asked the Minister for Finance the reasons a tax-free allowance certificate has not been issued to a person (details supplied) in County Offaly.
Written Answers. - Tax Free Allowance Certificate.
337.
A certificate of tax-free allowance for 1979-80 was issued recently to the person for whom details have been supplied. The delay which occurred stemmed from the recent postal dispute and is much regretted.
The person mentioned first applied for the certificate on 8 March 1979, when she called to the Athlone tax office. As her husband's tax affairs were dealt with in Dublin, it was not possible, owing to the postal strike, to ascertain what balance of tax-free allowances was available for use in connection with her income, until September 1979. At that stage a large accumulation of arrears had built up in the Athlone tax district in consequence of the strike and the information received from the Dublin office could not be acted on until recently.
In reply to Question No. 338 on today's Order Paper I have given details of the steps which have been taken to deal with arrears of PAYE work in the Athlone tax office.
338.
asked the Minister for Finance the steps, if any, he proposes to take to rectify the backlog in the issuing of tax free certificates by the Athlone district office, County Westmeath, and if he will arrange to have extra staff allocated to that office.
Following the settlement of the postal strike a substantial accumulation of arrears developed in income tax offices throughout the country. The arrears in certain districts, including Athlone, became particularly acute.
The following steps have been taken to deal with the situation in the PAYE section of the Athlone office: (a) overtime has been worked since 24 September 1979 and is continuing; (b) as from 13 November 1979, ten heads of staff have been temporarily transferred from other sections of the Athlone office to help in the PAYE section and this number has been increased by a further four as from 26 November 1979; and (c) certain modifications in PAYE procedures have been adopted and the carrying out of certain other work has been deferred to enable the maximum number of staff to be devoted to clearance of the arrears.
It is hoped that these measures will enable the PAYE arrears to be overtaken early in the new year.