Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 20 Nov 2003

Vol. 575 No. 1

Written Answers. - Tax Code.

Richard Bruton

Question:

112 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Finance the restrictions which apply to the claiming of relief for medical expenses of a taxpayer, of their immediate family, of a relative who has particular medical needs. [27981/03]

Minister for Finance (Mr. McCreevy)

Over the last several years I considerably widened the scope of medical expenses relief and I removed a number of the restrictions that applied. For example, in the Finance Act 2001, I extended the relief to the cost of educational psychological assessments and speech and language therapy for children as well as routine maternity care. In the Finance Act 2001, I also simplified the relief by removing the requirement that the taxpayer must be in receipt of the dependent relative allowance, now a credit, to claim relief in respect of medical expenses of their dependent relative. In addition, in the Finance Act 2002, I extended the list of qualifying dependants beyond immediate family to include parents of the taxpayer, whether widowed or not, ancestors, lineal descendants, brothers and sisters, of the taxpayer mother or father of the taxpayer's spouse, brother or sister of the taxpayer's spouse, spouse of the taxpayer's son or daughter and other relatives or non relatives who are elderly, aged 65 or over, or permanently incapacitated.

The main restrictions that currently apply to claiming tax relief for medical expenses are that it applies to amounts over €125 per annum, €250 per annum where the claim is in respect of more than one person, of qualifying expenditure incurred by the claimant; the cost of routine dental care, that is the cost of scaling, extraction and filling of teeth and the provision and repair of artificial teeth or dentures, is excluded; the cost of routine ophthalmic care, that is the cost of sight testing and advice as to the use of spectacles or contact lenses and the provision and maintenance of spectacles or contact lenses, is excluded.

Tax relief is available for unreimbursed medical expenses therefore relief is not available for any expenses reimbursed from any public or local authority or under any contract of insurance or by means of compensation or otherwise.

I would point out that the Revenue Commissioners have a detailed guide to the relief entitled "Health/Medical Expenses Relief" which is available on their websitewww.revenue.ieIf the Deputy has a specific issue in mind in relation to the above question and wishes to let me have the details, I can have the matter examined.

Richard Bruton

Question:

113 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Finance the circumstances in which tax relief on additional voluntary contributions to a pension scheme is permitted to be made retrospectively. [27982/03]

Minister for Finance (Mr. McCreevy)

The backdating of additional voluntary contributions only applies to the tax year immediately before the year in which the AVCs are paid, provided the payment is made before 31 October in the year in question. Contributions that cannot be relieved due to insufficiency of income in the prior year can be carried forward to later years.

In addition, the ability to spread back AVCs for up to ten years is available in the following circumstances: contributions deducted from lump-sums payable on retirement to provide for dependants' benefits; following resumption or change of employment, contributions on retirement to pay back previous refunds of contributions; following resumption or change of employment, contributions on retirement to pay back benefits already provided for under a scheme, for example marriage gratuity.