Government U-turn on Flat-Rate Expenses

This morning, Revenue has announced a significant u-turn on plans to abolish flat-rate expenses for teachers from 1 January 2020. Revenue has announced that it has referred an impending review to the Tax Strategy Group, delaying implementation until 1 January 2021.

The INTO has actively sought to stop this abolition. When the government first announced its intention to revoke this allowance in 2018, the INTO repeatedly met with the Office of the Revenue Commissioners. We commissioned independent expert tax advice on the issue to strengthen this effort. 

As a result of this campaign, the INTO and other unions secured an initial postponement of the change for a year, until the start of 2020 and now a further delay to 2021. 

The INTO, its members, and many other unionised workers have mounted a vigorous lobbying campaign against the proposed abolition of flat-rate expenses. We succeeded in delaying the decision last year and have now secured in a further delay, at least until January 2021. 

Separately INTO and fellow trade unions have been pressuring the government to re-instate tax relief on trade union subscriptions.