# PAYE tax certs mess



## legend99 (20 Feb 2006)

I know I and a few others have alluded to this accross other posts but just how much of a mess have revenue managed to make of the tax certs....they are running a month late and when I finally get mine I am now my mothers trustee and they have also switched myself and my wife so that she is now being assessed as the higher earner. They have assigned all the credits except my PAYE credit to her along with the 41k standard rate allowance. As she has no need for the extra credits/SRCOP as she doesn't earn that much it means that my next few weeks of pay cheques will be masively down. I know the small print is that it will get refunded but for feck sake, that will be months away judging by how far behind they are. The Sullivans Quay tax office in Cork has had the phone system crash a few times under the weight of phone complaints and the queues are the worst in ages according to the person I talked to. 
Anyone else had recent disaster with the new certs???


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## ClubMan (20 Feb 2006)

Is this a _Letting Off Steam _issue or are you looking for specific answers or advice?


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## bazermc (20 Feb 2006)

I work in tax and revenue drive me mad every day of the week...you just gotta accept they are idiots and there is not much you can do about it....
I would encourage people seeking refunds of overpaid paye due to medical expenses etc...to use their online service.
I got my refund in less than a week
check it out www.ros.ie


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## legend99 (20 Feb 2006)

ClubMan said:
			
		

> Is this a _Letting Off Steam _issue or are you looking for specific answers or advice?



A question...I wanted to see if others were having the same issue. Could be a letting off steam but I think its pretty tax specific.


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## ClubMan (20 Feb 2006)

bazermc said:
			
		

> I work in tax and revenue drive me mad every day of the week...you just gotta accept they are idiots and there is not much you can do about it....
> I would encourage people seeking refunds of overpaid paye due to medical expenses etc...to use their online service.
> I got my refund in less than a week
> check it out www.ros.ie


 _Revenue _are rolling out a new online system for the management of _PAYE_ issues (e.g. claiming credits/reliefs, correcting tax credits etc.) this Spring.


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## seánieboy (20 Feb 2006)

*paye notice of determination of tax credits*

Hello,
       Today i just received  my tax credits for the year in the post and all it had on it was


personal tax credit 1528 (which is wrong and should be 1630)
paye tax credit      1490

it didnt have any relief for the bin charges or my subscription for union so there should be 

                            384 (bin charges)
                              60 ( union fees)

extra on my tax credits i think maybe someone could tell me if im right or wrong 

the total for my tax credits is 3018 in total and i think this is wrong .

im a single man and on a gross income of 32500 

*tax credits are* *srcop*
                      yearly       monthly   weekly    yearly     monthly  weekly
                     3018           251.50    58.04      32000    2666.67   615.39

what can i do now if my personal tax credits ie the 1528 figure is wrong how do i get them to change it for me is it a big deal to get done


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## Meccano (20 Feb 2006)

My Tax Cert had only a 'Personal Tax Credit' of 1630 - no PAYE allowance, and absolutely none of the other allowances I'm due either.
The Revenue phone lines are perrmaneantly giving a recorded message saying -Sorry, call back some other time!!!
Meantime, just as I take on a new mortgage, my salary has been deducted 700 euro extra as a result!!


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## ACCK01 (21 Feb 2006)

First of all congratulations to you who have received a cert. I have received no TCC and rang Revenue and found out that my tax credits allocation is all wrong - I have no tax credits allocated to me this year at all - for some reason the information never carried over from '05 !!! The guy I spoke to one the phone said that as far as revenue were concerned I was not employed anywhere as I had no credits allocated to me. Payroll are using my '05 cert to calculate my pay. He manually fixed up my allocations for me but as it stands I still have no TTC.
From what I have heard the new system is in a wee bit of a mess!


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## legend99 (23 Feb 2006)

well I just managed to have my net pay more than halved thanks to my new wildly incorrect tax cert. i assume I'll get a new one sometime in may so until then its bread and water.
I also saw in the Examiner yesterday some story about the salaries section in the Dail sending a circular to employees warning about the impact to pay cheques for people whose new tax credits were madly different from last year.


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## ACCK01 (23 Feb 2006)

I would suggest ringing revenue and getting your credits fixed but getting through might be a bit of a problem. They won't automatically fix them up for you unless you ask them to though so you will need to ring them at some point. You could ask payroll to use your 05 tax credit cert until they get things sorted, that's what I did as I had no tax credits allocated to me at all.
Best of luck.


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## ClubMan (23 Feb 2006)

I would suggest writing to them as a better bet. Or waiting for them to roll out their new online _PAYE _management system.


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## miser (23 Feb 2006)

ClubMan said:
			
		

> I would suggest writing to them as a better bet. Or waiting for them to roll out their new online _PAYE _management system.


 
I'd have to disagree and say ringing is the better option- according to Gerard Harrahill, the Collector General, on the radio last night, they have double the number of telephone operators on at this time of year to deal with enquiries (over 200). My guess is that these people aren't just hired in from a temp agency but are Revenue employees who know something about the PAYE system. My second guess is that they've been redeployed from other Revenue work and will return to mountains of post whenever their time on the phones is over. Given the volume of calls due to the tax certs problems, they might end up spending longer doing phone support this year than in previous years. Hence the delay in getting to post could be even longer than usual...
Any time I've had to ring PAYE, the recorded voice has told me that they're currently dealing with correspondence received 6 weeks to two months previously. I've hung on (and hung on and on and on...) until I've gotten through to an operator, who could make any changes there and then.

As for the online PAYE system, I wouldn't hold my breath. The CG said last night it would be implemented in May '06, but given the history of IT in the Irish Civil Service (e.g. PPARS, Pulse), I wouldn't be confident of the deadline being met.


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## ClubMan (23 Feb 2006)

miser said:
			
		

> I'd have to disagree and say ringing is the better option


In my experience over several decades writing has always been more efficient than phoning.


> As for the online PAYE system, I wouldn't hold my breath. The CG said last night it would be implemented in May '06, but given the history of IT in the Irish Civil Service (e.g. PPARS, Pulse), I wouldn't be confident of the deadline being met.


The 2006 statements of tax credits promise this system for "Spring 2006".


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## RSMike (23 Feb 2006)

Revenue totally screwed up my PAYE tax in September last year, adding a huge BIK amount, that nobody could explain , (Oh they did try, but gave up when they realised I had an IQ and knew some basics about PAYE). They were even going to back date the funny BIK to January and effectively wipe out a whole months salary, i.e after tax I would effectively have got paid 0 in September and a reduced salary in October .

It took about two weeks of stress and telephone calls, to finally get them to agree it was a mistake, and they dropped it, luckily just in time so I got paid in September .

But guess what in January this year my months salary was down by about €500, For the new tax year the mysterious huge BIK amount had re-appeared .

This all happened before the new Tax Certs came out, but funnnily enough I did notice I was out of pocket by €500 in January! I suspected what had happened, Called my my contact in the Tax Offfice from the Sept debacle and they agreed immediately the same mistake was back, They fixed it and said I would get a revised Cert (even though I had no 2006 Cert yet)

Well that was about 3 weeks ago, when a cert finally arrived yestyerday it was still wrong and too late for February pay check, so I am down €500 again (and I just changed my car in January, and went over my budget!) , Ouch!

Back onto the tax office again, and they just have no idea why the corrected cert did not come through the system, because on their screens the huge BIK amount is gone . So, get this!, to try to force another re-issue of my Cert, they have to change something, so they do (small amount in my favour even though they know its not right!)

To be honest, I found the staff helpful, though you do have to work your way through a wall of goofballs before getting to someone who knows the Tax laws.  They also seem to be battling with one f*&ck*d up system.

Talking with my payroll guy at work today it seems like a load of people, have received screwed up certs this year, even basic stuff like personal tax credits, that are the same for everyone, are coming out wrong!

Somebody in Revenue needs there ass kicked big time! , if it was a private sector service company, they would be gone under long ago.

Well latest info from my payroll guy is he has revised figures for me that look correct (though i  did not receive them yet), so I should be able to look forward to a big poay check in March ( fingers crossed!)


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## Past30Now (24 Feb 2006)

I look after a number of companies for payroll.  The number of incorrect new tax certificates sent out has been unreal.  A lot of employees have gotten certificates with zero tax credits and cutoff.  I've given up trying to ring revenue.  I do find they react to emails quite well.

Past30


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## Technologist (24 Feb 2006)

RSMike said:
			
		

> They also seem to be battling with one f*&ck*d up system.
> ....
> Somebody in Revenue needs there ass kicked big time! , if it was a private sector service company, they would be gone under long ago.


The internal IT staffs' jobs are due to be relocated to Kildare, very few have applied to go there. So, the new system was out-sourced to the same *private sector *company that developed the *Pulse* system.The new online system depends on _Reach_ which is being developed by another *private sector* company. Reach is running well behind schedule.

Best bet is to persevere until you get to speak to a human in the tax office, they're doing the best they can in the circumstances. Minor changes such as Union Subs & Bin Charges can be done online or SMS & I've heard this is going OK.


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## asdfg (24 Feb 2006)

> 384 (bin charges)


 
Bin charges are allowed at the standard rate of 20%, subject to a max credit of 60.


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## z107 (24 Feb 2006)

> So, the new system was out-sourced to the same *private sector *company that developed the *Pulse* system.The new online system depends on _Reach_ which is being developed by another *private sector* company.



The problem is that there are still _*public sector*_ employees involved in decision making. The private sector company is probably laughing all the way to the bank.


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## Technologist (24 Feb 2006)

umop3p!sdn said:
			
		

> The problem is that there are still _*public sector*_ employees involved in decision making.


They've been told that no matter how hard they work or how successful the project is, they've no career prospects unless they move themselves and their families to Kildare.

But to keep on topic, the best thing for anybody badly affected to do is to keep trying to get through on the phone.


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## porterbray (25 Feb 2006)

The system isn't great, but to compare it to the PPARS isn't really accurate. The PPARs is a system that didn't work in the first place. The PAYE system is more or less overloaded. Email is probably the best way to get through to Revenue at the moment, as the phones are jammed. It might not be be much of a consolation to people affected (me included) but at least it will be sorted out for the next pay period and at the end of the day we won't actually lose out financially


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## Technologist (25 Feb 2006)

porterbray said:
			
		

> Email is probably the best way to get through to Revenue at the moment, as the phones are jammed.


Are you sure about e-mail? Most large organisations never respond to customer-service requests by e-mail. Does the inland Revenue have some kind of workflow or tracking system to make sure that the mails get to the right desk and are dealt with?


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## porterbray (25 Feb 2006)

Each Region/District in Revenue has a number of people assigned to deal with email (the number differs between districts) and if the task is relatively simple, like amending a tax credit or changing an address, then they will generally do it, rather than referring it on to another area or to a particular person


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## stuart (25 Feb 2006)

porterbray said:
			
		

> Each Region/District in Revenue has a number of people assigned to deal with email (the number differs between districts) ....then they will generally do it, rather than referring it on to another area or to a particular person


 
Surely there should be one practice for all districts if it was in any way an efficient organisation

I have emailed departments and been told they are printed and put with the other post to be done when it gets to the top of the pile, like any other post or faxes for that matter

I have had letters hand delivered for clients with the Tax Officers name on it and marked "urgent" and not gotten to them for 4 days 
And only after asking why it has not been inputted they went and got it

The tax office is probably going backwards with respect to the amount of work they get through and cannot see how any benchmarking (if gvien) should have been

They have had their phones on and off for the past four months to deal with one back log or another

And before anyone thinks I am just having a go as an accountant I worked for the tax office when I awas younger and had to get out as I had nothing to do from one week to the next

If you want anything done ring, ring, ring, only in the morhing mind you, and when you do get someone to answer do not get off the phone until you get what you want
Also get their name and where they are located

stuart@buyingtolet.ie


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## porterbray (26 Feb 2006)

with respect Stuart, I worked for Revenue until relatively recently, and you can be rest assured that noone is sitting in there from one week to the next with nothing to do. Those days are long gone. But I do agree that there should be a more uniformed approach to email within each District


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## legend99 (28 Feb 2006)

oh for Gods sake. I got my med1 expenses back but they made out the bloody cheque to my mother as my trustee so now i have to send the cheque back and God only knows how long it will take to get sorted!


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## matc66 (1 Mar 2006)

I rang my employer to see what tax credits they have for me, as I still have not recieved mine. Somehow my SRCOP has been reduced to 23000 and my tax credits to 2120.
I am recently married and have notified the revenue of this therefore my SCROP should be 41000 and my tax credits 3260 (with two incomes). The above mess will have a massive impact on my monthly pay check. 
We had arranged for joint assessment so I don't how they came out with the above figures, especially the 23000!
Also we would both earn above the SCROP.


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## matc66 (1 Mar 2006)

"If both of you have taxable income, you can decide which of you is to be the assessable spouse. You then ask the tax office to allocate the tax credits and standard rate cut-off point between you in whatever way you wish. (The PAYE tax credit, employment expenses and the increase in standard rate cut-off point of 23,000 euro are not transferable)." From oasis.gov.ie concerning married couples.
What do they mean when they refer to "the increase in SCROP of 23000 is not transferable"?


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## ClubMan (1 Mar 2006)

matc66 said:
			
		

> What do they mean when they refer to "the increase in SCROP of 23000 is not transferable"?


If the lower earning spouse earns less than €23K then any unused portion of the married/both spouses working _SRCOP _increase cannot be transferred back to the other spouse. It is "lost".


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## legend99 (2 Mar 2006)

matc66 said:
			
		

> I rang my employer to see what tax credits they have for me, as I still have not recieved mine. Somehow my SRCOP has been reduced to 23000 and my tax credits to 2120.
> I am recently married and have notified the revenue of this therefore my SCROP should be 41000 and my tax credits 3260 (with two incomes). The above mess will have a massive impact on my monthly pay check.
> We had arranged for joint assessment so I don't how they came out with the above figures, especially the 23000!
> Also we would both earn above the SCROP.



They did to you what they did to me. Last year my wife had the (well 2004 equivilent) of the 23k cut off and I had the 41k. This year they suddenly got reversed. My wife was delighted as she thought she'd be getting the tax benefit of the tax hit I took until i pointed out that she can't have a bigger net salary than gross!!! 
You will get the cash bacjk in the next cheque after they sort it.


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## heracles (3 Mar 2006)

bazermc said:
			
		

> I work in tax and revenue drive me mad every day of the week...you just gotta accept they are idiots and there is not much you can do about it....
> I would encourage people seeking refunds of overpaid paye due to medical expenses etc...to use their online service.
> I got my refund in less than a week
> check it out www.ros.ie


 
I tried this website but it appears to be only for business customers and not for PAYE taxpayers


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## heracles (3 Mar 2006)

ACCK01 said:
			
		

> I would suggest ringing revenue and getting your credits fixed but getting through might be a bit of a problem. They won't automatically fix them up for you unless you ask them to though so you will need to ring them at some point. You could ask payroll to use your 05 tax credit cert until they get things sorted, that's what I did as I had no tax credits allocated to me at all.
> Best of luck.


I ring revenue every year to sort out tax credit problems.  What about opting for separate taxation, as opposed to being taxed as a married couple.  Are there any implications involved in this because it would be a lot simpler!


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## Janet (3 Mar 2006)

heracles said:
			
		

> I tried this website but it appears to be only for business customers and not for PAYE taxpayers



The ROS website is not just for businesses and can be used by individuals for income tax returns (and possibly other things, but that's all I've ever used it for).  The PAYE offering of services is not due to go live until "spring 06" - technically speaking I suppose March is spring but I don't think it's live yet.


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## Satanta (3 Mar 2006)

Janet said:
			
		

> ...but I don't think it's live yet.


 
I spotted somewhere ([broken link removed]) on the reach website ([broken link removed]) a date of April/May.... which seems to suggest May as the proposed date for a full online PAYE service.


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## legend99 (3 Mar 2006)

heracles said:
			
		

> I ring revenue every year to sort out tax credit problems.  What about opting for separate taxation, as opposed to being taxed as a married couple.  Are there any implications involved in this because it would be a lot simpler!



potentially yes, depending on your earnings being assessed as two seperate people can cost you money.


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## MoMo (7 Mar 2006)

_"Email is probably the best way to get through to Revenue at the moment, as the phones are jammed."_

_I need to ask revenue something about my tax. They wont answer the phone number that the contact page gives. Does anyone know whether using the email address given is a good option and should I outline completely my query in it giving all my details etc.?

_


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## Satanta (7 Mar 2006)

Using the e-mail service will work, but it took about 3/4 working days (6 days split over a weekend) for them to reply. The guy was extremely helpful, tackling everything from my flat rate expenses (I've since sent copy of P60 directly to him to have last years amended) to apologizing profusely for the errors made.

This was in the height of the backlog so could be a little faster (or slower) now. Have to admit, I was close to calling as I wasn't sure had the mail been received, but the problems were corrected pretty fast and have to say the friendliest service I've received from Revenue to date.

I gave pretty full details of what I received and what I believed I should have received... including the questions on flat rates. All were addressed and corrected. If it relates to previous years you'll probably still have to provide previous details (P45s, P60s etc) but no harm trying to make contact with a quick mail.


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## tommyboy (19 May 2006)

I've been trying since February to get a Tax Certificate, tried on the online request etc. Eventually, when one hadn't arrived by April I queued for hours at the O'Connell Street - re-directed to Cathedral Street Office. Eventually when I got talking to a customer services staff member, I gave the relevant info, but received the wrong certificate in the post. Next time I rang, spoke to another customer services person, she said the correct cert would be sent out - when it did not arrive I again rang customer service and was told the cert had been passed for despatch, no idea, where it is but it has been amended, almost 3 weeks had elapsed. Another copy cert will be sent!!! The next day the new cert(the one that was missing) arrived, still wrong. In order to avoid the duplicate incorrect cert being sent out I again rang and again spoke to yet another customer service person. I pointed out that the cert was wrong but before anything was discussed I was cut off, his line went dead!!. I'm sure this was an accident. When I immediately tried to re-activate the call I got the automated response that as the office was very busy it would not be possible to talk to anyone personally. One personal visit, queuing for hours, and 4 phone calls later to 3 different staff members, 4 in all, I still have not received the correct Certificate. I hope the e-mail gets a better response. I thought the back-log would be cleared by now.


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## ClubMan (16 Dec 2006)

I see the _UK Inland Revenue_ are also at it!


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