Revenue reminder over €9.8m tax refunds
Revenue owes about €9.8m for tax refunds but cannot pay out because the claimants provided the wrong or no bank details, according to Chartered Accountants Ireland, writes
The accountants’ industry body said Revenue had said it was eager to make the repayments but that claimants would nonetheless have to “reactivate” their claims by contacting Revenue at their respective tax districts.
Many of the successful but unpaid claims for refunds will likely have been made by self-employed taxpayers.
“At a recent Talc (Tax Advisory Liaison Committee) meeting, Revenue told us that due to missing nominated bank account details for income tax refunds for mandatory e-filing cases, 4,300 refunds for 2015 (€6.4m) and 1,800 refunds for 2016 (€3.4m) have been cancelled. These refunds need to be re-activated,” said Chartered Accountants Ireland.
It said the bank details need to be put on record, and there needed to be contact with the tax district to get the refund restarted, warning that putting the bank details on now will not restart the refund.
A Revenue spokeswoman told the Irish Examiner it had raised the issue with tax practitioners to help their clients and Revenue to make the tax refunds and repayments on time.
“Revenue is particularly anxious to ensure that all taxpayers who are entitled to tax refunds-repayments receive them as quickly as possible. Revenue raised this issue at a recent meeting of Talc and requested that tax practitioners issue a reminder to their members, in order to facilitate their clients and Revenue in having tax refunds-repayments processed in a timely manner,” said the spokeswoman.”
