Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 122: To ask the Minister for Finance if there have been an unusually high number of errors in tax credit statements in 2006; the reason for these errors; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8487/06]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the overall percentage of incorrect tax credit certificates, TCCs, that issued in 2006 was relatively small. Where errors have arisen these have now been corrected and employers have been notified of the revised credits due for the majority of affected employees. Any remaining amended notices will have issued to employers by the end of this week. Amended TCCs are issuing to employees as part of this process and their entitlements will be backdated to the start of the year.

Given the scale of the operation, which involves 2.2 million certificates, it is inevitable that a small proportion of TCCs will be incorrect and will have to be revised. This year the new PAYE computer system, put in place by Revenue last October, gave rise to some additional problems with incorrect TCCs, but the overall percentage of incorrect cases remained relatively small.

Later this year Revenue intends to introduce an on-line service for PAYE taxpayers and to expand the range of other self-service and telephony options for this category of taxpayers. These initiatives will facilitate PAYE taxpayers in self-managing their tax affairs including adjusting their TCCs to reflect their correct entitlements.