Section 329: Deductions from earnings not to exceed earnings
1408.This section is the second of four which sets out a general proposition relating to deductions from earnings. It deals with the proposition that deductions from earnings may not exceed earnings.
1409.As in the case of section 328 the most important single source for this section is section 198(1) of ICTA, which allows a deduction for an amount if “the holder of an office or employment is obliged to incur and defray [that amount] out of the emoluments of the office or employment”. This section also draws on a considerable number of other passages in Part 5 of ICTA and in section 50 of FA 1989.
1410.Subsection (1) sets out the general rule that deductions may not exceed the earnings from which they are deductible. That general rule is then elaborated in subsections (2) to (4).
1411.Inland Revenue guidance makes it clear that the employee does not generally have to demonstrate that an expense has literally been paid out of the emoluments rather than out of some other source of money. It is generally sufficient that the emoluments charged to tax in a particular tax year are equal to, or greater than, the deductions to be made from those emoluments. As the Inland Revenue does not generally trace the source of funds used by the employee to pay expenses, the requirement that the employee must pay the expenses out of the emoluments of the employment is not stated in general terms in this Act. See Change 81 in Annex 1.
1412.Subsection (5) deals with a matter which follows on from the fact that this Act does not reproduce any general requirement that expenses must be paid out of the emoluments of the employment. This Act rewrites numerous provisions that refer to expenses that would be allowable if the employee paid them out of the emoluments of the employment. Those provisions (“the deductibility provisions”) are listed in section 332. Since the general requirement in subsection (1) that deductions from earnings are not to exceed earnings is assumed to be met in the deductibility provisions (because of the references in them to the employee being assumed to have paid the amounts or expenses out of emoluments), this subsection provides that this section is to be disregarded for the purposes of the deductibility provisions.
1413.Subsection (6) provides a signpost to section 380 of ICTA, a section drafted on the basis that there may be Schedule E losses which may be set against other income of the tax year, or carried back to earlier tax years.
