Taxpayers who paid bin charges in 2011 are being urged to claim their tax relief now or risk missing the December 31st deadline. Under the Revenue Commissioners’ rules, taxpayers must claim eligible reliefs, which also includes medical expenses, tuition fees and rent credit, within four years.

Barry Flanagan, senior tax manager with Taxback. com says, "One of the biggest questions you must ask yourself now is - did you pay your bin charges in 2011? If the answer is yes then you need to know that this is the last year you can claim for this tax relief - and you have just four weeks to do so."

A maximum of € 400 tax relief is granted (at the 20 per cent standard rate) in 2011 for service charges paid in the year 2010. The relief was abolished for tax year 2012 and subsequent years.

Other tax reliefs and incentives which people are entitled to claim for the years 2011-2014 are rent a room relief; flat rate expenses for certain trades and professions; exemption on income earned from caring for children in your own home and Employment and Investment incentive (EII) scheme. From January, people will be able to claim tax refunds related to 2015.

According to Taxback, the average PAYE tax refund is €840.

To claim the relief, you can hire the services of a company such as Taxback, or do it yourself through the Revenue's new easy to use My Account service (see here).

According to Mr Flanagan, it typically takes anywhere from two to six weeks to claim a refund.