Finance Act 2019

Exemption in respect of training allowance payments

14. Chapter 1 of Part 7 of the Principal Act is amended by inserting the following section after section 192F (inserted by this Act):

“Exemption in respect of training allowance payments

192G. (1) In this section—

‘Minister’ means the Minister for Education and Skills;

‘qualifying payment’, means a payment, generally referred to and commonly known as a further education training allowance, which is made by or on behalf of the Minister to a qualifying individual—

(a) who is undertaking an approved further education and training course under a scheme or schemes (which or each of which is referred to in the definition of ‘qualifying individual’ in this subsection as ‘the relevant scheme’) administered by or on behalf of the Minister, and

(b) who, if he or she were not undertaking such a course, would be in receipt of or eligible for a payment from the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection;

‘qualifying individual’ means an individual who satisfies the conditions of the relevant scheme as may be specified from time to time by the Minister and the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection.

(2) A qualifying payment made to a qualifying individual on or after 1 January 2020 shall be exempt from income tax and shall not be reckoned in computing the total income of the qualifying individual for the purposes of the Income Tax Acts.

(3) A qualifying payment which is made to a qualifying individual before 1 January 2020 shall be treated as if it were exempt from income tax in the year of assessment to which it relates and shall not be reckoned in computing the total income of the qualifying individual for that year of assessment for the purposes of the Income Tax Acts.”.