Leitrim taxpayers waiting more than three weeks for Revenue responses

People in Leitrim are facing waits of more than three weeks for a response from Revenue through its online correspondence service, MyEnquiries, a meeting of Leitrim County Council has heard.

Cllr Maeve Reynolds raised the issue, calling on Leitrim County Council to ask the Revenue Commissioners to address taxpayers’ difficulties in contacting the department by telephone and through MyEnquiries.

“This is particularly frustrating given the strict deadlines taxpayers must meet while awaiting assistance,” her motion stated.

She called on the council to seek clarification on a number of issues, including average and longest MyEnquiries response times across different tax services; the percentage of calls answered, abandoned or met with a message stating that calls cannot be answered; applicable service standards and what recourse is available when these are not met; whether and when RevConnect will be extended to Sligo, as previously indicated; and what steps are being taken to improve access and response times.

Speaking at the meeting on November 2, Cllr Reynolds said, “Anyone changing jobs or dealing with emergency tax is encouraged to go online through the MyEnquiries portal, but people that have been using it are waiting over three weeks to get a response from Revenue.”

She also outlined difficulties experienced by people trying to contact the helpline serving the Leitrim area, which operates from 9:30am to 1:30pm, Monday to Friday.

She said that for much of last month, callers were met with a recorded message stating that calls were not being answered at that time, with no indication of when the service would resume taking calls.

“There’s no other option,” said Cllr Reynolds, adding that in-person appointments are available in other parts of the country, including Galway and Limerick, while the video assistance service, RevConnect, is also unavailable in Leitrim.

“I don’t think it’s a good enough service that Revenue is providing that you’re waiting three weeks and beyond to get talking to somebody,” she said.

Her motion received unanimous support from members of Leitrim County Council.

Cllr Bohan added that similar issues appear to be occurring across a number of agencies, with people finding it increasingly difficult to speak to a real person by telephone when dealing with more complicated cases, instead being met with automated responses.