Finance (No. 2) Act 2008

Amendment of section 469 (relief for health expenses) of Principal Act.

8.— As respects the year of assessment 2009 and subsequent years of assessment, section 469 of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) in subsection (1)—

(i) by inserting the following definition before the definition of “ educational psychologist ”:

“ ‘ appropriate percentage ’, in relation to a year of assessment, means a percentage equal to the standard rate of tax for that year;”,

and

(ii) by inserting the following definition before the definition of “ speech and language therapist ”:

“ ‘ specified amount ’, in relation to a year of assessment, means the amount of expenditure which qualifies for income tax relief in accordance with this section;”,

and

(b) by substituting the following for subsection (2):

“(2) Subject to this section, where an individual for a year of assessment proves that in the year of assessment he or she defrayed health expenses incurred for the provision of health care, the income tax to be charged on the individual, other than in accordance with section 16(2) for that year of assessment shall be reduced by the lesser of—

(a) the amount equal to the appropriate percentage of the specified amount, and

(b) the amount which reduces that income tax to nil,

but, where an individual proves that he or she defrayed health expenses incurred for the provision of health care in the nature of maintenance or treatment in a nursing home, the individual shall be entitled for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of the income on which he or she is to be charged to income tax, to have a deduction made from his or her total income of the amount proved to have been so defrayed.”.