Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

I support the amendment. What would the situation be if the reverse was true and taxpayers were granted all existing tax reliefs which had to be claimed back by Revenue? I suspect systems would be in place which would find out fairly quickly the money due to the State. The onus is placed on the taxpayer to make themselves aware of reliefs available, how he or she can benefit and the type of row back on those benefits. That says something about the psychology of taxation and the role of the taxpayer in the equation.

The Department of Finance regularly misreads the sums of tax expected in a given year and surprise is expressed in regard to how wrong the sums can be in favour of the Minister and the Exchequer. The reason the sum is wrong is due to two factors. One factor is the failure to properly index link the bands and credits and I suspect the other factor, on which we need information, is the failure of taxpayers to properly apply reliefs available to them.

Going through the three volume report recently produced on property based and other forms of tax reliefs, one will see an industry of accountants exists whose sole purpose in life is to ensure there are people in our society who end up paying little, if any, tax. That the ordinary taxpayer must find out what his or her entitlements are without recourse to such professional advice shows the injustice as well as the imbalance in our taxation system.

I fully concur with the view that the Office of the Ombudsman or an independently established tax ombudsman or a tax advocate office should be established. There is a need for someone with the resources of the State to act as an arbiter in dealings with other agencies of the State and in decisions on whether tax is being collected fairly. Given that the Comptroller and Auditor General's role is to ensure tax money is spent fairly, there is a lacuna in terms of the offices and services available to the taxpayer.

Given the length of time taxpayers who overpay or who have not fully availed of tax reliefs must wait for a refund, the restrictive terms applied to those seeking such refunds, the obvious imbalance in terms of how the Revenue Commissioners tend to seek underpayments from taxpayers as well as the availability of large tax reliefs to those who have the resources to buy the professional expertise to help them avoid paying any tax to the State, this is a fair amendment which should be considered positively. The amendment was not considered positively on Committee Stage and I suspect we will go through the same routine we will go through with several other amendments until the conclusion of Report Stage at 11 p.m.

See this speech in context