Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Cody referred to the fact that 84,000 businesses trade with the UK, 45,000 of them regularly. I am concerned about what I hear about the administration of tax through the Revenue Commissioners and the MyEnquiries line. I raised this at the Committee of Public Accounts. Since then, I have received prima facieevidence of incredible delays for people with inquiries, especially agents, and the lead time until it is dealt with. It has heightened my concern regarding the increase of business as a result of Brexit and other matters.

An agent contacted the Revenue Commissioners in November 2017 about preliminary tax for 2018 and wanted that to be back-allocated for a balancing payment for 2017. The result did not come back until March of last year. In the meantime, that customer was receiving demand after demand.

Companies can be denied tax clearance for very different reasons. It may be that the local property tax has not been not paid or there may be an issue with the director of a company. If a person puts his or her tax clearance details into the system, it provides a Dublin number. If a person calls this number, he or she is asked if he or she represents a business. If the individual involved states that he or she does represent a business, he or she is presented with five or six options, none of which relates to tax clearance. The line seems to go dead when an operator finally comes on and tries to transfer the person somewhere else. There seems to be no facility in Revenue for a taxpayer or agent to make a complaint unless he or she goes back through the MyEnquiries process, which is not timely. There is significant concern about those matters. When I was a tax practitioner, one could ring the local district office and, 90% of the time, get an issue resolved. It is not timely now. Agents are constantly re-engaging and seeking updates through the MyEnquiries line, but those who operate the latter do not respond in a timely way.

On Brexit and the increased pressure on the Revenue Commissioners, I am concerned and I ask Mr. Cody to take my concern on board.