Revenue mitigation of interest - is it legal? Head of revenue on RTE

The lady in charge of revenue was on the radio the other day. Very nice interview and revenue sounded wonderfull people to deal with and all that.

She mentioned that revenue where a company or shop or business were having trading difficulties that revenue were coming to arrangements to easy the taxation buden on them by spreading the payments out over a period of time.

Does this mean that they are waiving the surcharges, penalties and interest? If yes I thought it was the law and so could not be waived?

Re: Head of revenue on RTE

Bronte said:

Does this mean that they are waiving the surcharges, penalties and interest? If yes I thought it was the law and so could not be waived?

Click to expand...

The lady in question is Josephine Feehily. She was talking about installment arrangements, not waiving of charges. In other words if you approach them you might get a longer period of time to pay if you can prove trading difficulties.

Re: Head of revenue on RTE

YOBR said:

The lady in question is Josephine Feehily. She was talking about installment arrangements, not waiving of charges. In other words if you approach them you might get a longer period of time to pay if you can prove trading difficulties.

Click to expand...

Yes that's what I meant but isn't that a deferal of tax if you get to pay by installment. How can you legally let one person make installments and not everybody?

I actually think it's a good thing I just thought that if you don't pay your tax on time in the legislation you're liable for penalties or interest or surcharges etc.

Re: Head of revenue on RTE

Instalment arrangements include the interest due, see here for more info.

Re: Head of revenue on RTE

Bronte said:

How can you legally let one person make installments and not everybody?

Click to expand...

Legally, I dont know but they do it....I think its up to you to make your case that you cannot pay all your taxes now...

Re: Head of revenue on RTE

Thanks for the link. It's very interesting. I note at point 2.1 'extra-statutory concession' is that some kind of legaleze for not complying with the legislation on interest on tax due?

I understood from a post about a year ago from one of the accountants on here that if you didn't pay your tax on time you had to pay interest, that it was statutory?

Also at point 5.6 it mentions mitigation of the accured interest.

So does this mean basically that revenue can make up their own interpretations and applications of the legislation as and when it suits them?

There is no mention of penalties, I thought if you didn't pay your tax you not only had to pay interest but you had to pay penalties?

I'm bumping this thread. I've read that document fully, is it on the revenue website as it's reads like an internal memo to staff?

I don't think it's legal for revenue to waive interest? Do any of the tax experts who do returns know anything about this?

The extra-statutory concession is basically their way of not complying with the statutory position on interest, which is "interest cannot be waived". It's a bit like saying the speed limit is 120kph but we're not going to prosecute unless you exceed 140kph. Does that then mean that driving at 140kph becomes acceptable practice?

They are also saying in the document that in cases of "hardship" interest may be mitigated. The definition of "hardship" is going to be subjective and on a case by case basis.

I have always historically found Revenue inflexible on interest. The current document may herald a change on this.

So it's illegal for them to do this. How can a state body do this?

I'm not sure but I don't think revenue have always been inflexible on interest. I remember going to revenue directly for a client once in the late 80's and getting some concessions on tax due and interest (income tax) but maybe my memory is incorrect, it was around the time of the 2nd tax amnesty, though in my case we weren't availing of the amnesty as the client was dead.