The Revenue Commissioners accidentally withdrew €71m more than they should have from the bank accounts of a number of employers this month.
It is understood the incident happened as a result of human error and the Revenue Commissioners are now in the process of paying back all the money.
Every month the Revenue Commissioners withdraw PAYE, PRSI, income tax and VAT from employers' bank accounts.
Many companies authorise the tax authorities to do this electronically.
But last week they accidentally withdrew the money twice from 1,100 companies, taking more than €70,000 on average per company.
The process of repaying the money is under way and all the funds will be repaid by Monday.
The Revenue Commissioners are also to write to the companies involved and have undertaken to pay interest where companies have been charged by banks for going into the red.
