Reviewed by: MyTaxRebate Team on 9 Mar 2026 | Authority: s.469 TCA 1997
Quick Answer
Families with a seriously ill child can claim enhanced tax relief under section 12 of Revenue's Tax and Duty Manual Part 15-01-12. Qualifying expenses include travel to hospital (unlimited journeys), a €370 flat rate telephone allowance, accommodation near the hospital, and up to €500 per year for hygiene products and special clothing required because of the illness. The claimant is the parent or guardian who paid the expenses.
Families dealing with a seriously ill child have enough to manage. MyTaxRebate handles the full claim across all four categories - travel, telephone, accommodation, and hygiene - and backdates across all available years, at no upfront cost.
What This Page Covers
- ✓Which conditions qualify under s.12 (oncology, life-threatening illness, permanent disability)
- ✓Travel expenses: unlimited qualifying journeys, mileage rates, and public transport
- ✓The €370 annual telephone flat rate - no phone bills needed
- ✓Accommodation near the hospital: what types qualify and what records to keep
- ✓Hygiene products and special clothing: what qualifies and the €500 annual cap
- ✓Combining all four reliefs in a single annual claim; backdating prior years
Key Facts at a Glance
- ✓Qualifying medical expenses for a child's serious illness are claimed by the parent or guardian who paid the bills under s.469 TCA 1997 - at 20% standard rate, or marginal rate for nursing home care.
- ✓Private consultant fees, specialist hospital visits, prescribed medication, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy for the child all qualify with a valid referral or prescription.
- ✓Travel costs to hospitals or specialist clinics for the child's treatment may qualify where the trip was solely for a qualifying medical purpose.
- ✓There is no age limit - once the parent or guardian pays the qualifying medical bills, they can claim regardless of the child's age.
- ✓Where the child requires specialist residential care, nursing home fees paid qualify at the marginal rate (up to 40%), significantly increasing the tax recovery.
- ✓Backdate up to four years - in 2025, qualifying costs from 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 are all claimable in a single the Revenue system session.
Which conditions qualify under section 12
Section 12 of Revenue's Tax and Duty Manual Part 15-01-12 establishes enhanced qualifying health expenses for families caring for a child with a serious illness. The qualifying conditions are:
The key requirement is that the child is under the active care of a hospital specialist or paediatric consultant for the qualifying condition. Day visits to a community GP for a chronic but non-specialist condition would not typically fall within s.12. The s.12 provision is aimed at the families of children who must make repeated visits to specialist hospital or clinic settings as part of ongoing treatment for a serious condition.
- Cancer and oncological conditions: Any child receiving oncological treatment - chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgical oncology, targeted therapy, immunotherapy - falls within the s.12 qualifying criteria. This includes haematological cancers such as leukaemia and lymphoma as well as solid tumour cancers.
- Life-threatening illness: Conditions that are clinically life-threatening and require ongoing specialist hospital care qualify. This is a broad category that encompasses serious cardiac conditions, end-stage renal disease, severe respiratory conditions requiring specialist management, and other conditions where the prognosis is serious and hospital attendance is frequent and ongoing.
- Permanent disability: Where a child has a permanent physical or cognitive disability that requires ongoing specialist medical management and regular hospital or clinic attendance, the s.12 enhanced expenses qualify.
Travel expenses: unlimited journeys
One of the most significant s.12 reliefs is that there is no cap on the number of qualifying travel journeys claimed. This is important for families where a child is undergoing intensive treatment - chemotherapy or dialysis, for example - that may require hospital visits three to five times per week over extended periods. Every qualifying return journey from home to hospital and back qualifies as a health expense.
Claiming by private car
Where a parent drives to the hospital, the qualifying mileage is claimed at the civil service motor travel rates. These rates are set by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and reflect the cost of using a private vehicle for work-related travel. The rate applicable to s.12 health expense travel is the standard civil service motor travel rate per kilometre. Keep a log of journeys - the date, destination, and round-trip mileage - throughout the year. At year-end, multiply the total kilometres by the applicable rate to calculate the qualifying travel amount.
Claiming for public transport
Where a parent travels by bus, train, or taxi to attend at the hospital with a seriously ill child, the actual ticket or fare cost qualifies. Retain tickets and receipts for each journey. Where exact receipts are not available for all journeys - for example, where bus journeys are paid by cash - a reasonable estimate of the number of journeys and the typical fare, supported by whatever receipts are available, is the best available approach.
The €370 annual telephone flat rate
Section 12 provides a flat rate qualifying health expense of €370 per year for telephone expenses incurred in connection with managing a seriously ill child's care. This covers telephone calls to the hospital, specialist nurse contacts, coordinating with other treating consultants, calls to the pharmacy, and the general communication burden that comes with managing complex medical care.
No itemised phone bills are required to claim the €370. The flat rate is entered as a qualifying health expense in the Revenue system for each relevant year. The only supporting documentation required is the evidence of the qualifying serious illness - the hospital consultant letter or outpatient appointment letters that confirm the child's condition and treatment. These are retained for six years.
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Accommodation expenses near the hospital
Where it is necessary for a parent or guardian to stay overnight near the hospital during periods of intensive treatment - for example, during an admission cycle, during a multi-day treatment programme, or when travelling from a significant distance - the accommodation cost qualifies as a health expense. Qualifying accommodation types include:
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Accommodation expenses should be evidenced by receipts clearly showing the dates, location, and amount paid. The connection between the accommodation and hospital attendance should be readily apparent - accommodation in a hotel directly adjacent to a major children's hospital during a child's treatment cycle is self-evidently qualifying.
- Hotels and B&Bs near the hospital: Reasonable nightly rates for commercially-booked accommodation qualify. Retain hotel invoices or B&B receipts showing dates, the parent's name, and the nightly rate.
- Guesthouses and self-catering apartments: Qualifying equally where the stay is directly connected with attending the hospital for the child's treatment.
- Ronald McDonald House and similar charity accommodation: Where a family stays in a charity-operated facility associated with a hospital and pays a contribution, the contribution paid qualifies. Where the accommodation is provided entirely at no additional cost, no qualifying expense exists.
Hygiene products and special clothing: the €500 cap
Section 12 provides for qualifying purchases of hygiene products and special clothing required specifically because of the child's serious illness, up to a maximum of €500 per year. Items that qualify in this category include:
Retain receipts for all qualifying hygiene and clothing purchases. The total qualifying amount is capped at €500 per year across all such purchases, regardless of actual expenditure. Enter the actual expenditure up to the €500 cap as a qualifying health expense in the Revenue system.
- Specialist skincare products for chemotherapy patients: Children undergoing chemotherapy commonly experience severe skin sensitivity requiring specific hypoallergenic or medically-recommended skincare products that are significantly more expensive than standard products.
- Protective clothing for immunocompromised children: Children undergoing chemotherapy or with severely compromised immune systems may require specific protective garments or high-grade UV-protective clothing on medical advice.
- Incontinence products: Where a child's serious illness or disability results in incontinence requiring specialised hygiene products beyond what a healthy child of the same age would need.
- Post-surgical garments: Compression garments, post-operative support garments, or specially adapted clothing required following surgery related to the qualifying illness.
Combining all four reliefs in a single annual claim
A parent managing a child's serious illness may accumulate qualifying expenses across all four s.12 categories in a given year. At year-end, total the qualifying amounts from each category:
Add these to any other standard qualifying health expenses for the same year - GP visits, prescription costs, consultant fees, hospital charges - and enter the combined total under Health Expenses in the Revenue system. All four s.12 categories combine into the same Health Expenses total as standard health expenses.
- Travel (car mileage calculation or public transport receipts)
- Telephone (€370 flat rate)
- Accommodation (receipts total)
- Hygiene and special clothing (receipts total, capped at €500)
When the child reaches 18 or moves to adult services
Section 12 applies to expenses incurred in connection with the child's care. Where a young person has a serious illness or permanent disability and moves to adult specialist services as they turn 18 or transition to adult healthcare settings, the associated qualifying expenses continue under the standard s.469 health expense provisions - travel to specialist appointments, accommodation, prescribed medicines, and other qualifying costs remain claimable. The s.12 specific provisions are framed in terms of a child patient, but the qualifying costs for an adult patient with the same conditions are captured by the general s.469 health expense framework.
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Tax Scenarios
Family medical bills paid by one spouse
A family pays €2,400 of qualifying medical costs in the year. At 20% relief, that element alone can support about €480 of tax relief once any reimbursed amounts are excluded.
Dental work with part reimbursement
A patient pays €1,300 for qualifying dental treatment and receives €300 from insurance. Relief is based on the unreimbursed €1,000, giving a potential tax benefit of about €200.
Higher-cost specialist treatment
A taxpayer pays €4,800 for qualifying treatment with no reimbursement. At 20% relief, the tax effect on that expense can reach about €960, which is why record-keeping matters on larger medical claims.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- ✗Not keeping a contemporaneous mileage log for hospital journeys - Revenue requires a log showing each visit date, departure point, destination hospital, and kilometres travelled to validate the travel element of a s.12 TCA 1997 claim. Without a log maintained during the year, the travel allowance calculation cannot be substantiated in a compliance check and may be rejected entirely.
- ✗Overlooking the €370 annual telephone flat rate - this allowance is claimable every year the child qualifies as seriously ill under s.12 without requiring any telephone receipts. It recognises the additional communication costs associated with managing a seriously ill child's care and is one of the most routinely overlooked components of the claim. It applies for every qualifying year including backdated years.
- ✗Not claiming hotel and bed-and-breakfast accommodation costs near the hospital - accommodation expenses for parents or guardians staying near the treatment hospital on medical advice qualify as health expenses under s.12. For children receiving intensive or prolonged hospital treatment, these costs frequently accumulate to a significant annual total and should be included with receipts in the health expense claim for each relevant year.
- ✗Claiming more than €500 for hygiene and clothing costs - s.12 imposes a statutory cap of €500 per year on expenses in the hygiene and clothing category, regardless of actual expenditure. Claims above this cap will be adjusted by Revenue to €500 and may prompt a more detailed compliance review of the full return if significantly over the limit.
- ✗Not obtaining a medical certificate confirming the child's qualifying condition before making the claim - Revenue requires formal medical evidence confirming the child has a serious illness, permanent disability, or life-threatening condition as defined under s.12 TCA 1997. The certificate must be from a registered medical practitioner and must be retained for six years. Without this documentation, a compliance query on the claim cannot be satisfied and the relief may be fully disallowed.
When This Does Not Apply
Key Takeaways
- ➤ Four categories of qualifying expenses under s.12: travel, telephone (€370 flat rate), accommodation, and hygiene/clothing (capped €500).
- ➤ No cap on travel journeys - every qualifying hospital trip counts.
- ➤ Keep a mileage log and accommodation receipts throughout the year; add the €370 telephone flat rate at year-end automatically.
- ➤ MyTaxRebate reviews your travel logs, accommodation receipts, and flat-rate entitlements under s.12, then submits the full backdated claim for all available years - at no upfront cost.
Check Your Claim
MyTaxRebate can review your position and guide the next step.
Frequently Asked Questions
What conditions qualify for the children's serious illness tax relief?
Under Revenue's Tax and Duty Manual Part 15-01-12 (s.469 TCA 1997), qualifying conditions include cancer (oncology), life-threatening illnesses, organ transplants, renal failure requiring dialysis, cystic fibrosis, and other severe chronic conditions. A consultant's letter confirming the condition and outlining the medical necessity of the qualifying costs is the key supporting document. Revenue takes a broad approach; if in doubt, retain all medical documentation.
Is there a flat rate for the telephone expenses?
Yes. Revenue's Part 15-01-12 provides a flat rate of €370 per year for telephone expenses associated with a child's serious illness - covering the additional cost of calls to hospitals, consultants, and specialist clinics. No individual phone bills need to be submitted; the flat rate is accepted automatically. The €370 is included in the annual health expenses claim alongside other qualifying costs, generating a €74 refund at 20%.
What travel expenses can I claim?
Where a parent or guardian travels to attend at a hospital or specialist centre with a seriously ill child, the travel costs qualify as health expenses. There is no cap on the number of qualifying journeys. Private car mileage is claimed at the civil service motor travel rates; public transport costs are claimed at the actual ticket cost.
Does accommodation near the hospital qualify?
Yes. Where it is necessary for a parent to stay near the hospital - in a hotel, B&B, guesthouse, or rented accommodation - the qualifying accommodation cost may be included in the health expenses claim. The stay must be directly and exclusively for the child's medical treatment. Retain hotel invoices or accommodation receipts and a letter from the hospital or consultant confirming the dates of treatment that required the parent's presence.
What is the €500 cap on hygiene products and special clothing?
Section 12 provides for a maximum of €500 per year for hygiene products and special clothing required specifically because of the child's serious illness - for example, specialised skincare for a child undergoing chemotherapy, or protective clothing for a child with a compromised immune system. Receipts for these purchases are required. The €500 is a maximum qualifying amount per year.
Who makes the claim - both parents or just one?
The parent or guardian who personally paid the qualifying expenses makes the claim. Where both parents contributed to different categories of expense, each claims only what they personally paid. The same marginal rate rules apply - each parent enters their qualifying costs in their own the Revenue system Health Expenses for the relevant year.
