In a statement, the ministry said that a total of 5 million declarations for 2015 were submitted to 31 August - the legal deadline for reimbursements to be paid out - of which 95% were online, up five percentage points from the previous year.

According to the statement, 99.7% of all declarations were dealt with by the deadline, including those submitted later than required.

Of the 5 million total, 2.6 million declarations gave rise to reimbursement while 746,000 prompted the tax authorities to issue demands for payment.

The total amount reimbursed to taxpayers, at €2.3 billion, was up €344 million on the previous year, while the total amount demanded was €1.2 billion, down €107 million.

The implementation for the first time of new rules on when reimbursements must be paid out meant that the average time taken for this was 48.5 days, up from 43.5 last year and 40.55 in 2014, the ministry said.