Would you give our politicians €550 out of your pocket? Well millions of euro go unclaimed every year by the Irish public primarily due to an apathetic outlook or lack of awareness of entitlements. They are losing out substantially when compared with their more proactive citizens who are claiming back an average of €550 in tax entitlements. So who are these savvy go getters? This question was asked and answered by tax specialists www.taxback.com who have released the results of their taxback index which takes a look over the last half decade to see who has been chasing the Revenue for what they are owed and while it may be a widely held view that women are more prudent with cash – the results would present a good counter argument.
Aoife Twohig of www.taxback.com commented on the findings, “The results of the Index are interesting – who knew that people from Westmeath would not make the top 10 of counties in which the most people claim their tax back? Or that people from Clare would top the poll? Or that men are, year on year, putting their female counterparts to shame by being more proactive in claiming what is the nearest thing you will ever get to the term free money. In 2010 alone, 53.3 per cent of claimants were men, though the proportion of women is increasing every year. Engineers emerged as the shrewdest profession, being the most likely to get their money back. We would hope that people in Westmeath who see the results, might think to themselves: ‘I’m a man of 32 (average age of our customers ), I’ve never claimed my tax back so I could be due a bit of a windfall. Also because we have just reached 2011 this now means that people can begin claiming for their 2010 tax rebate.’”.
