10 minute read
John Ellis
Your Money & You
John Ellis
Advertisement
Making sure you get all your tax allowances
Have you claimed your Flat Rate Expense (FRE) for last year yet? No? Unfortunately, you’re not alone as every year thousands of people leave unclaimed FREs and other tax reliefs and refunds with the taxman. More than 50% of employees surveyed by Taxback. com do not know their tax entitlements or bene ts.
Taxback.com, a multi-national corporation which provides specialist tax return services to private and corporate clients across 100 countries, say the impact of the pandemic and subsequent return to work has changed norms within the workplace. is has resulted in a new focus on wellbeing among the workforce and business leaders. eir panel of experts aim to help businesses incorporate di erent initiatives into their company wellbeing programmes with the nancial wellbeing of their employees having an important role. And what better way than to educate employees as to their tax entitlements and the possibility of a cheque from the taxman!
According to the report almost eight in 10 people are unaware of the FRE relief; a relief that exist to help tens of thousands of workers o set costs of uniforms and equipment required during the course of their work.
Up to 17% of people said they’ve only ever claimed tax refunds once in their life, 11% said they only do it “very sporadically” with one in ve having either not set up a Revenue online account and/ or have never heard of the facility.
It seems people are slow to act when it comes to claiming refunds and reliefs that are due to them. ere may lurk the idea that if they interact with Revenue they will complicate their lives. Not so, according to Barry Cahill of Tax Back: “ is is a misnomer we very much want to quash as, for the vast majority of people, we nd that there is money owed to, not by, the taxpayer.”
But he said: “It’s surprising, and somewhat alarming, to nd that almost half of us are still not claiming back our tax refund at the end of the year. is gure should be much, much higher. However, the data speaks for itself – it’s clear that people remain uncertain, reticent, and/or unwilling to approach the topic of their taxes.”
When employees are made aware of their entitlements, engage with the process, are equipped with the knowledge and know-how to enable them to put their personal tax a airs in order, the results have been very satisfactory to say the least, with the average refund amount received to date amounting to €1,250, with the highest individual refund being €7,400.
“A lot of money to be leaving in the hands of the taxman,”, says Barry Cahill. “Furthermore, the longer you leave it the less likely you are to apply at all, and you also run the risk of going past the four-year deadline.”
So, why not look into this and see if you have any entitlements available to you. Call Taxback or use your accountant/advisor. If you want to y solo you will rst need to make a tax return. e easiest way is to set up an account, if you don’t have one already, through the Revenue website https://www.ros.ie/ myaccount. ‘My Account’ is a single online access point for Revenue services. en access the Employment Detail Summary for 2021 in ‘MyAccount’. It is accessible through the ‘Review your tax’ link in PAYE Services. is summary contains your pay and statutory deductions for the year as reported by your employer or pension provider.
You need to make an Income Tax return putting in the claims you wish to make. en request a Statement of Liability. It must be made within four years after the end of the tax year to which the claim relates so you may currently request a Statement of Liability for the years 2018 to 2021.
Revenue will then crunch the numbers and if you are entitled to a tax rebate it will be transferred to your bank account directly or sent to you by cheque.
John@ellis nancial.ie 0868362633
A new chapter for Callan Co-op
Callan Co-op is a unique kind of business, as a co-op owned and controlled by its members we have a special connection with the community in Callan. is past year, we have undertaken some big changes, with many more to come. e rst stage in our redevelopment has been the creation of a new and fresh logo for Callan Co-op. e new branding represents what we see is our place in a rolling agricultural landscape supporting the Co-op and representing our Co-operative spirit. Over the coming months this brand will be gradually rolled out through various mediums culminating in our new store launch. After extensive work in the yard outside, early June marked the start the physical changes within the retail store. e extension and re-development of the hardware store is great news for Callan. is new development means that our customers get the bene t of a much larger selection in Agri, homeware, DIY and across our store. During the development we will have some disruptions but overall, but with extra sta on hand, we hope that it will be business as usual. As part of our expansion plans, we have recently taken on a new Store Manager Siobhan Mason, who is hugely experienced in this sector. We look forward to all of the expertise that she will bring to make our customers’ experience in Callan Co-op even better. We are looking forward to sharing our exciting new developments as they happen and will be regularly posting on social media to show you how our store is coming along.
From Le : Donncha O Sullivan , Chairperson, Callan Co-op Liam Ryan, former General Manager, James Fitzpatrick General Manager, Mary Ryan and Jim McHugh, Assistant Manager
I’m talking now about a fine girl, in anyone’s language. The scene is set in the early nineteenforties. Its main gist is about what was – or wasn’t – a ‘made-match.’ Names have been changed - memories are still long in the countryside …. The father of Katie, the girl in the story, was a businessman/farmer in South Tipperary, Dan Earls. There was plenty of the old moolah in his own family line - and he’d married well. His wife, Ann, was a kind and bright woman. Time moved on, and his own turn came to ‘marry-off’ the daughters, which he did, with a good dowry each. Two of them, anyway, very successfully; and another to follow, about whom he didn’t have a worry in the world.. And about whom this story is mainly set. {A person of these days would consider the whole ‘dowry’ scene very odd, musing that ‘such money can only bring misery.’ Perhaps. But many acres can also bring acres of smiles! And if misery does happen to show up eventually - isn’t it handier to be unhappy in luxury…? Tell me true…
His several fine sons had already been given good starts in life – farms - or sound spots in Dublin.. Sure, who deserves – or needs – more than such sound leg-ups?
Anyway, the pert and pretty Katie – the last of the girls - was up around her ‘ransom time’ – as she cheerfully called it – and Big Dan was having a look around. Actually he’d been ‘studying form’ amongst the local young bloods for some time – observance of rivals being the chief reason why he had amassed so much property and ready money. {You don’t stack up ‘loadsa tin’ with your eyes closed; neither then - nor now.}
So, a near neighbour, Mattie McCann, was the lad he looked most favourably upon. Be it known that Dan was an enlightened fellow, for his times, and knew his onions - so he asked the young lad down to ‘help with the hay’ – an activity that would put the young people in close proximity. He’d never forced a son or daughter into anything, hadn’t Dan. But he was a wily old bird at baiting cute little romantic traps! His children knew well his tricks – but as things worked out more than good for them all – they could well afford to smile.
The new hay-machines had just come in, and Dan of course, had one. A sweetly chattering twohorse instrument, by the famous Pierce of Wexford, it spread once-heardnever-forgotten jangly musical notes far and wide, and in those quiet idyllic days of high-summer, it could be heard miles away, on the carrying warm wildwoodbine-scented breeze.
The machine had cut the meadow into continuous swathes {‘swarths’- as we called them} a few days before, and now it was time to ‘turn’ them – spin and shake the swarths upside down - so as to expose the damp underside to the breeze and sun. Generally two or three people walked along in echelon, using pitchforks for the task.
It was considered a light job in those days of not-many-easy tasks. By some{?} coincidence, Mattie and Katie made up the team working the rounds of the Elm Feld.. Things went well – in every way. Under no pressure, they swung along handy, and Mattie was most impressed with the tawnyhaired willowy graceful girl in front of him. He’d been gent enough – and clever enough - to let her set the pace. Few indeed were the opportunities in those far days for a lad to see the fine figure of a girl he fancied, at such close quarters. And they had the field to themselves – another coincidence…..
Big Dan didn’t even dream of spying on them – his children had never needed ‘watching.’ He had all the other workers in the next field, and was busy himself collecting up the dried hay from the swarths with the ‘Tumbling Rake,’ and carrying it to the men to make ‘cocks’ of. {Several of the cocks would later be used to make one ‘tramcock’. {The ‘Tumbling Rake’ – in some areas referred to as the ‘Tumbling Tommy’ - was one of the most truly fearsome murderous machines ever made.}
Anyway, the ‘tay’ was brought out by a servantgirl, and the pair of young haymakers had a good chat, and found things to their liking.
Very soon, Mattie was the white-haired-boy at Dan’s house, and permission was given for them to ‘walk out’ – which meant – in those times – walking up and down the light-aired summer-evening roads – but always keeping within sight of at least one house. An old-fashioned sort of ‘Community Watch’ – with a different slant on those words. It worked; well, most of the time, anyway…
After a spell of indulging in this pleasant pastime, nature – in its own urgent, surging, way – started making sly demands of the couple, using ageold feelings and youthful emotions to suggest that it was high time for more to be done at closequarters than was strictly allowable. So the two petitioned their parents for permission to wed. There was no objection at all to the wedding – that was regarded as a ‘racing cert’ almost from the first hayday.
Actually, after just a few months ‘walking’, Mattie had made a small unusual gesture – for the times - that provided a lot of giggles throughout the Earls’ family. One October evening he presented Katie with a little ‘love ring’ – a shiny mock-silver item - which she wore on a finger of not much significance. When her pal Joan happened to comment that it looked like an ‘oul tin Chape Jack yoke’, Katie laughed – and put it down to sour grapes: Joan was still on the look-out for a lad, so Katie’s great romance didn’t float any boats in that quarter. Such are often the ways of close friendship…{I want you to be happy – but not happier than me…} Ned E
Disclaimer
The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of The Kilkenny Observer.
