Company closures hit tax take

The Revenue Commissioners wrote off almost €222 million in business taxes last year, mostly because companies became insolvent or ceased trading.

Issuing the authority's annual report today, chairman Josephine Feehily said Revenue had identified problems linked to a further €195 million in business tax and has entered into special instalment arrangements for repayment in 14,100 cases.

She warned however that Revenue's focus remains on "timely compliance and payment of tax".

"We cannot and will not be a banker or a lender of last resort, and we must deliver our support to business in a way that ensures we do not put compliant businesses at a competitive disadvantage," said Ms Feehily.

Revenue took in €33.2 billion in net tax and duty last year, down almost €8 billion on the pervious year. Ms Feehily said this was a "stark reminder if we needed one of the extent of the fiscal crisis facing this country".

She also pointed to outstanding tax debt, which amounted to €2.11 billion last year, up from €1.86 billion in 2008.

"The scale of the tax challenge arising from this is very significant," said Ms Feehily.

Revenue completed almost 12,500 full audits last year, yielding €602 million, which was up 5.7 per cent on 2008. The authority also carried out more than 361,000 less intensive audits in 2009, yielding €68 million.

Special investigations continued to deliver significant sums in 2009, with a trawl of trusts and offshore structures yielding €17.6 million from 94 cases.

Revenue also placed special focus on tobacco smuggling last year, making 10,600 seizures, amounting to 218 million cigarettes. So far in 2010, some 2,100 seizures have been made, bringing in 1,200 kilos of tobacco and 64 million cigarettes.

"We are determined to keep a very sharp focus on tobacco smuggling this year," Ms Feehily said.

Other significant findings include:

- 1,147 companies were wound up, more than double the 2008 number.

- The number of receiverships grew to 192, compared to 47 in 2008.

- An investigation into off-shore trusts and accounts netted €17.6 million from 94 cases.

- Debt was up from 1,233 million euro in 2008 to €1,443 million last year.

- 15 court convictions for serious tax evasion were obtained, including 6 for serious evasion. One person was jailed but released on appeal after serving four months of a 20 month sentence.

- Drugs worth €39 million seized with €1.35 million worth of criminal cash detained at ports and airports.

- 96,759 litres of alcohol and 283,817 litres of illegally laundered fuel seized.

Revenue lost 500 workers last year through non replacement of staff, with up to 80 going this year. Approval has been given to recruit 200 new workers.

Additional reporting by PA