Are you owed income tax? €4 billion claimed back already from Revenue since 2010

Oh boy, have I got news for you! So, word on the grapevine (aka the national newspapers) is that you, yes YOU, could possibly maybe probably hopefully might be due a tax refund. Huzzah! Music to anyone's ears. But how? Well, according to Revenue, a whopping €4 billion (yes that’s a B) of income tax has been claimed back from them since 2010; and there’s plenty more where that came from!

How did this happen? So it turns out that us Irish are just so laid back that we barely noticed when we were due relief or weren’t assessed for tax properly. If your tax credits were not correctly applied, if you didn’t claim tax relief on health expenses, nursing home fees and other allowable expenses then it all starts to add up. If you changed job half way through the year and were not assessed in the right way, again, you could have been overpaying tax the whole time and adding to Revenue’s coffers!

Since the introduction of PAYE Modernisation in January 2019, these small errors are being picked up automatically as that’s literally what PAYE Modernisation was designed to tackle. Fortunately, you can claim any overpaid tax that was paid in the last 4 years. Be aware however, once the overpayments are gone - they’re gone. And when the underpayments are gone, they're gone too.

In fact, Revenue are actively encouraging employees to look at the income tax they’ve paid in the last 4 years and if you think you’ve overpaid, you can seek a refund from the Revenue by requesting a P21 Balancing Statement, which is available to all PAYE customers through their myAccount. The statement outlines:

• Your income from all sources
• A breakdown of your tax credits
• Any tax and Universal Social Charge you’ve paid throughout the year
• Any underpayments or overpayments of tax

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