Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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6. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of instances where the Revenue Commissioners have foregone the collection of interest on late payments of tax due made for whatever reason for each of the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8541/16]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by Revenue that interest is a statutory charge that is applicable where tax payments are received after the relevant due date.

Interest is collected in the course of late payment intervention programmes and is always a component of tax audit, of tax debt enforcement activity and of phased payment arrangements. It is designed to compensate the Exchequer for loss of revenue through late payment of tax, to encourage timely payments in future and to ensure equity for the majority of taxpayers who pay on time. For the years 2011 to 2015 Revenue collected interest amounts of €83m, €63m, €92m, €88m and €101m respectively under these programmes.

The current rate of interest  in respect of late payment of Income Tax, Corporation Tax, Capital Gains Tax, Capital Acquisition Tax, Local Property Tax and Stamp Duty liabilities is 8% per annum (0.0219% per day), while the rate in respect of all other taxes, for example PAYE/PRSI and VAT, is 10% per annum (0.0274% per day).

The only circumstance where tax is written out (forgone) is, where a business/taxpayer is adjudicated insolvent, has ceased to trade with no assets, where collection is uneconomic to pursue, or where collection would cause undue hardship. Where tax is written out in these circumstances, the associated interest automatically falls but could be reinstated along with the tax if the taxpayer's financial circumstances subsequently improved.

Statistics on the amount of interest forgone on foot of the primary charge to tax being written out are not maintained by Revenue. However, for the years 2011 to 2015, Revenue wrote out tax amounts of €321m (115,760 cases), €287m (124,641 cases), €263m (151,204 cases), €228m (150,824 cases) and €170m (159,144 cases) respectively. For each year, the vast majority of the write outs (approx. 94%) are lower value amounts of between €1 and €100 that were forgone on grounds of being 'uneconomic to pursue'.