The Irish Tax Institute have today published their formal response to the last month’s Revenue Tax Briefing which sought to restrict allowable travel expenses for contractors and small companies operating from home office environments.
In their Tax Briefing, Revenue effectively attacked the entitlement of company directors and employees to claim mileage and subsistence expenses in respect of travel to and from their home office – even if it is a company’s registered office or main place of business.
The Irish Tax Institute (ITI) have responded by questioning the validity of this approach.
They point out the rather obvious reality that in the modern working environment, there are many cases in which a person’s home is their main place of work, and note that Government policy actively encourages home working and teleworking.
The ITI criticise the Revenue position as failing “to take account of genuine situations where an individual’s work operations are based at their home and the majority of their work takes place at home, rather than at any other premises.”
The Institute also point out the apparent contradictions between the new Revenue policy and a range of existing Revenue arrangements and concessions, including:
- construction industry “country money”,
- allowable subsistence for foreign travel and,
- the Budget 2012 Special Assignee Relief Programme and Foreign Earnings Deduction schemes.
For more, see The Irish Tax Institute statement , Revenue Tax Briefing No 03/13 & my recent Blog Post on this subject.
Thomas McGibney & Company 