Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 20 February 2014
Public Accounts Committee
2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners
Chapter 23 - Revenue Collection
Chapter 24 - Management of Revenue Debt
Chapter 25 - Taxpayer Compliance
Chapter 26 - Corporation Tax Losses
Chapter 27 - Tax Audit Settlements
10:50 am
Ms Josephine Feehily:
It is not an assumption. The person has to have submitted an appeal. We use an appeal stop. This is a legal position. The tax is not collectable because it is in dispute and we have no authority to collect it. It can take anything from months to years, very many years, in circumstances where, for example, the taxpayer avails of his or her rights to go from the Appeal Commissioners to the Circuit, High and Supreme Courts. We have noticed recently several judicial reviews interposed in that trajectory in high value cases, which lengthens the process.