THE Inland Revenue is mounting an advertising campaign to persuade

people to ask the taxman to return tax which they should not have paid.

The Revenue reckons there are still over ten million people who could

claim tax back and have not done so. There is an estimated #800m waiting

to be repaid and refunds can be back-dated to cover earlier tax years.

The situation stems largely from the ending of composite rate tax on

building society deposits and from the independent taxation of husbands

and wives, which was introduced in April 1990.

Composite rate tax precluded the societies from offering gross-paying

accounts which penalised non-taxpayers. It was abolished from April

1991.

The latest #2m campaign will be directed specifically at pensioners

and married women who do not go out to work, the two main groups which

are owed tax refunds.

There have been two other similar campaigns and altogether nearly #10m

has been spent on awareness advertising.

Declining interest rates have led to more pensioners dependent on

savings for income dropping below the tax-paying threshold, possibly

making them eligible for refunds. Redundancy can also make people

qualify for a tax rebate.