Revenue Note for Guidance

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Revenue Note for Guidance

195A Exemption in respect of certain expense payments

Summary

Section 12 exempts from tax, travel and subsistence expenses paid to certain members of non-commercial bodies, in both the public and private sectors, in respect of the attendance at meetings of such bodies. The work of these members must generally be carried out at periodic meetings of the bodies. To qualify for the exemption the member must be a non-executive member of the body and not be in receipt of emoluments (excluding the expenses) from the body in excess of €24,000 per annum in the case of the Chairperson and €14, 000 in the case of other members. The exemption covers expenses up to the civil service rates. Where the expenses paid exceed those rates the excess will continue to be taxable.

Details

Definition

(1) “body” means an unincorporated body of persons or a body corporate, being any board, council or committee, however expressed, or any body of persons exercising some or all of the functions of such a board, council or committee where the duties, other than incidental duties such as attendance at conventions or meetings as delegates on behalf of the body, of the office of members of the body are discharged in the course of meetings of the body concerned, or preparation for such meetings;

“civil servant” has the meaning assigned to it by section 1(1) of the Civil Service Regulation Act 1956;

“member”, in relation to a body, means a person holding office as a member of that body—

  1. who has no other duties directly or indirectly, whether as an employee of the body or of a person connected with that body, in relation to that body, and
  2. whose annualised amount of the emoluments from the office for the year of assessment 2006 and for each subsequent year in which the person is a member of the body, other than payments to which this section applies, does not exceed the limits specified in the definition.

A “non-commercial body” is defined in terms of a body that is —

  • organised solely for non-profit purposes,
  • in fact operated solely for non-profit purposes, and

with specified exceptions, does not distribute or otherwise make available any of its income for the personal benefit of any officer, employee or member, or connected person.

(2) The section applies to payments made by a non-commercial body to or on behalf of a member of the body in respect of expenses of travel and subsistence incurred by the member in the attendance by him or her at meetings of the body.

(3) So much of any payments to which the section applies, as does not exceed the upper of any relevant rate or rates laid down from time to time by the Minister for Finance in relation to the payment of expenses of travel and subsistence of a civil servant, is to be disregarded for all the purposes of the Income Tax Acts.

Relevant Date: Finance Act 2019