REVENUE HANDLING OF PENSIONERS SHOWS GROSS INSENSITIVITY - HUMPHREYS

STATEMENT BY CLLR RICHARD HUMPHREYS

Labour Party Councillor for Stillorgan

Wednesday, 11 January 2012

REVENUE HANDLING OF PENSIONERS SHOWS GROSS INSENSITIVITY - HUMPHREYS

Cllr Richard Humphreys, the Labour Party Councillor for the Stillorgan Ward, has said that the recent letters issued by the Revenue Commissioners to pensioners in relation to their tax affairs showed gross insensitivity and that lessons had to be learned from the fiasco.

“A number of these letters were addressed to constituents of mine who had declared their social welfare pensions in their tax return.  Despite this, the letters stated outright that “the amount we hold on our records for your Department of Social Protection pension was understated”, a wording which I find totally unacceptable and insensitive.” Humphreys said.

“This wording clearly raises the potential and indeed probably unintended inference that the pension amounts had been actively understated by the taxpayer” Humphreys said.  “In other words, the letters can be reasonably read as an allegation of fraud by the recipients.  This is a totally unacceptable situation and shows serious disrespect by Revenue to the law-abiding taxpayers who have complied fully with their legal obligations.”

“Some commentators have dismissed the affair on the basis that the letter was merely a warning that customers “might have an additional tax liability” as one of them put it.  If this had been the wording of the letter, then I think a lot of the heat could have been taken out of the situation.  But the facts were otherwise – there was no “might” about the bureaucratic and unambiguous terms of this regrettable letter.”

“Other commentators have suggested that the incident is simply one about the duty of all citizens to pay tax.  But that is to fail spectacularly to see the point.  Of course citizens are obliged to pay lawfully imposed taxes and charges for which they are liable – and those who say or do otherwise, such as the irresponsible politicians who call for boycott of lawful charges, are attempting to be parasites on society by shirking their own fair share.  The other side of the coin is that those who do comply with the law and pay their due taxes deserve to be treated with respect by the system.  The issue at stake in the Revenue’s letter is that in this respect, Revenue have let law abiding pensioners down.” Humphreys said.

Ends