The outstanding debt owned by businesses that availed of Revenue’s debt warehousing scheme stood at €1.58 billion this week, according to the tax commissioners in their annual report for 2023.
The scheme was introduced to assist businesses that experienced cash-flow and trading difficulties during the Covid-19 pandemic.
It was announced earlier this year that the 3% interest rate that was to apply to outstanding debt from this year would be reduced to zero.
However, companies with an outstanding debt on May 1 are still required to “meaningfully engage” with Revenue to agree a plan for payment of their debt by this date or they will forfeit the zero percent interest rate.
“The crucial message, therefore, for any business that has not yet engaged with us in respect of their warehoused debt, is to act now and engage with us immediately to formulate a payment plan,” Niall Cody, Revenue Chairman, said.
The oustanding balance is owed by 53,172 customers, according to Revenue’s figures.
Around 70% – 37,200 customers – owed amounts less than €5,000.
The bulk of the debt – €1.35 billion – is being warehoused by approximately 9% of customers (4,800) with outstanding balances greater than €50,000.
“Phased Payment Arrangement applications are being submitted on a constant basis with almost 2,800 agreed since 31 March 2024,” the report noted.
Revenue said that 2023 also saw a continuation of high voluntary compliance rates, at over 99% for large cases and 98% for medium cases.
It added that timely compliance rates for all other cases in 2023 was 91%, up from 88% in 2022.
On non-compliance, Revenue said it completed over 291,000 compliance interventions in 2023 yielding €787m and 85 tax avoidance cases which brought in €16.5m.
The report describes the performance as “exceptional” with gross receipts of €127.9 billion, including €26.3 billion in non-Exchequer receipts collected on behalf of other Government Departments and agencies.
Net Exchequer receipts amounted to €87.2 billion.
Meanwhile, Revenue’s enforcement teams made 9,217 drugs seizures last year, with a combined value of €302m, and 6,837 seizures of tobacco products, with a value of €63.4m.
Revenue Chairman Niall Cody said that continued strong levels of timely and voluntary compliance rates confirm that the vast majority of taxpayers pay the right amount of tax at the right time.
“Given the exceptional disruption which individual taxpayers, businesses and agents have experienced over the past four years, this is an extremely positive reflection on their continued engagement with their tax compliance obligations, and the importance that society generally places on a strong culture of voluntary and timely tax compliance,” he said.
“We acknowledge and thank all taxpayers and their representatives for their ongoing engagement and co-operation,” he added,
Article Source – Over 53,000 businesses still using Revenue’s Tax Debt Warehousing scheme – RTE
