Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 July 2018
279. Deputy Michael McGrath asked the Minister for Finance the annual cost of the foreign earnings deduction for the previous five years including 2017; the number of companies that have availed of the scheme in each of these years by multinational companies and SMEs; the number of individuals who have availed of the scheme in each of these years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33925/18]
Amharc ar fhreagra310. Deputy Michael McGrath asked the Minister for Finance the number of countries the foreign earnings deduction is available for; the countries the FED is available for; the cost of €3.2 million in 2015 by country; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34472/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 279 and 310 together.
The Foreign Earnings Deduction (FED) is provided for in section 823A of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 (TCA). It provides relief from tax on up to €35,000 of salary for employees who travel out of State to certain countries on behalf of their employer. In order to qualify for FED, an employee must spend a minimum of 30 days abroad in a year and each trip must consist of at least three (3) consecutive days in a qualifying country.
I am advised by Revenue that the most recent data available on the annual cost and the number of individuals who have availed of the scheme is as follows:
|
Year |
Cost €M |
No. of individuals |
|
2015 |
3.2 |
472 |
|
2014 |
1.1 |
144 |
|
2013 |
1 |
135 |
|
2012 |
0.8 |
108 |
I am further advised by Revenue that FED is an allowance that is applied for by the employee through their own tax returns and is not returned at a company level. Therefore, it is not possible to provide the data on the number of companies associated with employees availing of the scheme broken down by multinational companies and SMEs, as requested by the Deputy.
FED is available for travel to the following thirty countries:
- Brazil
- Russia
- India
- China
- South Africa
- Egypt
- Algeria
- Senegal
- Tanzania
- Kenya
- Nigeria
- Ghana
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Japan
- Singapore
- Republic of Korea
- Saudi Arabia
- United Arab Emirates
- Qatar
- Bahrain
- Malaysia
- Indonesia
- Vietnam
- Thailand
- Chile
- Oman
- Kuwait
- Mexico
- Colombia
- Pakistan.
A breakdown of the total tax cost of €3.2m in 2015 by country is provided in the following table. Where the allowance claim relates to travel to multiple countries this is given under the item ‘Multiple Countries’ and for countries where the total number of claims is less than 10, these have been combined and given as ‘Other’ in order to protect taxpayer confidentiality.
|
Country |
Tax Cost €m |
|
China |
0.44 |
|
South Africa |
0.21 |
|
United Arab Emirates |
0.16 |
|
India |
0.16 |
|
Saudi Arabia |
0.13 |
|
Singapore |
0.09 |
|
Algeria |
0.08 |
|
Russia |
0.07 |
|
Multiple Countries |
1.27 |
|
Other |
0.55 |
|
Total |
3.16* |
*rounded to €3.2 million elsewhere in this reply.
