It looks like a useful summary for the public on how to claim. When we completed it the other day, we thought it might form the basis for a useful information leaflet.
The other forms to which I wish to refer are the medical expenses claim forms — Med 1 and Med 2. The Med 1 form runs to four pages, of which two contain information and on one of which one's name and address is looked for. One make one's claim on one page. The Med 2 form is completed by the dentist in respect of qualifying dental expenses. There is no longer a requirement to send it to us. One simply keeps it in case we decide to do a spot check on one's claim. We also ask people to do this with their medical expenses receipts. We ensure a stock of Med 2 forms is available to and kept by and completed by dentists. Therefore, the branding of Form 12 and the Med 1 and 2 forms last week as barriers to the claiming of reliefs bemused us slightly.
Again referring to the matters inferred by the committee last week, there was mention of swift repayments. Contrary to the impression given, all repayments are prioritised. I was in one of our tax districts last week and the district manager told me he and his staff had been there after 6 p.m. on the Friday before Christmas signing off on repayment claims. We take such claims extremely seriously because we know people are waiting for the money to be paid to them. Repayments can be made directly into their bank accounts if they wish.
Providing for the claiming of relief at source is an initiative we have taken to circumvent the need to make claims to us. From 2001, we moved to a system of claiming tax relief at source in the case of mortgage interest and medical insurance premiums. This was facilitated by the relatively small number of intermediaries involved. Intermediaries can charge their customers the net amount taking into account the value of the tax relief which we refund to them.
As announced in the budget, starting this year, credit institutions will be allowed to operate DIRT-free accounts for the over 65s and those who are incapacitated. All age related credits and credits for trade union subscriptions will, as far as possible, be given automatically. We are also making arrangements to allow the amounts paid under the prescribed drugs refund scheme to be automatically refunded at the taxpayer's marginal rate of tax. For 2008, the plan is to move towards automatic repayments in respect of some hospital and other medical expenses. We are also looking at the question of nursing home payments.
We could describe our approach to pay as you earn taxpayers as "there is no need for claim forms for most credits". Therefore, any suggestion of one claim, one form seems like a retrograde step to us. Our philosophy regarding credits is that wherever possible one should claim once and keep it forever in order that our computer system will automatically carry forward the value of standard credits from one year to the next.
We operate self-assessment ethics. We assume people are honest and thus allow them to claim their dues. A small proportion of claims are checked. This is in line with international best practice and what we have been doing for the self-employed sector since the late 1980s. As I mentioned, very few pay as you earn tax returns — Form 12 — are issued by us.
We have also developed other prompting mechanisms. As I said, carrying reliefs forward automatically is the best way to prompt claims. However, we also automatically issue a claim form to anyone who has claimed relief for medical expenses above a limit of €1,000 because at that level the chances are he or she will have a further claim in subsequent years. The same happens with an elderly person claiming the DIRT exemption.
I mentioned already that claims for refunds are genuinely prioritised, as are requests to get people off emergency tax. We do not know when a person is on emergency tax until he or she tells us. Such persons are on the employer's payroll system, not on the Revenue computer system under emergency tax, but once we are informed we certainly take immediate steps to regularise the position.
On public information campaigns and advising people on how to claim what they are due, the starting point is that every year each of the 2.2 million PAYE taxpayers gets a tax credit certificate, which shows in detail what credits he or she has been given. We issue 2.5 million certificates because these days a substantial number of PAYE workers have more than one job. Everybody gets a short leaflet explaining all the standard credits available.
We encourage taxpayers to check the credits given against those available and to inform us if there is a credit which they are not getting to which they are entitled. We have phrased this over the years in many different ways — "Please read this" or "Reading this leaflet could save you money". We have tried every conceivable formulation.
One must bear in mind that the texting options for some of the credits basically boil down to the proposition that if one sends us a text, we will send back €60, €40 or whatever, and we still do not get the full take-up. The starting point is the information we send out with the tax credit certificates. The credit certificates for 2007 will be in the post in the next few days and we will have placed advertisements in newspapers and on the radio telling people about this.
We conduct public information campaigns from time to time. In 2006, we started when the chairman of the Revenue wrote to all those on our PAYE record telling them about the new ROS service, and during August and September we launched a nationwide campaign, which continued into October, to encourage uptake of health-type reliefs, the bin charge credit and rent relief. The response to the campaign has been encouraging and we are pulling the figures on that together at present. It is certain that we will be running similar campaigns in the future.
We produce a wide range of publicity booklets which can be found in our public offices and on the website. The leaflets and claim forms for medical and dental expenses are available in clinics, surgeries, pharmacies and the like. More limited information is available on teletext — that was mentioned at the committee last week.
Increasingly, the booklets and leaflets are becoming available in other languages or contain directions to where there are web versions of the text in other languages. The ROS letter issued by our chairman, for example, contained pointers to web-based information in Polish, Lithuanian and two dialects of Chinese. I was able to mention that yesterday to my barber when I was getting a hair cut. He is a Chinese chap who knows where I work. He told me that he felt he was due a refund and was not really comfortable using the telephone. I was able to point him in the direction of the self-service option and the Cantonese version of the information. We are actively recruiting Chinese staff and there are Polish staff in the office already.
Wherever it makes sense, we work through trade fairs, representative bodies and employers to get the message through. We visited 500 employers last year, most of whom operated large businesses. We would have spoken to their payroll staff and any employees in the businesses who wished to discuss their tax issues. Some 4,000 people visited our stand at the National Ploughing Championships in Carlow and there was considerable interest in our stand at the Construction Industry Federation Expo just before Christmas.
We participate in the Jobs Ireland workshops for people who are prospectively coming to Ireland to work and we try to give them the details of the tax system before they come here. We participate in The Irish Times business in education forum. The newspaper produces a pack, which is sent to secondary schools every year, and we include material about how the tax system works, what tax revenues are used for and how to claim entitlements.
However, despite our best efforts, everybody does not claim what is due, for which there are many reasons. People do not bother to claim amounts that, by today's standards, are small. Others are not comfortable with even the basic numeracy required to understand how tax is calculated while some people prefer to stay away from officialdom in general and the Revenue, in particular, and there is not much we can do about that. I assure taxpayers that if they seek what is due to them, we will allow claims without fuss. We have applied the self-service ethic and the presumption of honesty in our dealings with PAYE taxpayers. There is no question of us launching an investigation into a PAYE worker who claims what he or she is due. There is a small probability of a basic credibility check and, in a small number of cases, we seek the documentary evidence people are asked to retain.
We face many challenges in all areas of our work. There is a general recognition of our success in the area of anti-evasion and, from time to time, there is a concern that we do not have the same enthusiasm for customer service. However, we do and we have an ambitious programme to develop the PAYE service and market the PAYE self-service options. We will continue to ensure people claim what is due to them. We recognise that a number of people are uncomfortable using the telephone or Internet services and, as long as people wish to engage with us by post or in person, we will continue to provide those facilities for them with the personal service, courtesy and professionalism our frontline staff exhibit daily.
