Contractor FAQs

The most common expenses that you are allowed claim in your monthly expenses include

• Fees payable for seminars and continuous professional training which you are obliged to undertake in order to maintain your competence and continue working as a Contractor. Please note, the cost of training/courses used to obtain your qualification as a Contractor is not allowable.

• The cost of equipment and materials used in your professional duties if applicable.

• Motor expenses incurred in travelling to and from another base. Travel from your home to your regular base is not allowable.

• Mobile phone. Allowed 50% of bill or the actual cost of business calls as listed inyour bill.

• Internet connection-if used for business purposes in the performance of your duties.

• Any other expense incurred wholly and exclusively in order to carry out your professional duties.

You will need to keep the receipts for the expenditure that you are claiming for as they may be required for possible future inspection by the tax authorities. You must keep these receipts for 6 years. (Required by tax law).

The normal place of service is the location where the professional services are normally carried out. Home is not regarded as a normal place where services are performed unless there is an objective requirement that the professional services are performed there. It is not sufficient for you to carry out some duties at home to enable you to claim it as a normal base.

No. This is not allowed under Irish tax law as such a cost is for putting you in a position to carry out your duties and not directly incurred in carrying out you duties.

Both locations would be regarded as your normal place where your professional services are performed. As regards claiming expenses, the costs of travelling to and from your home to either location are not allowable but the costs of travelling between the two locations (i.e. between A and B) are allowable. The costs of travelling to and from another base from either location are also allowable.

You can claim for the lesser of the cost of travelling to and from your private residence or your regular base to the temporary base. Where you use your own private car for this purpose you can claim the appropriate mileage rates. Where you travel by train or bus to your temporary base you can claim for the cost of your ticket. Please see the portal for the relevant rates.

You are entitled to a subsistence allowance of €14.01 for days that you are away (over 5 kms awayfrom normal base) from your normal base for over 5 continuous hours. A larger allowance of €33.61 is available if you are over 10 continuous hours away from your normal base.

Continuous hours in this context mean that you do not arrive back to your normal base within 5 hours of first leaving. For example, if you leave your normal base to travel to another base at 9 am and do not return until after 2pm then you can claim the 5 hour allowance. If you were to return to you normal base before 2 pm then you would not be entitled to claim the subsistence allowance even if you left shortly afterwards to go to another base.

Please note that these subsistence rates cannot be claimed for the same dates that the overnight allowance is claimed. Please see the portal for the relevant rates.

Under tax law, for an expense to be an allowable deduction it must be wholly, necessarily and exclusively incurred in the performance of your professional services. Where any of your expense items do not meet this definition we will advise you of this. Please be aware that the Revenue authorities have the power to inspect your expense claims along with supporting receipts. If they identify claimed expenses that are not deducible in accordance with tax law they have the power to impose fines and penalties some of which can be quite substantial. Naturally, we do not want you to be liable for any such interest and penalties should the Revenue examine your expense records.

Although an expense item may initially appear to be a purely business expense the way Tax law and the Revenue view the matter is by asking the following questions:-

1. If the expense was not incurred would you be prevented in any way from carrying out your

professional duties?

2. Does every Contractor have to incur this particular expense in order to carry out their

professional duties?

If the answer is ‘no’ to any of the above questions then the expense is not allowable in accordance with Irish Revenue regulations and tax law. We want you to remain compliant with Irish tax law so we may query some of your expense items if we are of the opinion that they are not allowed as a deduction and advise you accordingly.