Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
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Question 67: To ask the Minister for Finance his views on the statement by the chairman of the Revenue Commissioners that only one in five tax payers have claimed tax relief to date in 2006 and that taxpayers could be losing as much as €100 million due to them in tax relief; if the Government has proposals to address same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39221/06]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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It is presumed that the Deputy is referring to the statements made by the Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners (Mr. Frank Daly) to the Committee of Public Accounts when he appeared before it on November 9th 2006.

As the record of the PAC clearly indicates, Mr Daly made no reference to one in five taxpayers claiming tax relief to date in 2006. In response to questions from the Chairman of the PAC on the amount of money that may be owed to taxpayers and a suggestion that, in the case of PAYE taxpayers, large amounts are not owed in individual cases, Mr. Daly gave the following information to the committee. He said that Revenue had made a total of 485,000 repayments up to the end of October, 2006 involving an amount of €353 million. He said that this was the factual situation in relation to what was claimed and repaid and that it was difficult to speculate about what more might be reclaimable. Mr. Daly said he was reluctant to put a figure on what had not been claimed but repeated the figure of €353 million claimed to the end of October, 2006 and gave the comparable figures for 2004 and 2003 which were €325 million and €295 million respectively. Mr. Daly suggested that to say that there is almost the same amount unclaimed as has been repaid would be overstating it but perhaps there is a further €100M unclaimed.

The figures quoted by the Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners clearly show that taxpayers are becoming more aware of their entitlements and, as a consequence, the number of repayment claims and the amounts being repaid are increasing year on year.

During August, September and October this year Revenue ran a high profile campaign to encourage taxpayers to claim the reliefs to which they are entitled. This campaign involved advertisements on radio, bus shelters, the DART and the Luas. Also there is a continuing campaign of placing leaflets and claim forms in clinics, doctors' surgeries and pharmacies to encourage take-up of the relief available for medical expenses. There has been a positive outcome to this campaign which is shown in a significant increase in the number of people contacting Revenue and claiming entitlements particularly in relation trade union subscriptions, bin charges and age, rent, home carers and dependent relative credits. There are preliminary indications that claims for some of these reliefs have more than doubled following the Revenue campaign. It is expected that the campaign will also lead to an increase in the number of claims in relation to health expenses at the end of this year and early in the New Year when the majority of these claims are normally made.

The Tax Credit Certificate sent to each PAYE taxpayer at the beginning of the tax year is accompanied by a detailed leaflet setting out a wide range of information in relation to:

Main personal tax credits available for the year in question with comparative figures for the preceding year

Tax rates and tax bands for the year in question

Exemption limits for single, widowed and married persons

How to claim an adjustment to the Tax Credit Certificate.

Revenue's website provides easy-to-access customer service information on the full range of reliefs available to taxpayers together with a range of claim forms for download and completion. The homepage on the website also contains a "What's New" section where Revenue alerts customers to timely items of interest.

The website also has detailed information to direct customers to the appropriate contact point should they wish to phone, call, write, email or fax.

In addition, in May 2006 Revenue introduced a full Internet service for PAYE customers, which allows them access their Revenue records over the Internet, review their liability and to claim or amend their tax credit details. A leaflet giving details of how to access this new "Self-Service" option was sent to every PAYE taxpayer in the country.