Skip to main content
Normal View

Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 3 Apr 2001

Vol. 533 No. 6

Written Answers. - Tax Credit Certificates.

Proinsias De Rossa

Question:

81 Proinsias De Rossa asked the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to the difficulties being experienced by many taxpayers in interpreting their tax free certificates due to the introduction of tax credits and the changeover to the calendar years; if his attention has further been drawn to reports that the Revenue Commissioners cannot cope with the number of queries they are receiving; if additional resources will be provided to the Revenue Commissioners to allow them deal with the level of queries; if he will consider a public information campaign to assist taxpayers in understanding their certificates; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9732/01]

The Revenue Commissioners are making every effort to explain the changes in the tax system to PAYE taxpayers and to employers.

Each year at this time the Revenue Commissioners issue notices of tax reliefs to every employee in the country. This year more than two million notices were issued. Although full details are not available, the Revenue Commissioners report that the volume of business in PAYE tax offices is running at roughly last year's levels. Direct contacts with taxpayers in tax offices or on the telephone are taking up slightly more time than last year. This is to be expected but there is some evidence that the postal queries are slightly down in number.

As is normal at this time of year all tax offices throughout the country assign the maximum possible number of staff to answering telephone calls and to dealing with personal callers. Bearing in mind the huge seasonal peak in the volume of business, it is inevitable that some difficulties will be experienced at certain times by taxpayers trying to make telephone contact with tax offices. Trained staff are now devoted to dealing with queries on the new system. I pay tribute to the tremendous work being done by the Revenue Commissioners' PAYE staff at present. As usual, they are displaying their professionalism and expertise to great effect.

As regards resources generally, I have approved a significant increase in resources over the past year or so and these are being put in place. On the question of publicity, the Revenue Commissioners have produced a detailed explanatory leaflet for employees, which contains a considerable amount of information to explain the changes in the system. This leaflet was sent to each employee and assessable spouse, in the case of jointly assessed couples. Employees seeking to understand the changes will undoubtedly need to take some time to read the leaflet carefully and, of course, can contact their local PAYE tax office if they have queries. The Revenue Commissioners have also placed a major advertisement in one of the Sunday newspapers to deal with frequently asked questions about the changes.

In addition, a video and CD-ROM have also been produced explaining the changes necessary in payroll systems. They have issued this to all employers to ensure that they deduct the correct tax from employees from 6 April next.

The completion of the tax credits system represents a significant change and initially some members of the public may well experience difficulty in coming to grips with the new arrangements. However, I have no doubt that once the public gets used to the system they will recognise it as a major improvement and a fairer system.

Top
Share