Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I also congratulate the Leas-Cheann Comhairle on his election.

I thank Deputy Murphy for raising this important matter. I am responding on behalf of the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, who has engaged with the Revenue Commissioners on this matter. He has been informed by Revenue that there has been no change in the legislation nor in Revenue’s interpretation of the existing legislation relating to the benefit-in-kind charge which is applicable on employer-provided vehicles or the exemption relating to the pooling of cars or vans.

Sections 121 and 121A of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 provide that where a car or a van is made available to an employee by his or her employer for the employee’s private use, then the employee is chargeable to benefit-in-kind. Where such a benefit is provided, the employer is required to include that notional payment as part of the employee’s emoluments and to deduct tax through the PAYE system accordingly. An employer makes a vehicle available to an employee through the provision of the use of a vehicle, and covering any vehicle running costs, such as insurance and petrol, on behalf of the employee.

Section 121(7) provides that a vehicle which is included in a car or van pool for the use of employees of one or more employers is treated as not available for the private use of employees, that is, not giving rise to a benefit-in-kind charge, if, in the tax year, all of the following conditions are met: that the vehicle is available to, and actually used by, more than one of the employees concerned; in the case of each employee, the vehicle is made available to him or her by reason of his or her employment; the vehicle is not ordinarily used by any one employee to the exclusion of the others; in the case of each of the employees concerned, any private use of the vehicle by him or her is merely incidental to his or her business use; and the vehicle is not normally kept overnight at or in the vicinity of any of the employees’ homes.

The Minister for Finance has asked his officials to engage with the HSE to establish whether there has been any change in policy by it in how it implements this measure. The HSE has also been asked to establish the number of people impacted by the issue.

In addition to the exemption provided for in section 121(7), Revenue has indicated that there is a long-standing published Revenue practice that allows a vehicle provided to an officer of the State, including an officer of a statutory body, to be deemed to be included in a vehicle pool, thus not giving rise to a benefit-in-kind charge if: it is scheduled and verifiable that the officer is obliged to be on call outside of his or her normal working hours to respond to situations giving rise to possible contravention of law; the officer is provided with a vehicle for this purpose during the periods concerned and keeps the vehicle overnight at his or her home; and the vehicle would, but for the on-call obligation noted above, be a pool vehicle.

In addition to the engagement with the HSE, the Deputy should note that the Minister for Finance has asked his officials to examine this matter in conjunction with the Revenue Commissioners.

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