Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 December 2013
100. Deputy Terence Flanagan asked the Minister for Finance the amount of under-claimed tax reliefs and tax rebates due to taxpayers that have not been claimed over the past five years and estimated for 2013; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54964/13]
View answerI am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that claims for tax refunds and tax relief’s can be made in respect of the previous four tax years. Currently, taxpayers can make claims for tax years 2009 onwards although all claims for 2009 must be received by Revenue by 31 December 2013.
It is not possible to quantify tax credits or tax reliefs that are unclaimed because, by their nature, Revenue has not received a claim and therefore has no supporting data on which to base an estimate.
By way of information I am advised that in 2012, Revenue carried out almost 1.1m PAYE employee reviews and refunded about €408m in tax. However the Deputy should also note that the general trend in the past number of years is a decrease in personal tax refunds as the underlying reason for repayments, which is unclaimed tax credits, is reducing in line with the reduction in the number of available tax credits.
