Public sector employees are far more likely to claim tax refunds than their counterparts in the private sector.
That’s according to the latest Customer Index from Taxback.com, which revealed that state and semi-state employees appeared to be far more proactive in claiming tax refunds than Irish people working in the private sector.
Included in a selection of the top employers of claimants were the HSE, Iarnród Éireann, the Department of Defence, An Post and the Department of Justice.
Retail sales workers were the most likely employees to claim tax refunds, followed by female nurses and engineers.
The Taxback.com Customer Index broke down the industries most likely to avail of tax refunds and the specific occupations within those industries where the most substantial number of claims had been made (see below).
Barry Flanagan, Senior Tax Manager at www.taxback.com, described the process of claiming tax back as a “very worthwhile pursuit,” with the typical claimant gaining up to €1,000 as a result.
Top 5 Industries
- Trade & Business: 21% of refunds
- Med & Pharma: 14% of refunds
- Hotel: 11% of refunds
- Engineering/ Electrical: 10% of refunds
- IT: 6% of refunds
Top occupation in each of the top 5 industries
- Trade & Business: Retail sales
- Med & Pharma: Female nurse
- Engineering/electrical: Engineer
- Hotel: Chef
- IT: Manager
Of the top five industries claiming refunds, meanwhile, the Taxback.com Index revealed the following county breakdown.
- Dublin: 30%
- Cork: 12%
- Galway: 6%
- Kilkenny: 5%
- Tipperary: 4%
- Limerick: 4%
- Wexford: 4%
- Wicklow: 4%
- Waterford: 3%
- Kerry: 3%
- Clare: 3%
- Louth: 3%
- Mayo: 3%
- Offaly: 3%
- Cavan: 2%
- Laois: 2%
- Carlow: 2%
- Roscommon: 2%
- Longford: 2%
- Sligo: 1%
- Monaghan: 1%
- Leitrim: 1%
Commenting on the findings, Barry Flanagan said: “From our assessment of customer activity it appears that those working for public sector employers appear to be more proactive in claiming back tax than those in the private sector. It’s unclear as to why exactly this is but possibly it’s just the case that there is greater awareness of tax reliefs etc. in these workplaces.
“Ideally, we would like to see many more of their private sector counterparts following suit. It is invariably a very worthwhile pursuit, with the typical claimant gaining up to €1,000.”
“It is always enlightening to run our client index analysis as it gives us a greater understanding of who is most likely to go through their receipts to see if they can extract some money from them and possibly some greater insight into why some people claim and some don’t,” Flanagan added.
For more information, check out Taxback.com.
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