Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome all our witnesses and thank them for their opening statements, and for providing the submission in advance. I want to clarify how the current system works. We are clear on the position of union subscriptions, the tax relief for which ended in 2011. The example of a self-employed persons, a farmer, was given. A trade union subscription is a deductible expense for a farmer in his or her tax return. It is not an income issue because they pay themselves a salary, but rather is a deductible expense and so it is at the marginal rate in terms of the tax deductibility. For an employee working for a company, where the company pays for his or her subscription to an engineers' institute, a tax institute or an accountancy institute the employee is not subject to BIK on that. Is that the case currently?