Education as a taxable benefit?

[Steveo]

I work for the Irish branch of an American educational institution, and one of the standard benefits is that I and family members get to take courses (online) for free. Obviously this mainly applies to the stateside employees but seeing as some courses are online we can take advantage here in Ireland.

So, does this count as a taxable benefit for Irish income tax purposes? Knowing how much a US-based education costs it could be a huge chunk of money. In the US, undergraduate courses are not taxable but graduate courses are.

 

[KDA man]

No
if all employees are entitled to the benefit.

Tony

 

[Steveo]

Thanks for the input Tony. I got conflicting advice from my accountant though. He says it is not a taxable benefit if the employee is the one taking the courses and they are job related, but they are taxable if the spouse is taking them (because its not job related). I figured out that a 2-year diploma for my wife will cost me €10,000 in taxes.

Accountant says nothing about it not being taxable if all employees are entitled to it....all employees are....so can you point me to some tax code that indicates that?

Thanks

 

[deadlyduck]

Here are some links of interest:

{General info on BIK}
http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/leaflets/benefit-in-kind/index.html

{general principle for valuing BIK}:
http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/leaflets/benefit-in-kind/valuation.html#section1

{Treatment applying where an employer pays/refunds exam fees on behalf of an employee}:
http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/leaflets/benefit-in-kind/other.html#section18

{BIK treatment of joint loans where only one spouse is an employee}: [broken link removed]

I think your accountant is correct in his/her interpretation but the big issue for you is to see if you can minimise the value placed on the benefit. I think it would be important that a standard clause in the contract signed when a person commences a course is that the access to the course is non-transferable ie only you can access the course materials. This would mean that you cannot sell the access to another so the valuation would then depend upon 'the expense incurred by the employer in connection with the provision of the benefit to the employee' (which might be as little as hosting fees for an online course.