17% of workers have only claimed tax refunds once in their life.
You could be due a sizable sum of cash and you might not even know it.
More than 50% of people do not claim tax reliefs and refunds every year, even though they could earn around €1,250 by doing so.
The statistic was published in the latest Taxpayer Sentiment Survey from Taxback.com.
Almost 8 in 10 workers are unaware of Flat Rate Expenses, a tax relief to offset costs of required equipment and uniforms for work.
17% of people said they’ve only ever claimed tax refunds once in their life, while 11% said they only do it “very sporadically”.
20% of workers either haven’t set up a Revenue online account, or aren’t aware of the service.
“It’s surprising, and somewhat alarming, to find that almost half of us are still not claiming back our tax refund at the end of the year,” said Barry Cahill, Director of Taxback.com’s Employee Financial Wellbeing Service.
“This figure should be much, much higher. However, the data speaks for itself – it’s clear that people remain uncertain, reticent, and/or unwilling to approach the topic of their taxes, often for fear of the process complicating their lives more.
“This is a misnomer we very much want to quash as, for the vast majority of people, we find that there is money owed to, not by, the taxpayer.
“Our discussions with employees showed that people are slow to act when it comes to tax.
“However, we have since submitted tax returns for thousands of workers who participated in the programme and the average refund amount received to date amounts to €1,250, with the highest individual refund being €7,400. This is a lot of money to be leaving in the hands of the taxman.
“Furthermore, the longer you leave it the less likely you are to apply at all, and you also run the risk of going past the 4-year deadline,” he concluded.
You can check which tax reliefs you’re entitled to via the Revenue website.
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