 for a couple. How to claim it, and back to 2022.
• Help to Buy for first-time buyers up from €30,000 to €35,000, with immediate effect. Every scheme for first-time buyers, with examples.
• Rent-a-Room relief up from €14,000 to €16,000 a year tax-free from 1 January 2027.
• Home heating. Carbon tax on home heating oil and natural gas cut to €48.50 a tonne, instead of rising to €78.50 by May 2027, and held there for the life of the Government.
• Petrol and diesel. The temporary cut in fuel excise stays in full until 28 February 2027, then is restored in stages by 30 June 2027.

Welfare and pensions

The maximum rate of most weekly payments rises by €10 a week from January 2027: the full State Pension (Contributory) goes from €299.30 to €309.30, and Jobseeker's and Disability Allowance from €254 to €264. Every main payment, 2026 and 2027.

• Fuel Allowance up €5 to €43 a week, with a higher income limit for single people aged 66 or over (€640.80 a week, from €534).
• Living Alone Increase up €3 to €25 a week. Child Support Payment up €6 to €64 a week per child under 12 and €84 aged 12 and over.
• €500 cost of disability payment, once, for people on a long-term disability payment.
• Christmas Bonus: a double week in December 2026 for people on long-term payments. Who gets it.

Child Benefit was not among the increases announced and stays at €140 a month.

Childcare and college

• Childcare fees for children up to senior infants capped at €550 a month (down from €735), saving a family up to €2,220 a year, with the universal subsidy up from €2.14 to €2.50 an hour.
• From September 2027, families with a reckonable income up to €38,500 get the maximum National Childcare Scheme subsidy (now €34,000). Multiple-child discounts go up too. How the childcare subsidies work, with examples.
• Student contribution permanently cut by €150, from €2,500 to €2,350. Student grants up 4.5% from January 2027.

Savings, gifts and other changes

• New Investment Account from 1 July 2027: the first €50,000 is tax-free, 1% a year on the value above that, and up to €12,000 a year can go in.
• Gift and inheritance tax thresholds up: parent to child €420,000 (from €400,000), Group B €44,000, Group C €22,000.
• Capital Gains Tax down from 33% to 31%. Exit tax on funds and life assurance down from 38% to 35% from 1 January 2027.
• Cigarettes up €1 a pack of 20; e-liquids up 20 cent a millilitre.

Budget 2027: common questions