Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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270. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of businesses that lost tax clearance certs in the past 6, 12, 18 and 24 months, juxtaposed to the number in 2021 and 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4495/23]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Tax Clearance is required for various purposes, such as renewal of a variety of licences and permits, public sector contracts, grants, subsidy payments and Government supports. While a business may have their tax clearance rescinded due to compliance issues, it can also be rescinded for reaching its expiry date.  (An application for a Tax Clearance Certificate will normally expire after one year in the case of a grant application and within four years for all other applications).  Where applicants address their compliance issues and re-apply, they can regain their tax clearance status. Individuals, who are not running a business, may need tax clearance to receive a grant or some other Government or Local Authority support. These are one off and are generally not renewed and are included in the rescinded numbers below.

At the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, Revenue took some key policy decisions to assist businesses cope with what was an unprecedented public health and economic emergency. One of those policies was to allow what were, at that stage, tax compliant businesses retain their tax clearance status.  The vast majority of businesses that held tax clearance in March 2020 therefore retained that clearance status until mid-2022.

I am advised that, during 2021, Revenue carried out three targeted campaigns based on risk to identify and engage with cohorts of taxpayers who had outstanding returns or other compliance issues. Where the businesses did not file the outstanding returns or address other compliance issues after being given a reasonable opportunity to do so, Revenue rescinded their tax clearance.

Revenue commenced a staged return to normal periodic review of tax clearance in mid-2022 for the entire case base. The process was resumed on an incremental basis in view of the large number of cases involved and was completed by 22 November 2022.

The number of tax clearance certificates that were rescinded for the periods in question is given in the table below.  It is not possible to specify the numbers that are businesses. The increase shown for July-December 2022 can be attributed to the phased return to normal, pre-Covid periodic reviews during this period.