Vol. 538 No. 4
83 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Finance the reason tax relief on the fees for study overseas, and in particular in the USA, have been confined to students undertaking postgraduate study; and if he will consider extending this concession to undergraduate students. [18256/01]
As the Deputy will be aware, in this year's Finance Act, the various tax reliefs for third level education were merged into a single relief and the scope of the relief was considerably widened. Generally, the new relief now covers fees paid by undergraduate students in Ireland and elsewhere in the EU. The scheme also applies to fees paid by postgraduate students both here and abroad. In the course of the recent review of the reliefs, I considered whether tax relief should be extended to fees paid by undergraduate students studying outside the EU but decided against this because of concerns about controlling the types and standards of courses which might attract tax relief. I will bear in mind the Deputy's proposal in the context of any future review of the relief.
