asked the Minister for Finance if in the interests of the national economy he will ensure that when a taxpayer changes his employment or his house, or a woman changes her name, that a system will be devised to remove the names from his Department's files and thereby save postage and the cost of forms and so on; and if he will state the number of tax forms that are issued every year.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Tax Forms Issue.
41.
Where a change of employment, address or name is notified to the inspector of taxes the relevant records in his office are changed without delay. In a large number of cases, however, cessation of employment, or changes of address are not notified promptly and this, unfortunately, leads to the unnecessary issue of forms.
The annual issue of return forms and certificates of tax-free allowances, including amended certificates, is about three million.
Although I have had a number of complaints in this regard, a case I should like to raise, by way of example, relates to my own family. My son was employed in a temporary capacity about four years ago during a summer holiday period and, although he has been in America since then, the Revenue Commissioners continue to send forms to him to our address although they are returned on each occasion indicating that he is not now resident at that address.
I can understand the difficulty to which the Deputy refers but the PAYE regulations require employers to notify the inspector of taxes of the cessation of employment. Unfortunately, such notifications are not received in many cases particularly in relation to employers of a small number of people. Likewise, the taxpayers who may complain about receiving these notices themselves do not notify the Revenue Commissioners of changes in their circumstances. If there were more frequent exchanges of information, many of these difficulties could be avoided.
If an envelope is returned indicating that the person is no longer resident at that address surely that is sufficient notification to the Revenue Commissioners.
Not necessarily so. One could easily arrange for the return of a letter without regard to the presence or otherwise of the taxpayer in question. If employees are irritated by the receipt of these notices which are not relevant, all they need do is notify the inspector of taxes of their own circumstances.
(Dublin Central): The majority of them go into the dustbin if they are not relevant.
If people decide to throw them in the dustbin rather than to communicate with the Revenue Commissioners, they can hardly complain if the Revenue Commissioners have not got precise information.