Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I understand that Revenue contacts PAYE taxpayers to remind them that there is a four-year time limit for claiming additional tax credits and reliefs. In late 2017, Revenue issued 135,188 letters to all PAYE taxpayers who had not claimed additional credits or reliefs from 2013 to 2017, reminding them that they may be entitled to make claims on or before 31 December 2017. An additional 291 claims were made for the home carer tax credit, 570 for the age tax credit and 746 for tuition fees. On 1 November of this year 125,000 letters concerning this matter were issued. The Revenue Commissioners pre-populate the annual tax returns of self-assessed taxpayers with the home carer tax credit where it was claimed in the previous year. Revenue automatically grants the home carer tax credit and the age tax credit where it can identify eligible people whose circumstances would indicate that they would benefit from the credit or, more particularly, are eligible for it. The Revenue Commissioners put in a lot of effort to ensure that taxpayers are aware of the reliefs and support they would be able to access. I will encourage the Revenue Commissioners to continue this work, and for this reason I ask the Deputy to withdraw the amendment.

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