Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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294. To ask the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to the fact that social care workers are not listed by the Revenue Commissioners as a profession and are unable to claim flat-rate expenses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5063/22]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The flat rate expense (FRE) regime is operated by Revenue on an administrative basis, where both a specific commonality of expenditure exists across an employment category and the statutory requirement for the tax deduction as set out in section 114 of the Taxes Consolidation Act (TCA) 1997, is satisfied. Specifically that the expenses are wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred in the performance of the duties of the office or employment by the employee concerned and that such expenses are not reimbursed by his or her employer.

The FRE regime was established to apply a uniformity of approach to tax deductibility for expenses of large groups of employees and to facilitate ease of administration for both Revenue and employees. The expense should apply to all employees in a particular category and not be discretionary. I am advised by Revenue that it will consider FRE applications where a large number of employees incur broadly identical qualifying expenses, which are not reimbursed by their employer. The regime applies to employees across a wide range of trades and professions.

Applications are generally made by the representative bodies in the employment sector concerned, and are considered by Revenue based on the specific commonality of expenses within the employment category and compliance with the strictly applied, statutory requirement for a tax deduction. The fact that social care workers are not included in the most recent FRE list is a result of an appropriate application not having been made to Revenue. I am further advised by Revenue that should a submission be submitted from the representative body, outlining the expenses incurred by social care workers, which satisfy the legislative conditions, it will be considered.

Finally, all employees retain their statutory right to claim a deduction under section 114 of the TCA 1997, in respect of an expense incurred wholly, exclusively and necessarily in the performance of the duties of their employment, to the extent, which the expense is not reimbursed by the employer. It should be noted that PAYE workers can claim section 114 expenses by completing an Income Tax return at year end. The simplest way to do so and claim any eligible section 114 expenses and any other tax credit entitlements is by logging onto the myAccount facility on the Revenue website.