Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I outlined the role the Revenue Commissioners play in ensuring as much information as possible is available to ordinary taxpayers and I recapped a number of points, some of which were made in detail on Committee Stage. The only reliable figures available on the amount of tax overpaid by PAYE taxpayers are the amounts repaid as a consequence of claims by taxpayers resulting in a review of their liabilities. It is not possible or reasonable to extrapolate from these an estimate of unclaimed overpayments by the PAYE population because claims or requests for review are, by definition, much more likely to come from those who know they have an entitlement to a relief, such as medical expenses, for which they have not claimed. There would be no basis for assuming that a similar proper proportion of all PAYE taxpayers have entitlements to repayment.

Drawing on that and from service providers and others outside Revenue would not improve Revenue's ability to measure the extent to which there are unclaimed overpayments by PAYE taxpayers. In general, Revenue cannot be aware of an overpayment in a particular case unless information vouching the overpayment is provided to it by the taxpayer. Consulting data from outside Revenue will not, of itself, stimulate taxpayers to claim what would otherwise be unclaimed entitlements.

There are cases where the number of claimants for tax relief based on expenditure incurred should be less than the total numbers incurring such costs. This would arise where potential claimants do not exceed the minimum thresholds for admissible claims, such as medical expenses, or are not able to avail of the tax reliefs due to insufficient income, for example.

In the circumstances, therefore, I cannot accept the amendments principally because there is no reason to believe either would assist, to any great extent, in identifying taxpayers who have not claimed their full entitlements.

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