State owes PAYE workers €3bn in overpaid tax, says FG

TAXPAYERS could be owed up to €3 billion in overpaid taxes by Revenue, it was claimed yesterday.

Fine Gael said it had uncovered Revenue figures which showed the true extent to which PAYE taxpayers had been “short-changed” by the State.

According to the party, only 17% of taxpayers sought balancing statements from the Revue on their tax liability in 2003. Over three-quarters of that group were found to be entitled to a refund for overpayment of tax amounting to over €300 million.

Extrapolating the figures, the party says that if all taxpayers had sought balancing statements, Revenue would have had to pay out €1.3bn for 2003 alone.

Fine Gael yesterday said that overpaid taxes also presented a problem in 2001 and 2002. In total, the State may owe taxpayers €3bn.

Commenting on the figures, Fine Gael’s enterprise spokesman Phil Hogan said the onus was now on Revenue to come forward with a full and frank voluntary disclosure of all the PAYE owed to the public.

“This is a national disgrace and represents an astounding double standard at the heart of Government in Ireland,” he said.

He also called on Finance Minister Brian Cowen to issue a full apology to PAYE taxpayers for such shoddy treatment, and to make a commitment to implement a no-quibble response by the Revenue to affected taxpayers.

Mr Hogan also claimed the Government had introduced a new law on December 31 that had limited the public right to claim back overpaid tax.

He called on the minister to rescind this law immediately and to offer the public every assistance in seeking repayments.

“The Government must have known there was this huge potential liability to PAYE taxpayers given that it introduced legislation to limit the repayment of overpaid tax,” he said.