How do I approach Revenue about modest tax debt stretching back many years?

Irish Times

01-07-2025

I am writing to you on behalf of an elderly neighbour who confided to me that he is worried about
unpaid taxes
over a period of two decades.
This man returned to Ireland approximately 20 years ago and initially paid tax as a PAYE worker. He later worked ad hoc as a consultant, engaging a local accountancy firm to do his tax returns. It subsequently transpired that the money he paid to the accountant to pay
Revenue
had not been paid.
He has no pension pot or assets and has basically fallen on hard times after complying, he says, with all tax
requirements throughout his working life.
I gather that instead of contacting Revenue to find a solution, he buried his head in the sand and somehow fell through the tax net.
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His only other employment was a number of casual cash-in-hand jobs until he reached pension age, which he did well over a decade ago. He has paid no tax on his Irish pension or on his UK pension.
He wants to rectify the situation, but is not in a position to pay back the unpaid tax and any additional fines. He has no assets aside from modest savings, which he wants to be used for his funeral.
Someone told him that his family in England will have to pay the taxes. He is deeply worried that he will face public shame, prosecution and imprisonment.
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Any suggestions on how he can approach Revenue and how they might handle the situation would be much appreciated.
Ms P.S.
Your neighbour has found himself in a very unfortunate position which, inadvertently or not, he has actually made worse. However, it is important that he realise there will be no shaming, no imprisonment and, as long as he approaches them – rather than waiting to see if they will catch him – no prosecution.
And no one is going to be chasing his family in the UK. If he dies with all this balance outstanding, Revenue could demand payment from his estate. If there were not enough to meet the full bill, that would be Revenue's loss at that stage, not an issue for his family – although there clearly might be no inheritance.
You can certainly see how it happens. A compliant taxpayer finds himself in Revenue debt through absolutely no fault of his own but, given limited means, chooses to hunker down rather than engage.
Almost always, the intention is to 'get around to doing something about it', but weeks become months, months become years, and making that call just seems to get more difficult. Passage of time makes the taxpayer feel almost complicit in the crime and the non-payment.
From what you say, the initial 'problem' concerned a period of a little over a year and, given what you say about the issue being the failure of his accountant to pass on funds handed over to meet tax liabilities, rather than any active omission, he would have been assured of a very sympathetic hearing.
Yes, the legal onus for meeting tax liabilities is his, not his accountant's, but in the circumstances outlined, an accommodating payment plan would have been easy to arrange.
His failure to do so then, or at any time since, has created the potential to exacerbate the issue. Firstly, Revenue will want to know what he did after that time. From the timeline you provide, there would not have been much time between his accountant's fraud against him and his reaching retirement age, but even so, they'll be curious.
Then there is the pension income. You don't indicate how much this is, but he apparently has pensions from both Ireland and Britain, so may well be over the tax exemption limit of €18,000 – even if he is not on a full pension from either state.
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It's important not to exaggerate the issue. At all times, he appears to have been living fairly modestly with little spare cash or savings – so much so that he never felt able to even agree a repayment plan with Revenue.
In terms of shame and fear, I have no doubt he is feeling far worse now than he ever would if this had been resolved. As his tax debt is very unlikely to be beyond €50,000, he needs to know that he will not appear in any tax defaulters' list, never mind face imprisonment.
If only for the sake of his own mental health, he really does need to sort all this out.
The good news for him is that there is help out there. My strong advice is that he go initially to the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (Mabs). This State-funded network specialises in dealing with people who are struggling with debt.
It is free of charge and totally confidential.
Mabs are contactable by phone and also have a network of offices across the State, providing face-to-face meetings which, I would suggest, would make more sense for this gentleman. You can find his local office
here
, together with their phone numbers, to arrange an appointment.
Otherwise, he can call their national helpline on
0818 07 2000
or email
[e-mail]
. That helpline is open from 9am to 8pm.
He should first gather any relevant documents he has and a list of the relevant dates. If some paperwork is missing or the dates are fuzzy, no worries – don't let that put him off meeting Mabs.
The service can help him with contacting the Revenue. Once that is done, there are various approaches available under personal insolvency legislation. These include a debt relief notice, a voluntary arrangement, a debt settlement arrangement, or a personal insolvency arrangement.
If your neighbour's means are as limited as he tells you, he may in fact not end up paying anything but, even if his means do allow repayment of some of the debt over time, the arrangements under the personal insolvency legislation are designed to ensure he has sufficient money for his personal needs.
These arrangements were not in place when your neighbour's woes began, but they offer him a structured and dignified way to put all this behind him and not live with the stress that currently has him living in fear.
Please send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, 24-28 Tara Street, Dublin 2, or by email to
[e-mail]
, with a contact phone number. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice