Guide Dog and Assistance Dog Tax Relief Ireland 2025: €825 Annual Flat Rate

Revenue-compliant guidance — Based on Revenue Tax and Duty Manual Part 15-01-12, s.10.3 (guide dogs) and s.10.4 (assistance dogs). Updated for 2025.

Blind persons with guide dogs and disabled persons with certified assistance dogs can claim an €825 annual flat rate health expense in Ireland, giving a 20% tax refund of €165 per year. No receipts for food, vet care, or other expenses are needed — the flat rate covers all associated costs. A qualifying letter from the Irish Guide Dog Association (guide dogs) or an ADEu-accredited supplier (assistance dogs) is the only documentation required.

What This Page Covers

• The €825 flat rate: what it covers and why no receipts are needed
• Guide dogs for blind persons: the IGDA letter requirement (s.10.3)
• Assistance dogs for disabled persons: ADEu accreditation and supplier letter (s.10.4)
• Who can claim: the dog user, a carer, or a family member
• Renewing the claim annually and backdating up to four years
• Why vet fees, food, and other dog costs do not qualify separately

Key Facts at a Glance

• ✓€825 flat rate qualifying health expense per year — no itemised receipts required.
• ✓20% relief = €165 refund per year. Over four backdated years: €660.
• ✓Guide dogs: letter from the Irish Guide Dog Association (IGDA) required.
• ✓Assistance dogs: letter from ADEu-accredited supplier required.
• ✓Claim renewed each year in myAccount under Health Expenses.
• ✓Backdate up to four years if not previously claimed.

What is the €825 flat rate and why does it exist

Maintaining a guide dog or assistance dog involves significant ongoing personal expense — specialist food, regular veterinary care, vaccinations and parasite prevention, grooming, annual insurance, harnesses, leads, and other equipment. Rather than requiring blind and disabled persons to retain and present all of these individual receipts each year, Revenue has established a flat rate of €825 per year that is treated as a qualifying health expense, regardless of the actual itemised costs incurred.

This flat rate approach is common in Revenue’s treatment of other flat-rate reliefs where the annual qualifying cost is well-established and consistent across users. The €825 amount covers all expenses associated with maintaining a qualifying guide dog or assistance dog for the year. The claim is entered annually in myAccount under Health Expenses alongside any other qualifying health expenses for the year.

Guide dogs for blind persons: section 10.3

Section 10.3 of Revenue’s Tax and Duty Manual Part 15-01-12 provides for the €825 flat rate health expense for a person who has a guide dog trained to assist a blind person. The key qualifying condition is:

• The person must be blind (or severely visually impaired such that guide dog assistance is warranted).
• The guide dog must have been placed and trained by the Irish Guide Dog Association (IGDA).
• A letter from the IGDA confirming the person’s guide dog partnership is required as supporting documentation.

The Irish Guide Dog Association is the national organisation in Ireland that breeds, raises, and trains guide dogs for persons with visual impairment, as well as autism assistance dogs for families with autistic children. IGDA dogs are placed with recipients after extensive matching and training, and IGDA maintains records of all active placements. A letter from IGDA confirming the guide dog partnership is straightforward to obtain — contact IGDA directly at their Cork headquarters and request a confirmation letter for Revenue health expense purposes.

What the IGDA letter must confirm

The letter should confirm: the name of the guide dog user; confirmation that the person has been placed with an IGDA-trained guide dog; the date of placement or the period during which the guide dog was in use. The letter does not need to quantify costs — it simply confirms the guide dog partnership. Once obtained, the same letter can be used to support claims for all relevant years, provided the guide dog partnership was active in those years.

Assistance dogs for disabled persons: section 10.4

Section 10.4 of Part 15-01-12 extends the €825 flat rate to persons with a disability who are placed with an assistance dog trained to assist them with daily living tasks. The qualifying conditions differ slightly from the guide dog provision:

• The person must have a disability for which an assistance dog provides functional support.
• The assistance dog must have been trained and supplied by an organisation accredited by Assistance Dogs Europe (ADEu).
• A letter from the ADEu-accredited supplier confirming the assistance dog placement is required.

Assistance dogs trained to support persons with physical disabilities, psychiatric service dogs trained for psychiatric conditions, and hearing dogs trained for deaf persons can all qualify under s.10.4 where the training organisation is ADEu-accredited. ADEu is the European network of assistance dog organisations and maintains a publicly searchable list of accredited member organisations at assistancedogseurope.org.

What the ADEu supplier letter must confirm

The letter from the ADEu-accredited supplier should confirm: the name of the assistance dog user; the specific assistance dog placed with that person; the date of placement; and confirmation that the supplying organisation is an ADEu-accredited member. As with the IGDA letter, the assistance dog supplier letter is retained and does not need to be reissued annually where the same dog remains in active service.

Who can claim the flat rate relief

The primary claimant is the guide or assistance dog user themselves — the blind or disabled person who is the registered dog handler. Where the guide or assistance dog user has taxable income (employment income, pension, rental income, or other assessable income), they enter the €825 as a qualifying health expense in their own myAccount Review your Tax for each relevant year.

Where the costs associated with the guide or assistance dog are paid by a carer, family member, or other person — for example, where a family member manages the dog’s food and veterinary costs — that person can claim the €825 flat rate at their own tax rate, provided they personally paid those costs. Revenue’s principle is that the person who paid makes the claim. For the flat rate, the question is who bears the ongoing cost of the dog’s maintenance.

Where neither the dog user nor a contributing family member has taxable income in a given year, no qualifying tax refund arises for that year — the relief only generates a refund to the extent the claimant has tax paid against which the relief can be set.

Renewing the claim annually and backdating

The €825 flat rate is a recurring annual claim — it must be entered each year in myAccount for as long as the guide or assistance dog partnership is active. A new IGDA or supplier letter does not need to be obtained each year provided the same letter covers the relevant period — the original letter confirming the dog partnership is used year after year. What changes each year is the myAccount claim entry — selecting the relevant year in Review your Tax and entering €825 under Health Expenses.

If the flat rate has not been claimed in prior years — which is common because many guide and assistance dog users are not aware of this specific relief — it can be backdated for up to four years within the standard backdating window. In 2026, claiming for 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 produces four years of €825 = €3,300 qualifying, and a €660 total refund at 20%. This is the same back-claim process as for any other health expense: log in to myAccount, select each relevant year, and enter €825 under Health Expenses for that year.

What does not qualify

The €825 flat rate is the qualifying amount — it replaces individual receipt tracking rather than supplementing it. Individual veterinary invoices, food receipts, grooming bills, insurance premiums, equipment costs, and other dog care expenses are not entered as separate qualifying health expenses in addition to the flat rate. The flat rate is the complete qualifying health expense for the guide or assistance dog for the year. Attempting to claim the flat rate and also individual receipts on top of it would be an over-claim.

Scenarios

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• ✗Not claiming the flat rate at all — many guide and assistance dog users are unaware this relief exists.
• ✗Attempting to claim individual vet bills and food costs in addition to the flat rate — the €825 is the full qualifying amount and replaces itemised receipts.
• ✗Not backdating for prior years — if the flat rate has not been claimed annually, the four-year backdating window allows recovery of all missed years.

When This Relief Does Not Apply

Key Takeaways

• ➤€825 flat rate per year — no itemised receipts, just the qualifying letter.
• ➤Guide dogs: IGDA confirmation letter. Assistance dogs: ADEu-accredited supplier letter.
• ➤Claim every year in myAccount Health Expenses — and backdate four years if not yet claimed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Guides

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• Complete guide to medical expenses relief
• Backdating health expense claims four years