Engage early with Revenue - key advice to businesses experiencing tax payment problems

On an on-going basis, Revenue engages with viable businesses experiencing temporary cash flow or trading difficulties that affect the timely payment of tax. Revenue works very successfully with businesses that engage early to resolve their tax payment difficulties as evidenced by the fact that, at the end of 2019, over 6,300 businesses had phased payment arrangements in place covering €73 million in tax debt.

Today (10/03/2020), Collector-General, Mr. Joe Howley outlined that Revenue will engage with any viable business that experiences temporary cashflow difficulties, including difficulties arising from exceptional circumstances such as the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak.

The Collector-General said that “Revenue is aware that when temporary cashflow issues arise for a business, it can be a worrying time in terms of the ability to keep an otherwise good tax compliance record on track. Rather than hope that such payment difficulties will fix themselves in time, I would strongly encourage affected businesses to take the following practical steps:

• continue to send in your tax returns on time, and
• engage early with us if you run into, or are facing, difficulty in paying your tax.

"It is important that businesses know that we will work with them to resolve their tax payment difficulties. With early and meaningful engagement, we can generally agree payment arrangements that are acceptable to both the business and Revenue. This gets the affected business successfully beyond the payment pressure point and keeps a good tax compliance record on track.”

Mr Howley explained that:

“Revenue’s Online Phased Payment Facility is available 24/7 and is an easy to use service for viable businesses to apply for a Phased Payment Arrangement. Once the application is approved by Revenue, the business has considerable flexibility to self-manage the payment schedule in line with their business needs or temporary cashflow challenges. Alternatively, a business can contact the Collector-General’s office on (01) 7383663 to agree a mutually suitable payment arrangement.”

Summarising the advice to businesses, the Collector-General said “The most sensible and effective way to address tax payment difficulties is for a business to continue to send in returns on time and engage with us as soon as payment difficulties start to arise. If businesses take these practical steps, we can work together towards an agreed solution”.

[ENDS 10/03/2020]