State must get Revenue in order

HOW often have we heard the Revenue Commissioners warn people who evade their legal tax obligations to the State that tomorrow is the deadline for regularising their affairs?

Usually, such edicts are accompanied by dire threats that the penalties for not coughing up the money would greatly exceed the tax that the people should have paid in the first place.

When it suits, however, the State invariably abandons the principle of legal entitlement. Whenever a question arises of the Revenue repaying money which it owes to taxpayers, cynical double-standards come into play.

A classic case of blatant hypocrisy on the part of the Revenue Commissioners has again been put under the full glare of the spotlight by Ombudsman Kevin

Murphy. His trenchant criticism of the taxman for

refusing to compensate 12 public service widows who had paid too much tax is entirely warranted.

Reminding the Dáil’s Finance Committee of the

intricacies of this long-running case yesterday, the

Ombudsman made it clear that the Revenue accept that the widows and other taxpayers had been sent tax bills above what they were obliged to pay. The crux is that despite their willingness to refund the amount

overcharged, they have refused to pay a jot of interest on the money.

The stubborn resistance of the commissioners on the vexed issue of compensating people overcharged on

income tax is by no means a new phenomenon. In some instances the interest debts date back to the ’80s.

Nor is it the first time the Ombudsman has felt obliged to complain publicly about this Scrooge-like stance. If anything, however, it appears that since the controversy first came into the public domain last year the attitude of the Revenue has hardened.

Adopting such callous tactics towards widows, who rank among the most vulnerable in society, will do little to enhance the image of the Revenue in the eyes of a public whose view of the taxman has, to say the least, been jaundiced by experience.

Presumably, the commissioners are digging in their heels in order to avoid creating a precedent that could open the door for a flood of demands from others who have been similarly overcharged.

Such reasoning is skewed and provides a revealing

insight into the philosophy of a regime widely perceived as hounding people in the PAYE sector, while turning a blind eye to the illegal tax activities of prominent figures in the past for fear of rocking the boat.

By steadfastly refusing to pay out what the widows are plainly owed, the commissioners stand accused of

making a direct and unprecedented challenge to the

authority of the Ombudsman’s office.

Their persistent rejection of Mr Murphy’s recommendations makes a mockery of the much-vaunted “charter of rights” trumpeted in a PR exercise as heralding a new era of integrity, efficiency and fairness.

The taxman claims there is no specific statutory

power enabling them to pay compensation. But

Mr Murphy believes this policy misrepresents the legal

position surrounding compensation.

It is unconscionable that a situation has been allowed to fester where the rights of needy widows are blatantly denied. The sooner Taoiseach Bertie Ahern directs

Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy to remedy this grave injustice the better.

It is unbelievable and utterly unacceptable that the State should so shamefully avoid its obligations to pay people their rightful dues.