Revenue campaign to encourage taxpayers to claim reliefs

Taxpayers could be losing out on millions of euro by failing to claim a wide range of reliefs, particularly for health expenses and bin charges.

The Revenue Commissioners are launching a public information campaign aimed at encouraging two million taxpayers to avail of their entitlements.

John Leamy, assistant secretary with the Revenue, said yesterday the aim of the campaign is to raise awareness, via media advertisements, of the many reliefs available to taxpayers and encourage people to contact Revenue about those.

The Revenue can be contacted by phone, e-mail, post and Internet.

A mobile phone text service is also available under which the Revenue can provide tax credits within three days of a query, he said.

The Revenue deals with five million calls annually, he was satisfied queries were responded to efficiently and quickly and the system was user friendly, open and transparent, Mr Leamy said.

Until people made actual claims and had those assessed, it was impossible to say what amounts are going unclaimed, he added.

The Revenue campaign will focus on a number of benefits which the Irish Taxation Institute (ITI) believes account for millions of unclaimed euro each year.

These include medical benefits such as nursing home charges, non-routine medical and dental treatment and home carers credits.

A later information campaign will urge taxpayers to avail of allowances for bin charges, trade union subscriptions, rent payments, pension contributions and childminding costs.

Mr Leamy said the campaign is part of the Revenue's ongoing information campaigns and is unrelated to publication of an ITI survey last June which found that half of Irish taxpayers do not understand their tax entitlements, resulting in millions of euro being unclaimed every year, including an estimated €50 million in medical expenses.

Seventy two per cent of those surveyed said they wanted human contact, not the Internet, to answer their tax queries.

Mark Redmond, chief executive of the ITI, said the Revenue campaign, while welcome, may only highlight deep-rooted problems in the tax system.

He said the ITI was adopting a "wait and see" attitude to the Revenue campaign and again urged the appointment of a taxpayer advocate to protect taxpayers' rights.

Tax issues: likely unclaimed benefits

• Health expenses including:

- Nursing home charges

- Non-routine medical and

dental treatment

- Home carers credit

- Employment of in-home carer to

care for incapacitated relative

- Incapacitated Child Allowance

• Bin charges
• Trade union subscriptions
• Rent relief
• Age credits for over 65s
• Pension contributions
• Childminding reliefs (up to €10,000 for three children)