Flat Rate Expenses
An agreed amount for your job that comes off your taxable pay each year, from €21 for a hotel kitchen porter to €2,476 for an RTÉ orchestra member, with €733 for nurses, €518 for most teachers and €175 for bricklayers. The tax you save is 20% or 40% of the amount.
Last checked September 2026 · Updated 27 September 2026
What it is
If you are an employee in one of the jobs on Revenue's list, Revenue lets you deduct an agreed amount each year for things like uniforms, tools and registration fees. The list includes nurses, nursing assistants, hospital doctors, dentists, pharmacists, physiotherapists, radiographers, social workers, teachers, school principals, lecturers, carpenters, bricklayers, electricians, plumbers, mechanics, hotel chefs and waiters, shop assistants, bar staff, hospital porters, firefighters, enlisted Defence Forces personnel, journalists, cabin crew and many more. You claim it in myAccount and you do not need receipts, because the amount for your job is already agreed with Revenue. Most people miss that you can go back over the previous four years as well as the current one. It is a deduction from your taxable pay, not cash, so a €733 allowance is worth about €146 a year at the 20% rate or about €293 at 40%. The list has 197 rates across 68 occupation headings. Nurses who buy and launder their own uniform get €733, hospital doctors and consultants €695, teachers €518 (€608 for a principal, €279 if you are part-time on less than full hours), pharmacists €400, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and radiographers up to €410, hospital domestic staff including porters €93 to €353 depending on who supplies and launders the uniform, firefighters €272 full-time or €407 part-time, home helps €256, carpenters €220, bricklayers €175, electricians €153, shop assistants €121, bar staff €93 and waiting staff €80. The list runs from €21 for a hotel kitchen porter to €2,476 for a member of an RTÉ orchestra. Apart from eight health professions whose rates rose in 2023, the figures have been the same every year since at least 2021. Social workers, dietitians and medical scientists who pay the CORU registration fee get €100. Some jobs have no row at all, special needs assistants and gardaí among them. If yours is one, you can still claim actual expenses you paid wholly, exclusively and necessarily for your work, with receipts, under Revenue's separate employment expenses rules, though that test is applied strictly.
Who can get it
- You are a PAYE employee in one of the occupations on Revenue's list, which runs from nurses, doctors and teachers to bricklayers, shop assistants, bar staff, hospital porters, firefighters and enlisted Defence Forces personnel who do not get a Uniform Replenishment Allowance
- You pay for the things the rate covers yourself, such as your uniform, laundering it, your tools or your professional registration fee, and your employer does not pay for them or provide them
- You claim it yourself, for the current year or any of the previous four years, with no receipts needed
- It is a deduction, not a payment. €733 off your taxable pay saves €146.60 at the 20% rate and €293.20 at 40%, so the tax saved is a fifth or two fifths of the figure on the list. If your pay is too low to pay income tax, a deduction saves you nothing.
- Pick the right row. Nurses have five rates: €733 if you buy and launder your own uniform, €638 if you buy it and the hospital launders it, €353 if you launder a uniform the hospital supplies, €258 if the hospital does both, and €80 on short-term agency contracts. The €733, €638, €353 and €258 rates include the NMBI retention fee; the €80 agency rate carries no such note. Teachers have four rows too: €608 for a principal, €518 for other teachers and part-timers on full hours, €279 part-time on less than full hours. Teachers employed by the Department of Education can also claim their Teaching Council registration fee on top.
- The four-year rule applies. In 2026 you can still claim for 2022, but only until 31 December 2026, and you must make a claim for each year you want.
- Eight health professions got higher rates from 1 January 2023 (cardiac technicians, occupational therapists, phlebotomists, physiotherapists, radiographers and radiation therapists, respiratory and pulmonary function technicians, speech and language therapists and veterinary nurses), and you have to submit a claim to get the increase. Every other figure has been the same since at least 2021.
How to claim
Sign in to myAccount, go to PAYE Services, choose Manage Your Tax for the current year, click Claim tax credits, select Your job and then Flat Rate Expenses, and complete and submit the form. For earlier years use Review Your Tax for the previous 4 years, request a Statement of Liability for the year, complete the Income Tax Return and add Flat Rate Expenses under Your job. Revenue's page below links to the full list of rates, so find your own job on it before you start.
Go to the official page →Checked against the official source on 9 September 2026. Last updated on 27 September 2026. Always confirm the details on the official page before applying.
Questions people ask
How much is the Flat Rate Expenses allowance?
It depends on your job. Nurses who buy and launder their own uniform get €733, hospital doctors and consultants €695, teachers €518 (€279 part-time on less than full hours), carpenters €220, bricklayers €175, shop assistants €121 and bar staff €93. The full list has 197 rates. It is a deduction from taxable pay, so the tax saved is 20% or 40% of the figure.
Do I need receipts to claim Flat Rate Expenses?
No. The amount for each occupation is agreed between Revenue and the representative bodies, usually trade unions though not always, so everyone in that job claims the same agreed figure.
Can I claim Flat Rate Expenses for previous years?
Yes, for the previous four years as well as the current one, through myAccount. A claim cannot be made more than four years after the end of the tax year, so 2022 must be claimed by 31 December 2026.
My job is not on the list. Can I claim anything?
Not under this scheme. Gardaí, for example, have no row on the list. You can still claim a deduction for actual expenses you paid wholly, exclusively and necessarily for your work, with receipts, under Revenue's separate employment expenses rules, but that test is applied strictly.
Related guides
- Fisher Tax Credit
- Sea-going Naval Personnel Tax Credit
- Seafarers' Allowance
- Small Benefit Exemption
- Remote Working (e-Working) Relief
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