€1.4m in tax refunds for schools in receipt of charitable donations

Tax refunds of €1.4m were made to schools in 2012 based on donations from parents or other donors, but they were 30% lower than the previous year.

Revenue figures reveal that the 140 schools involved received qualifying charitable donations from PAYE workers worth €2.35m, resulting in the refunds totalling €1.37m.

One school received a refund of €72,370.52 in 2012, based on donations of over €116,330. Another nine schools had donations of between €54,000 and €95,000 which qualified them for tax refunds of €31,267 to €55,684.

The smallest refunds made in 2012 included those to eight schools which got back less than €500 each.

Schools are approved bodies under the tax relief scheme which allows charities to claim the tax relief due on donations from PAYE workers.

Revenue refunds may be in respect of donations made in any of the previous four years, but the 2012 total represents a significant fall on declared refunds for 2011, when 171 schools benefited. They declared total donations of €3.4m which resulted in refunds worth €1.96m and the drop could be a sign of fewer parents being able to afford donations, or making smaller contributions.

The total refunds in 2011 included €540,000 repaid to just 14 schools — an average €38,500 each — in two south Co Dublin local authority areas. The 10 schools with the biggest refunds in 2012 include seven in Dublin which got repayments of €337,075 (an average €48,000 each) and three from elsewhere refunded €118,762, or almost €40,000 on average.

The average refund to all 77 Dublin schools in 2012 was over €12,000, compared to €6,917 for 63 other schools. With most of the country’s 56 fee-paying second-level schools in the capital, and particularly south Dublin, the figures suggest taxpayers may be subsidising their operation well beyond the payment of teachers’ salaries.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn supports the Labour Party policy to phase out Department of Education subsidies of fee-paying schools and has increased their pupil-teacher ratios more than those of other schools since taking office. This has contributed to the cost to taxpayers of teachers’ salaries in these schools falling by 11% to €97m, along with falling enrolments, but associated PRSI and other staff costs funded by the department brought their public funding to €115m last year.

The tax relief figures, reported by RTÉ News yesterday, do not include donations, or associated refunds, to schools from self- employed workers or businesses, as these are covered by separate relief schemes.