Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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119. To ask the Minister for Finance his plans to amend the applicable rates of value added tax so that school uniforms of all sizes are rated at 0%; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45936/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The VAT rating of goods and services is subject to the requirements of EU VAT law with which Irish VAT law must comply. In this regard, the rate of VAT that applies to a particular good or service is determined by the nature of the good or service, and not by the status of the customer.

Children's clothing and footwear are subject to the zero rate for children which is defined as the average build of a 10 year old in the VAT Consolidation Act 2010. The zero rating applies according to the following criteria:

- all children's clothing of sizes up to and including 32" chest or 26" waist; and,

- children's footwear up to and including size 5½ (38 continental or equivalent).

Under the EU VAT Directive, Member States may retain the zero rates on goods and services which were in place on 1 January 1991, but cannot extend the zero rate to new goods and services. As school uniforms for people over 10 years of age were not subject to the zero rate on 1 January 1991, it is not possible to apply the zero rate to these uniforms now.

In addition, Member States may apply a reduced VAT rate to those goods and services which are listed under Annex III of the EU VAT Directive. As clothes and shoes are not listed under this Annex the reduced rate cannot be applied to the supply of school uniforms.  Therefore the only rate of VAT that can apply to the supply of school uniforms for children over 10 years of age is the standard VAT rate of 23%.