Tag Archives: Revenue

‘sup?

This afternoon.

Dublin Port.

Revenue officers seized approximately 20kgs of illegal plants, with an estimated street value of €400,000, concealed within stationary products from Spain. The search was carried out with the assistance of the Revenue’s mobile X-ray scanner and detector dog Waffle.

Meanwhile…

Just go with it, Waffle.

It’ll pass.

Pics: Revenue.ie/RollingNews

This afternoon.

Did you get yours?

Figures released by Revenue last night show that around 420,000 people will be issued with bills as a result of payments they received under the Temporary Wage Subsidy and the Pandemic Unemployment Payment.

71% of those in receipt of the TWSS in 2020 have underpaid tax and will receive a tax bill.

Boo. Hiss.

However…

…Just 33% of those who received the PUP will have to pay up, while 48% will actually be entitled to a refund.

Yay.

Explainer: Why am I getting a tax bill for PUP and TWSS payments? (RTÉ)

RollingNews

Greyhounds seized by Revenue officers at Dublin Port last weekend

Yesterday.

The Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals announced it was caring for 12 greyhounds which were seized by Revenue officers at Dublin Port last weekend.

They wrote:

The dogs were being transported in a Spanish registered vehicle in cramped conditions with cages stacked on top of each other or piled with other boxed goods.

They were being transported two dogs to a cage and three of the cages were not accessible without unloading the rest of the vehicle.

Ten of the greyhounds were wearing muzzles. They had no access to food or water and it is estimated that they would have been in transit for over 24 hours before arriving at their Spanish destination.

Following examination by DSPCA Veterinary Staff, several of the dogs were found to have minor injuries and elevated body temperatures and all of the dogs were showing signs of dehydration.

Paperwork accompanying the dogs show that all dogs are registered with the Irish Greyhound Stud Book and originate from dog trainers in Cork, Kerry, Tipperary and Wexford.

Records also show that nine of the 12 dogs have raced in the last month, one raced last in 2016 and two have no race records recorded.

The DSPCA are appalled by the barbaric treatment of these animals despite the revelations seen in RTE’s Prime Time program “Greyhounds Running for their Lives” and the assurances given by the Irish Greyhound Board (IGB), since the Prime Time programme, that measures were being taken to address Animal welfare issues in their industry.

“This seizure flies in the face of the illusion being created by IGB that animal welfare is being taken seriously. The continuing grant of €16.8 million of taxpayers’ money is no longer acceptable,” said DSPCA CEO Brian Gillen.

“The DSPCA are calling on Minister [for Agriculture Michael] Creed to withdraw all funding allocation to the greyhound industry in Budget 2020.”

Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Investigations under way after caged greyhounds found at Dublin port (RTÉ)

Related: BAI rejects complaint by Irish Greyhound Board over RTÉ documentary (The Irish Times)

Um.

Anon writes:

This is THE day taxes are due if you file online and you currently cannot file online.

It’s been offline for a few hours…

25 minute wait on the ROS help phone lines….

Will Revenue extend the deadline? No information given on website?

Anyone?

Revenue.ie

Update:

All better.

Brian Hutton, in The Irish Times, reports:

Revenue has apologised to about 1,500 people after wrongly taking hundreds of thousands of euro from their bank accounts over recent days as a result of a “payment processing” error.

Homeowners were unexpectedly hit with their local property tax (LPT) weeks before Christmas, despite having made direct debit arrangements with Revenue for the sums to be deducted next year.

The Irish Times has learned that more than €830,000 was taken from bank accounts in error.”

Property tax wrongly taken from accounts weeks before Christmas (Brian Hutton, The Irish Times)

RTE-London-bureau-to-close-offices

RTÉ

Seán McCárthaigh, in The Times (Ireland edition) reports:

RTE has warned that it will remain financially challenged unless there is reform of its public funding model after reporting a loss of €2.8 million last year.

Managers at the national broadcaster, which reported a net surplus of €0.2 million in 2014, have expressed concern at its deteriorating financial position.

RTE blamed last year’s losses on flat income from licence fees combined with the €5 million reduction in state funding in the 2014 budget and exchange rate fluctuations.

It said that cost pressures had caused its finances to slip into the red, despite commercial revenue growth of 4 per cent during 2015, and an emphasis on keeping operating costs under control.

Moya Doherty, the chairwoman, said the resolution of the issues of a national media charge and licence fee evasion would be key to the broadcaster’s funding.

RTE calls for fee reform after €2.8m loss (The Times Ireland edition)

Screen Shot 2015-08-17 at 14.27.47

A little clarity from county Tipp. To wit:

The ‘rent a room’ scheme allows a homeowner to rent out a room, or many rooms, in their home to students, interns or professionals, TAX FREE, as long as they do not earn over the magical €12,000 per annum.  Revenue’s argument is that in the above scenario the person renting the room is a ‘resident’ whereas under the AirBnB scenario they are a ‘guest’.  The argument further continues that because they are a ‘guest’ it is now a ‘trade’.

To be honest, it is all very stilted towards city dwellers.  We’d gladly be surrogate parents to a student or intern, if there was the opportunity.

Living in prime agricultural/rural Ireland, there are no hospitals or industry within a 40 mile radius.  There is a massive exodus of students from here to the cities every Sunday during term time…. heading off to line the pockets of the ‘non-trading’ ‘rent a room’ folks.

Parts of rural Ireland are dead during the week… waiting patiently for the young people to come home again at the weekend.

Can anyone explain to me what’s not a ‘trade’ about renting a room to a student, intern or professional?

Well?

READ ON: AirBnB versus Irish Revenue (A Year In Redwood)

Earlier: Airé

(H/T: Lorna)

airbnb

 

Further to the Airbnb/Revenue tax grab threat.

Karl Flynn writes:

Airbnb have published an ‘opinion’ from Ernst & Young [I’m assuming that’s what “EY” stands for] that suggests Airbnb hosts might after all be covered by the Rent-a-Room Relief Scheme. Looks curiously like grasping at straws, but who am I to question “EY”

Here’s the text of it:

Rent-A-Room Relief: EY Summary of Technical Position

Section 216A of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 (“TCA 97”) sets out the conditions for availing of rent-a-room relief from income tax for ‘relevant sums’ of up to €12,000 per annum. The definition of ‘relevant sums’ limits relief to sums received from rooms rented out for the purposes of ‘residential accommodation’.

As the term ‘residential accommodation’ is not defined in TCA 97, it should take its ordinary meaning. Dictionary1 definitions of ‘residential’ and ‘accommodation’ do not refer (either explicitly or implicitly) to a minimum period of occupation for accommodation to come within the parameters of being ‘residential’.

Although there do not appear to be any Irish court cases which consider the definition or application of the term ‘residential accommodation’, there are a number of English court cases which deal with this point.

In the judgement in the case of Owen v Elliott (H M Inspector of Taxes)2, it was stated that “the expression ‘residential accommodation’ does not directly or by association mean premises likely to be occupied as a home. It means living accommodation, by contrast, for example, with office accommodation. I regard as wholly artificial attempts to distinguish between a letting by the owner and a letting to the occupant; and between letting to a lodger and letting to a guest in a board house; and between a letting that is likely to be used by the occupant as his home and one that is not.” Leggatt L.J. further stated that “…it is accepted on behalf of the Crown that the length of the letting is not to be determinative”.

A number of similarities can be seen in the conditions for Irish rent-a-room relief and UK relief from capital gains tax (addressed in Owen v Elliott). In particular, Irish rent-a-room relief applies to all sums arising in respect of the use for the purposes of ‘residential accommodation’, of a room or rooms in a qualifying residence while relief from UK capital gains tax applies to any individual where the dwelling-house in question or any part of it is or has at any time in his period of ownership been wholly or partly let by him as ‘residential accommodation’. As such, the meaning of ‘residential accommodation’ that was deduced in Owen v Elliott should apply for the purposes of Irish rent-a-room relief.

The English cases of Westbrook Dolphin Square Ltd v Friends Life Ltd3 and Urdd Gobatih Cymru v Customs and Excise Comrs4 are also informative and in agreement with our view on the construction of the meaning of the term ‘residential accommodation’ for this purpose.

In summary, in contrast to the position taken in Revenue’s guidance on rent-a-room relief5, Section 216A TCA 97 does not make any distinction on the basis of temporal duration of the ‘use’ nor does it make any distinction between ‘guest accommodation’ and ‘residential accommodation’.

On the basis of the above, it is EY’s view that the term ‘residential accommodation’ in this context should include short-term lettings by Airbnb Ireland’s hosts of a room or rooms in their sole or main residence, and, on this basis, where the relevant conditions are met, rent-a-room relief should be available to Airbnb Ireland’s hosts. EY’s view is supported by the opinion of Senior Counsel.

Airbnb are holding a public meeting at their office in the Watermarque {Bridge Street, Dublin this evening to brief Irish users about the tax and legal implications.

Fight!

Rent A Room Relief (Airbnb)

Last night: Airtcd




..retrospective tax bills.

Seemed like a good idea at the time..

Run!

Airbnb hosts facing retrospective tax bills for 2014 (Irish Times)

Alternatively

Airbnb Arbitrage – How To Pay Off Your Mortgage In Half The Time (Lovin Dublin)

rté
rte

Except their cute hooriness.

* County Roscommon had the highest rate of convictions [for tax offences], where the number of cases per 100,000 of population was 671.

* Almost ten times higher than the lowest in Kilkenny, where the rate was just 68 per 100,000.

* The construction sector had more than double the offenders of any other sector, and accounted for over a third of all the convictions.

* Farmers accounted for the biggest number of tax convictions. They made up 10.4% of the Revenue list, followed by company directors (4.7%), builders (3.5%) and building contractors (3.2%).

Some of the results [more at link below] of an RTÉ Investigations Unit analysis using 13 years of official Revenue figures of “recorded convictions in the period 2002 to 2014 for certain types of tax offences”.

G’wan Roscommon Kilkenny.

Taxing Matters (Craig Hughes, RTÉ Investigations Unit)