Refunds and repayments of tax during COVID-19

Refund of healthcare insurance premiums

Due to COVID-19 some private healthcare providers may have issued a refund of medical insurance premiums to an:

• employer
• employee
• individual policy holder who has personally paid for the policy.

Tax Relief at Source (TRS) was ignored for the purposes of the below. The usual claim procedures applied for an employee and employer's accounting for the value of the TRS amount to Revenue.

Employer paid premiums

Refunds made to the employer

Where the employer received a refund of the medical insurance premium the:

• amount subject to Benefit-in-kind (BIK) was reduced to reflect the new gross value of the insurance policy
• employer was entitled to a Schedule D Case I/II deduction in line with the reduced policy amount.

Refund split between the employer and the employee

Where the refund of the medical insurance premium was split between the employer and the employee:

• the amount subject to BIK was reduced to reflect the new gross value of the insurance policy
• any refund made to the employee was subject to BIK.

The employer was entitled to a Schedule D Case I/II deduction to reflect the reduced policy amount Payment of premium by an individual policy holder.

Payment of premium by an individual policy holder

Where the medical insurance premium refund was made to an individual policy holder the refund was not subject to tax.