THOUSANDS OF IRISH people could be in for a financial windfall if they spent a year working in Australia.
Taxback.com has urged people to apply for the Australian superannuation refund, warning that Irish travellers are losing out on a potential €70million by not applying.

It’s thought that around 100,000 Irish people are in for a €600 windfall, according to tax experts www.taxback.com.

It says that 75% of people who return to Ireland having worked in Australia do not claim a superannuation refund, which is different to the regular income tax refund that thousands claim back every year.

Grainne Clancy of www.taxback.com commented:

Anyone who earned over $450 a month when they were working in Oz would’ve paid up to 9% of their wages into a superannuation fund. What’s more, even if people travelled to Australia some time ago, they may still be entitled to a cash refund as claims can go back as far as 2001. Typical refunds can amount to anything from $600 up to $5000 and in our experience the average super claim is worth approximately $900.

Clancy said that a lot of their customers have no idea they could be owed the money.

However, she advises people to apply sooner rather than later because legislation introduced by the Australian Government in 2009 gives them the power to take control of the monies if they go unclaimed for a certain period of time.

And if that wasn’t enough to convince you, Clancy added: “In one case we had the claimant receive a refund of $12,000 within five days so it’s well worth checking!”