Union insists bank workers in arrears ‘treated the same’

The Irish Bank Officials’ Association has accused the Revenue Commissioners of creating a false impression that bank workers are having their loans written off.

General secretary Larry Broderick said very few bank officials had received loans at a preferential rate and he wasn’t aware of any cases where employees were having their debts written off.

“I’m not aware of any situation where individuals have been given preferential treatment. Bank officials in arrears are treated just like any other customer,” he said.

The comments came after a Revenue official clarified that it would be forcing bank officials, who are in serious mortgage arrears and looking to have their debts written off, to pay tax in relation to the amount being written off.

Mr Broderick said that the Revenue was creating an impression that it was going after bank workers who had received ‘sweetheart deals’.

“The impression they created is that bank officials are in huge difficulty and getting preferential and its not true,” he said.

Bank officials who received preferential rates will already have been taxed as a benefit in kind.

Revenue has said it will be looking at all criteria in relation to loans to see if bank employees receive preferential treatment when it comes to the writing off of debts.

“The legislative position is clear: Where an employee receives a benefit from their employer, it is subject to income tax. However, if it can be shown that the outcome of a writedown would be the same for an employee of a bank as it would be for the customers of a bank, Revenue will look at the writedowns on a case-by-case basis to determine if they are subject to income tax,” a Revenue spokesperson said.

It is understood that Revenue will be going beyond just looking at rates that bank officials received but also the amount of money both loaned and written off.