They say that the week of the August Bank Holiday is always a good time to release bad or embarrassing news, as everyone is in summer holiday mode and paying less attention to the news than they normally would.
So maybe it shouldn’t be that surprising today to see the Revenue Commissioners at the centre of a rather awkward story concerning their own staff payroll.
Still, the headlines are shocking:
- more than one in seven of Revenue staff got paid more than their proper salaries in 2023.
- 61 Revenue staffers were overpaid more than €5,000
- a further 424 employees were overpaid between €1,000 and €5,000
- 100 more individuals, who never actually took up jobs with Revenue, received salary payments totalling €55,645.
These details were released following an internal audit at the tax authority, as reported by RTE News.
Anyone who runs a business, in particular a small business, will be keenly aware of the stress they feel whenever Revenue carry out an audit or enquiry and the accompanying dread that for example salaries have been overpaid and taxes are owing on the sums overpaid.
Maybe Revenue will in future go a bit easier on such errors? We live in hope.
Thomas McGibney & Company 