Revenue Hacking and Glitch in System

P

Pantone

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We got a bill for over €3000 last month from Revenue saying that we owed this in back payments. Myself and my partner are both PAYE employees and couldn't understand how we owe so much in tax as we are taxed at source. We have been told by Revenue that they were hacked on 25th December 2015 causing a glitch in their system that uncoupled employees from their employers and also that it transferred all my husband's tax credits and band it could to me. When I looked through their online system it is as if my husband didn't exist from 2015-2017 and he has no tax certs and is excluded from mine. We had no idea about any of this.

Has anyone else come across this as an excuse from Revenue? It's seems a bit extreme and there was certainly no media coverage of them being hacked. Should they not be informing people about this so they don't get a shock like us and be told they have to pay a large tax bill? Surely they have to accept some form of responsibility as it was not in any way caused by us.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Did you call them, and check that this isn't a scam letter?
A "hack" like this is highly unlikely.
 
As T McGibney says, this is garbage. All public bodies are required under EU law to immediately notify you of any data breach:

In case of any particular risk to the security of the network, providers of publicly available electronic communications networks or services must provide information to subscribers without delay about the risks and any possible remedies (including the likely costs involved) even where the proposed measures are outside the direct control of the undertaking.

In case of a personal data security breach affecting even one individual, providers of publicly available electronic communications networks or services must without undue delay:​

  • notify the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner of the breach (even in circumstances where it considers the data would be unintelligible to third parties) including a description of the measures to be taken to address the breach; and
  • notify any individual that may be adversely affected by the breach.

(from the [broken link removed]).

Are you sure this isn't someone else trying to scam you?
 
Apart from what previous posters have says, if indeed Revenue had allocated all the credits to you, your husband would have been overpaying tax. The difference would also be a lot more than 3k.

These guys produce a very good online tax calculator - select the year at the top, and if you have P60's for each year you can check what you should have paid Vs what you did.
 
This sounds like a scam; are you sure that you’re not dealing with someone who’s purporting to be Revenue.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. Yes I agree it sounds like a scam but it is definitely not. We got a friend who is an accountant to act on our behalf and he has been speaking directly with revenue trying to sort it out. From what they are saying we have underpaid in tax for the past 2 years due to this 'glitch' in their system. It doesn't make any sense to anyone we have asked. Just wanted to see if anyone else had been informed of this 'computer hacking' and gain some advice on how we should deal with it. Seems very unfair that we have to pay a huge amount now for something that was entirely their fault. We had no idea about any of this. I mean surely if they knew they were hacked they must be required to inform the public and PAYE employees to check their tax status etc. How does one object to the revenue? Who are they answerable to? Do we just have to go along with this and take what they are saying to us as true?
 
What did your accountant say about the taxes you paid these last years?
Have you actually underpaid, even if its not your fault?
 
It's unlikely that it was a hack at all but more likely that someone in Revenue made a mistake with the allocation of the tax credits

Did you notice a significant increase in your take-home pay for those 2 years?
 
Ok I will try and explain it a little better. I got some more info. from my accountant friend and this is how it goes:-

As a married couple we had €1650 too much in tax credit and €9000 too much in tax band, revenue have admitted that its completely their fault due to a glitch in the system, we were uncoupled as a married couple and my husband was given the additional credits and band. The same credits were not taken from me. The tax bill is correct due to this and only came to light when a balancing statement was done in 2017.

What are the chances of getting some of this debt written off/ doing a deal with revenue?

I would greatly appreciate any advice / experiences of this, to help us work out how to deal with this.
Thanks so much in advance.
 
I'd be surprised if they are prepared to write off any of the tax. I suspect the best you can hope for is that they are amenable to a payment plan as it's due to their system fault.
 
There's quite a gulf between a glitch in their system and it being hacked!

Unfortunately the responsibility for ensuring your tax credits are correctly applied rests with you and your husband.

I'm sure Revenue will apologise for their error but they won't be giving you a discount on your tax bill.

You should be able to sort it out by a reduction in tax credits for the next 3/4 years to collect the underpayment.
 
Thanks Torblenam. They said the glitch in their system was caused by them being hacked on 25th December 2015. No-one else seems to have heard about this.
 
Are they saying somebody broke in and modified your tax records? That would be astounding. Perhaps it is that they had to restore a backup as a result of a hack, and lost some work in progress.

Either way, if your data was affected as a result of a security breach, Revenue broke the law by not informing you. If they are able to determine it now, they should have been able to determine it then. However, it sounds frankly unbelievable, and frankly, I don't believe it.
 
I agree. It's seems very unbelievable. That's why we are asking for advice. Are we supposed to just accept this? That someone hacked their systems but only our revenue details were affected and they failed to inform us of anything.
 
No we haven't got anything in writing which is what I'm concerned about. Does that mean they can just deny everything? Do you know if the calls are recorded? It only came to light when a balancing statement was done at end of August and we later received a letter from them to say we owed over 3 grand in tax. It was only through phone conversations afterwards that they claimed they were hacked in 2015 and glitch in system etc. And admitted it is their fault. Within a couple of hours my husband suddenly appeared again on the online system along with his employer, which was not there previously for 2015, 16 or 17. But we only received an updated tax cert a few days ago.
 

I think you need to stop fixating on this "hack" conspiracy theory. For starters, if there were a big cover up in place, the lowly clerical officers manning the phones wouldn't be in on it, would they? And they certainly wouldn't be telling you about it.

I don't mean to sound unsympathetic here, but there's some kind of crossed wires, or Chinese whispers, or even possibly a half cracked person at the other end of a phone somewhere here.

You need to focus on resolving your tax debt first and foremost. After that, if you want explanations ask for one in writing, and if that doesn't work use the procedure I linked for you earlier.

At the end of the day, you and your husband received more money in your pay packets over a couple of years than you should have. It wasn't your fault, but equally it wasn't your money, so you do need to accept that it needs to be repaid.
 
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