Committee Reports > List of Committees > Dáil > 1990 > Committee of Public Accounts > Final Report - Appropriation Accounts 1988

APPENDIX 16

VOTE 28:—FIRST LEVEL EDUCATION

Subject:—Deduction of Income Tax from Substitute Teachers

1. At my appearance before the Committee on 14th June, 1990 I undertook to provide a note for the Committee on arrangements for the deduction of income tax from substitute teachers.

2. The present arrangements for the payment of substitutes were established in 1984 following negotiations with the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Social Welfare. By special arrangement agreed with the Revenue Commissioners tax deductions at source are not made from the payments for substitute teachers. Instead tax is payable by the substitutes to the Revenue Commissioners after the end of the tax year.

3. Substitute teachers are paid a daily rate of pay. Under the present system the Chairperson of the Board of Management submits a claim form to the Department for payment in respect of the period of service given by the substitute teacher. A grant equal to the substitute’s pay, net of PRSI, is calculated by the Department and paid to the Chairperson of the Board of Management, who pays the substitute.

4. The Department has agreed, following discussions with school management and teachers’ representatives and with the Revenue Commissioners, to introduce a system of direct payments to qualified substitutes from 1 September 1990. This change is being implemented. There is no change in the payment arrangements for unqualified substitutes.

5. The Department has also decided, in conjunction with the Revenue Commissioners, to deduct tax at source, on a PAYE basis, from payments for all substitutes, with effect from 6 April 1991. The necessary technical and administrative arrangements are being made to give effect to this decision.