Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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Question 142: To ask the Minister for Finance the number of pensioners who have recently been identified by the Revenue Commissioners as having previously underestimated tax liabilities, whose occupational pension source is the Paymaster General's Office; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2187/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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1The Paymaster General's Office, which is part of my Department, makes payments to 24,764 pensioners on an agency basis for the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, in the case of pensions charged to the Superannuation Vote or to the Central Fund, and for the Department of Education, in the case of retirees from the VECs whose pensions were formerly paid by the local authorities. At the start of each year, files of relevant information to enable the taxation of each pension for the new year are supplied electronically by the Revenue Commissioners and are uploaded electronically to the Paymaster General's system. The basis of taxation for each pensioner is a matter for the pensioner/taxpayer concerned and the Revenue Commissioners, who may have had regard also to other sources of information.

Pension providers are only supplied with sufficient information to enable them to calculate the amount of tax due on pensions and are not privy to the details of the individual elements that make up a person's tax credit and other entitlements which are confidential matters between Revenue and the pensioner. In the circumstances, the Paymaster General's Office is not in a position to determine the basis for the taxation information supplied by Revenue.