Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
PAYE WORKERS COULD lose out on some of the cash benefit of the tax cuts announced in the October Budget because of changes to the flat rate expense claim regime.
Yesterday Chartered Accountants Ireland raised concerns about the changes which will impact on many employees in the services and health sectors. Under the current system they receive an automatic tax deduction to reflect costs that were exclusively and necessarily incurred in the performance of their job.
Revenue is currently reviewing flat rate expenses to ensure they are still justified and appropriate to current work practices.
“Arising from the review, there may be an adjustment to the quantum of particular flat rate expenses. The flat rate amount may be increased or decreased or it may be withdrawn by Revenue where the continuation is no longer justified,” a spokesperson told TheJournal.ie.
The flat rate expense for shop assistants was included in the current review and Revenue said it is satisfied that the “legislative basis underpinning tax relief for expenses does not justify its continuation”. For 2018 there were 75,822 recipients of this particular flat rate expense of €121, which gives rise to a total gross value of €9.1 million.
From 1 January 2019, flat rate expenses in a number of categories will be withdrawn:
The Revenue spokesperson said outside of the flat rate expenses regime, all employees retain their right to claim a deduction under current legislation for expenses necessarily incurred which are not reimbursed by the employer.
Although workers will still be able to make expenses claims in the future, Chartered Accountants Ireland said these will “undoubtedly be subject to case-by-case examination”. It said it fears that many “simply will not bother with the administrative red tape required to recover deductions to which they were properly entitled”.
“This Revenue project targets the tax affairs of those who support the country most, but have the least control over the amounts they have to pay,” Brian Keegan, Director of Public Policy and Taxation at Chartered Accountants Ireland said.
“No one should claim any amount to which they are not entitled, but this change in administrative practice is ill-timed and difficult for employers and employees alike.”
Further changes are expected in 2019 as the review continues and Revenue said any further withdrawals will be communicated through representative bodies and on its website.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
The article speaks for the direct professional competence and experience of the author.
As a contrast, our newly appointed Taoiseach has frequently disputed the correlation between poverty and ill health and premature mortality. Despite the fact that Veradker is a qualified medical practitioner, his political ideology that poverty is not a concern of government, blinds him to the hugely detrimental impact of poverty on human health.
Diets in poorer area plays a bugger role in life expectancy….
@Paul: When we see that obesity if a factor in First World “poverty” we should wake up and see that PC fake analyse is keeping the poor, poor. Certain political parties need to keep a pool of poor people as voters to get themselves elected and these are the real enemies of the poor.
The private practice model of GP healthcare is not financially viable in poorer areas. Timely Access to GPs is more restricted in the case of poorer people than for those who are more comfortably off.
@Jenny mcCarty: You can qualify that statement, I assuming.
@Tony Daly: quiet the opposite. Workers have to arrange time off work to visit GP and pay 50 to 65€ as they don’t have medical cards.
@Geraoid O’Helidhe: Great, all workers should have them and the public housing close to jobs if required.
Well done for highlighting health inequalities. Not new but larger ignored in ireland.
See the Black Report – very old doc now
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2190/XXMM-JMQU-2A7Y-HX1E?journalCode=joha
Also this affects everyone to some degree as there is a social gradient.
It’s all about choices….
@Gavin Huban: To an extent it is but you have less choices to make or certain choices have a higher cost as a proportion of your income. To eat healthier might be very difficult to afford or even get depending on where you live.
Slightly off topic but one glaring indictment of our health service is that even for private patients, waiting times are only “a matter of month”.
In this country we have now a new norm of having to wait months even privately except where you are a Minister or politician.
@Ger Healy: I completely agree. There is something to be said for a competitive American model of medicine where doctors decide to help people, make money because of their qualifications and expertise, and not be grossly overworked. When I have had to see a specialist, after waiting a very long time for the appointment, I wonder about the waiting list of people behind me and how that must affect the health of the doctor being put under so much pressure day in and day out.
@Ger Healy: The narrative that people are definitely corrupt if they are politicians is wrong and threatens democracy and is similar to the widely held belief that all media are liars.
Put it this way…………………….have you ever seen a bookie riding a bicycle?Go figure!
@Jenny mcCarty: Have you ever asked yourself why you need these gross simplifications, Jenny? I pay a mortgage and work, but I acknowledge this as good fortune, as well as the work ethic and attitude I was lucky enough to inherit – in the long run I’m far better off in all respects. Stop whining – you may need to see the world in such simple terms because you are frightened by its complex problems and just want it to go away. For you and all of us it will, eventually, and this will have been your life – is this the best you can do?
have your say