€100m in overpaid taxes unclaimed, says revenue

OVER €100 million is lying unclaimed because tax payers are unaware of the full range of tax reliefs.

The Revenue Commissioners yesterday launched a €400,000 public awareness campaign to run over the next few weeks to remind the country’s €1.8 million taxpayers that many of them may not be claiming their correct entitlements.

Although the tax authorities claim it is impossible to estimate how much tax is overpaid, it is believed the figure could run to over €100m and perhaps more.

“It really is hard to calculate how much is not being claimed. We don’t have the information to make an official estimate,” said a Revenue spokesperson.

She also stressed that the purpose of the campaign is to inform people of their entitlements and was not an exercise to place the financial affairs of claimants under scrutiny.

Taxpayers will be reminded that they will be able to claim back overpaid tax for the previous four years, although some proof may be required from people making retrospective claims.

The first half of the public campaign, which will run until September 8, will remind taxpayers about the range of reliefs available on health-related expenses.

The second half of the campaign, which runs between September 25 and October 6, will focus on several other types of reliefs and credits often left unclaimed by taxpayers.

These include reliefs and allowances available for bin charges, trade union dues, rental income, age tax credits and DIRT relief for people over 65.

However, the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAI) has questioned whether the Revenue’s campaign will be a success, based on past experience of dealing with the tax authorities.

“It is the case that many taxpayers may not be getting their entitlements because of the difficulties they experience in dealing with Revenue,” said an ICAI spokesperson. He claimed many Revenue offices are often uncontactable by phone for weeks at a time, while there are also regular delays in dealing with correspondence and the issuing of tax credit certificates.

“Revenue need to improve their customer service standards and ethos if compliant taxpayers are to get a fair deal,” he added.

The Irish Taxation Institute (ITI) also gave the new public awareness campaign a cautious welcome.

A recent ITI survey highlighted how millions of euro are left unclaimed each year due to the lack of general knowledge among taxpayers about reliefs and allowances.

Research showed that 50% of PAYE taxpayers do not understand their entitlements.

The survey also revealed that three out of four taxpayers believe that Vehicle Registration Tax, stamp duty on property, the standard rate of tax and tax on credit/debit cards are unfair.

While the Revenue campaign is welcome, ITI chief executive, Mark Redmond, also warned that it could merely serve to highlight much more deep-rooted problems within the service.

“Any attempt to highlight unclaimed entitlements is welcome but the response must involve more than shifting all the responsibility back to the taxpayer,” said Mr Redmond.

A Revenue spokesperson accepted that callers could face difficulty in contacting tax officials during peak times of the year.

However, she said that the tax authorities still handled over 5.2 million phone calls from the public in 2005.