asked the Minister for Finance if he will consider including expenses incurred by workers providing transport to and from work as a necessary expense for the purpose of PAYE.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - PAYE Transport Expenses Allowance.
72.
The answer is in the negative. It would be contrary to the general principles of income tax to take into account, for purposes of relief, variations in personal living costs of which travelling expenses are merely one component.
Is the Minister aware that there are people working in this city who have to travel 40 miles each way per day by car? They have to pay for any meals they get, and they have to pay to get the car serviced, but they are not allowed to claim any income tax allowance for the car while a director of the firm which employs them, if he has to make two different calls in the city, can get a hefty allowance for his car. Would the Minister not agree that this is differentiation?
I would not agree at all. This is a difficult and complex problem which has been adverted to on many occasions and no one has yet come up with a satisfactory answer. The principle is that the expenses of travelling to and from a place of work are not allowable, but travel during the course of employment is allowable. If the worker to whom Deputy Tully refers travels from, say, Navan to a building site in Dublin, he is not allowed that expense but if during the course of the day he leaves one building site and travels to another that expense is allowed.
Would the Minister not——
All this is an argument.
You did not hear it, and therefore, you do not know whether it is an argument.
All these questions are arguments.
Would the Minister not agree that a person on a wage of £14 a week who is required to pay £7 in travelling expenses, on car repairs, on tax and insurance, should be entitled to some allowance? Would the Minister agree to have another look at it even if he has to set down the mileage to be covered before such an allowance is granted?
That is an argument.
That is a matter of opinion.
This matter has been looked at several times. There are many anomalies in the income tax code. The position is that if a person happens to be lucky enough to live beside his place of employment he has that advantage over the man who lives a considerable distance from his place of employment——
Question No. 73.
The Minister has not finished yet.
We can talk about it again on the Finance Bill.