Revenue outreach events for the over 65s

Good to see. Two Transition Year students and I have been advising the elderly and more on how to register and fill in tax information online for PAYE obligations for over the past two years at local “seminars” and at our own expense. Nice to see Revenue is “joining” our thinking and with more items. I can see some fear amongst the over 65’s in having to officially register beforehand. But, good to see Revenue being pro active.
 
This is absolutely the right way to go. In other European countries this is what happens. But it's not age restricted. You can pop along around the time of the tax deadlines and people will help you fill in the returns. You bring your paperwork and your tax form and they show you where to put in the different figures.

Why is there an assumption that it's only people over 65 need help with their tax returns. I know many people can't understand their pay slip never mind their annual P60 or whatever it's called.

Very odd it's mainly Dublin and then Donegal and Louth? Why on earth would it be those areas. Cork, Limerick, Sligo, Waterford with large populations would seem more logical.
 
Last edited:
That's very good of you Leper. Giving something back. Here I'm not sure if it's volunteers or not but it's run in local town hall type places (like a country council building) but also in the government offices like the pension or tax office. But it's all official.

And yes it's good revenue are finally starting to do something.
 
Thanks Bronte, I don't look at it as giving something back, but many people (not just the elderly*) have difficulty in processing even simple personal information. I know it's vital to have the user confirmed (usually through a text from Revenue) but many have difficulty understanding this. I rented a room in a GAA club (I have affiliation with another GAA club which wouldn't rent me the facility) and with the help of a non national TY student we processed many applications there and then. The GAA club refunded my money in full and asked me to run further similiar seminars which I did and continue to do. Incidentally, my own GAA club want the service too. But, the stars of the show are/were the TY students. They were/are excellent and humorous and pretty fast on the keyboards.

*Even I have difficulty defining "elderly" - Perhaps I should have used "Middle-Age?"

I hasten to add that the seminars were live and only touched completing the tax form online. No further tax advice was given. For the record it was my own tax claim that was projected onto the wall. As a side issue I never saw so many people taking fast notes. And the questions and answers sessions were informative and entertaining too eg How does the system know how much my Old Age Contributory Pension is?
 
Wow Leper that is unbelievably amazing. Seriously I take my hat off to you. And those TY students are to be commended, what a useful thing for them to do.
 
I looked a bit more into this. It doesn't actually help with the tax returns. It's more about information on what older people need to know about tax when they are 65+

I had a difficult time myself to log onto revenue initially. Being abroad they don't deal with foreign phone numbers which causes a stumbling block for me. In this day and age all systems should be able to deal with foreign numbers.
 
Great idea, seems like common sense but should be open to all ages. A glance through AAM forums here shows how cumbersome is our tax system.
 
jasdpace@gmail. said:
Leper,
Were you not concerned with ransom demands when folk could see the scale of your income and assets?
Click to expand...
Good observation @jasdpace@gmail - but I'm one of these open minded people who is prepared to concede some personal information for the greater good and for me it's no big deal. With what pensions I have and medical expenses, I have no problem showing them publicly especially when somebody else has so much to gain.

The greater question you didn't ask is what about the privacy of others? The vast majority of people on the Old Age Contributory Pension are paid €265.30 per week with some getting a little more and others a little less. That's according to the Dept of Social Welfare website. The information is there for everybody to read. In fact, I use this info in my opening welcoming sentence just to allay any fears of personal information being divulged. Nobody is forced to supply such information or indeed of their medical expenses as we mainly are dispelling the "fear" of doing something personal online and showing people the simplicity involved. We get through so many non projected claims that even the TY Year students and I couldn't possibly remember any amounts. But, I believe we achieve our objective fairly and well.
 
moneymakeover said:

Non Resident

www.revenue.ie
Click to expand...
I'm referring to registering with them. Some Irish companies want only Irish phone numbers. Off the top of my head, my credit union, Bank of Ireland, revenue. For revenue it made it harder to register to be able to log in online. For the credit union I'm not allowed to do online banking.

I can phone any of them without a problem. But sometimes I have to search for the real phone number as the 1800 numbers don't work for me, and the alternative number is not always prominent.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register