Case study Revenue Sheriff

Kerrigan

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Following on from my thread, How to deal with the Revenue I am now looking for advise as to dealing with the Revenue Sheriff, which seems to be a whole different ball game.

The sheriff's only deal on the table is less than two years to repay the debt. This is absolutely impossible as it will require two years to pay the debt.

The referral to the sheriff has made the situation a lot worse and now the debt has risen significantly. There are no business assets or cash or personal assets or cash.
 
Referral to the sheriff doesn't normally happen terribly quickly, but usually requires a period of failure to engage with the tax district and/or the collector general's office.

A chronology to give the case some context might be useful - ie when and how was the liability, that the sheriff is pursuing, established. And what has happened, payment-wise and dialogue-wise, since then...
 
The Revenue Sheriff is constrained by strict policy guidelines issued by the Revenue. If the sheriff cannot seize assets, and if he cannot negotiate an instalment plan for less than 2 years, then he can no longer collect the debt. In such a case the Revenue will then instruct solicitors.

Given the significant Sheriff fees that are charged (see below) you might advise your client to try and bypass the sheriff, and deal with the solicitor in due course. By the time the solicitor issues proceedings and your client enters an appearance, he may have saved enough of a lump sum to then negotiate an instalment plan directly with the solicitors.

Lodgment Fee €19

 Poundage, 5% for the first €5,000 and 2.5% of the balance

 Travel expenses of €32 for the execution of an order

 €40 payable on execution of an order

 Any necessary expenses incurred in relation to seizure and sale of goods

Given that revenue Sheriffs are private sector, they tend to be realistic about what is collectible etc.

If your client is a private individual (as opposed to a limited company) then he might wish to consider a PIA/DSA.

Jim Stafford
 
Hi Jim, it's a pity we did not read your post this morning before we have spend the day running between Sheriff and Revenue trying to come to an agreement. Revenue was fruitless and the Sherriff made an agreement that "friend" agreed too. I'm completely exasperated because we know he will not be able to keep these repayments up. It's just way to much. The fear factor sat in and he agreed to a crazy repayment per month and promised he would now divert all his repayments to the sheriff. The payments we previously made have now being swamped and superseded by interest and sheriff fees.

Can you please advise if there is any way to speed his case out of the sheriffs hands and into the hands of the solicitors? I presume by not paying would be a start but I don't believe his nerve ends would allow him not to pay something.

How about paying the Revenue directly (even though they have advised against this) and somewhat ignoring the Sherriff i.e. writing to them and informing them that their stage payment proposal is not realistic and also that there is zero unencumbered assets.

There is also a big issue of the warrant being sent to the wrong address. It was Revenues fault not sheriff and of course this has caused further embarrassment as the warrant was mistakenly opened by a different party.
 
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Hi Jon, communications broke down with revenue when he did not have access to a 25% down payment. They refused to waive the down payment. The debt was for 18k for unpaid vat.
 
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