Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 section 196

Expenses of members of judiciary

Section 196 exempts from income tax certain expense allowances paid annually to members of the judiciary, where those allowances are determined to be in full settlement of the expenses a judge must incur in carrying out judicial duties.

• A member of the judiciary means a judge of the Supreme Court, the High Court, the Circuit Court, or the District Court.
• An annual expense allowance paid to a judge under section 5 of the Courts of Justice Act 1953, agreed by the Minister for Justice in consultation with the Minister for Finance as full settlement of unreimbursed duty-related expenses, is exempt from income tax and excluded from income computations.
• Where such an exempt allowance is payable, the judge cannot separately claim a deduction for those same expenses under the normal Schedule E expense rules in sections 114 and 115.
• The effect is that the allowance replaces any individual expense claims — the judge receives the tax-free allowance but cannot also claim the underlying expenses as a tax deduction.