Vol. 477 No. 4
42 Miss Coughlan asked the Minister for Finance if he will amend the 1983 ruling whereby a person (details supplied) in Northern Ireland, who works in the State, is only entitled to a single person's allowance in view of the fact that his spouse is employed in Northern Ireland. [9400/97]
Section 153 (1) of the Income Tax Act, 1967 provides that non-resident individuals are not entitled to any personal allowances or reliefs against their income arising in the State. However, in accordance with section 153 (2) they are, in certain circumstances, granted allowances in the proportion that their Irish income bears to their total income. In the case of the taxpayer in question, all his income is earned in this State and as such he is entitled to single allowances and single rate band.
In the case of a non-resident married couple, joint assessment for tax purposes is not allowed unless the total income of each spouse is chargeable to Irish tax. As the taxpayer's spouse has income not chargeable to Irish tax joint assessment is not allowed in their case.
Changes to this aspect of tax law are not envisaged.
