Vol. 503 No. 4
116 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Finance the reason librarians are not included in the list of trades and professions which are allowed a flat rate of expenses under the PAYE tax code; and the reason librarians are being refused a flat rate of expenses like other trades and professions when they contact their local taxation offices. [10455/99]
I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that a tax deduction for expenses incurred by employees is provided for under section 114 of the Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997. Expenses allowable to employees are confined to expenses necessarily incurred in travelling in the performance of the duties of the employment and expenses wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred in the performance of the duties.
Flat rate expenses deductions are agreed between the Revenue Commissioners and representatives of particular sectors of employees to apply on a global basis within the sector. This is good administrative practice both from Revenue's and from the particular sector's point of view. The list of flat rate expenses issued by the Revenue Commissioners has been compiled over the years following. negotiations between the Revenue and representative bodies of groups of employees e.g. trade unions, employee associations etc. Following these discussions agreement is reached on a global figure which would represent the amount of expenses wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred by that particular group of employees in the performance of their duties.
It is, of course, always open to any employee entitled to such an allowance to make a claim based on his or her actual deductible expenditure. In that case, the expenses claimed must have a sound legal basis and be proven to be within the terms of section 114.
In the particular circumstances of individual cases, tax offices may have taken the view that expense deductions claimed by librarians were not due under the legislation. It is important to bear in mind that there is no automatic entitlement to a flat rate or any other expense deduction. Employees in many trades and professions will not have qualifying expenditure claim.
