Who qualifies
An employee whose employer participates in TaxSaver and who uses a monthly or annual public transport ticket for the journey between home and work.
How to claim
Your employer buys the TaxSaver ticket, recovers the cost via gross salary deduction or treats it as a salary top-up. The BIK exemption is applied at payroll and no separate claim is needed.
Detailed explanation
The TaxSaver Commuter Ticket Scheme works on the same salary sacrifice principle as Cycle to Work but for public transport instead of cycling. The employer purchases an annual or monthly bus, rail, Luas, Iarnrod Eireann or DART ticket on behalf of the employee, who repays the cost from gross salary or accepts it as part of a remuneration package. There is no income tax, USC or PRSI on the ticket value, which means a higher rate taxpayer can save up to about 49 percent of the headline cost. From 2026 there is no formal cap on ticket value, although in practice annual tickets are capped at the published Bus Eireann, Dublin Bus, TFI Local Link, Luas and Iarnrod Eireann annual rates. Combined tickets covering rail and bus or rail and Luas qualify in full. The scheme covers Sterling rail fares to and from Northern Ireland in some integrated cross-border tickets. Employees who change jobs mid-year can transfer their ticket if both employers participate, or refund the unused portion through the issuing transport company. TaxSaver tickets cannot be combined with the Free Travel Pass for the same period. Self-employed individuals are excluded because the relief is structured as an employer-provided BIK exemption. Spouses or civil partners working for the same employer can each have their own ticket.
Worked example
Cara earns 55,000 euro and uses an annual Luas plus Dublin Bus ticket costing 1,860 euro. As a higher rate taxpayer her marginal cost saving is approximately 52 percent, so the net cost after tax saving is around 893 euro, compared with 1,860 euro if she bought it personally.