Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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294. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of times the Revenue Commissioners authorised the sheriff to go after a tax payer following a final demand for arrears in each of the years 2012 to 2015; and if he will provide a breakdown of the judgments in question in bands of tax outstanding (details supplied). [25607/16]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by Revenue that debt collection/enforcement action, including referral to the Sheriff, is only used as a last option where there is no meaningful engagement by the taxpayer or business.

Revenue's clear preference is always to engage positively with taxpayers or businesses experiencing temporary cashflow difficulties and where required to agree mutually acceptable payment solutions rather than deploying debt collection/enforcement sanctions.

Revenue's commitment in this regard is clearly evidenced by the volume of phased payment arrangements agreed each year. For example, during 2015 it agreed almost 8,500 phased agreements covering approximately €96m of tax debt.

However, any such engagement is predicated on open and honest discussion by the taxpayer/business, including a willingness to identify and agree a realistic payment arrangement. Any agreed arrangement must include interest, which is a statutory charge and a commitment to pay current taxes on a timely basis.

The table provided sets out the number and value of Sheriff referrals (warrants) for the years 2012 to 2015. The information is presented in the particular bands requested by the Deputy and for completeness also includes referrals greater than €40,000.

Revenue has clarified that the number of actual cases where the Sheriff was deployed for the years in question was 22,099 (2012), 19,801 (2013), 22,349 (2014) and 21,291 (2015). The difference between the number of referrals and the number of cases arises because a taxpayer/business may have more than one outstanding liability referred to the Sheriff over the course of a year.

Sheriff Referrals for the years 2012 to 2015