Car importer loses appeal against €1.2m Revenue tax bill 'due to box ticking error'

Irish Examiner

14-05-2025

A large importer of second-hand motor vehicles from Britain has lost its appeal against a customs bill of over €1.2m from Revenue which it claimed was due to a 'box-ticking' error.
The Tax Appeals Commission (TAC) dismissed an appeal by the unidentified company against the demand for payment of €1,235,279 from Revenue.
The amount owed will total almost €1.3m when interest of over €62,600 is added to the customs debt.
The company had argued that it had no liability for the customs debt as it was only a customs representative rather than an importer of used cars. It claimed Revenue refused its request to change declarations made on an online system.
The company claimed its failure to tick a box to indicate whether it was acting as a direct or indirect representative of the motor dealerships was an error.
The appellant maintained that it had acted as 'a direct representative' of motor dealers based on verbal agreements and thus was not liable to pay customs owed on the vehicles.
The TAC heard the company had lodged customs declarations on a Revenue portal in 2021 in relation to 687 vehicles.
It unsuccessfully claimed the customs duty rate for 452 vehicles should have been reduced from 10% to 0% under 'Great Britain Preferential Origin' rules.
Revenue subsequently notified the company that it had a customs debt of over €1.2m, plus interest, as the documentation it had supplied was not sufficient to support its claims for any reliefs.
The company's managing director told the TAC that he was not disputing the customs debt but stressed that Revenue should be pursuing the motor dealerships on whose behalf his firm had acted.
The TAC heard that the company had unsuccessfully tried to collect the debt itself from the garages.
The managing director stated that the company was not an importer but a transport company. He also noted that all the vehicles had been 'green routed' by Revenue through customs on importation into Ireland.
The witness said each vehicle had been processed, reviewed, and cleared once customs was satisfied that all required documentation had been submitted and the cars qualified for relief.
He said the company was told to go away when it went to the garages to seek information sought by Revenue.
The director said garages had cut ties with his company and business was lost as a result.
A revenue official told the TAC that it would have been unfeasible to conduct complete documentary checks on all goods imported into the Republic, especially in the early, post-Brexit days.
He gave evidence that Revenue took any declaration at face value but added that the tax authorities were entitled to carry out a post-customs release check up to three years after importation to verify that declarations were accurate and supported by documentation.
The witness said the company had confirmed on its portal that it had the required documentation to support the claim for relief on customs but it had not been provided to date.
Revenue also pointed out that the company was unable to provide any evidence of any agreements it had with motor dealerships regarding representation.
Revenue's legal representatives argued that the TAC has no jurisdiction to direct the tax authorities to amend any declarations.
In her ruling, TAC commissioner Claire Millrine agreed that she had no supervisory jurisdiction over how Revenue exercises its discretion in dealings with taxpayers but only in whether assessments are correctly charged.
Ms Millrine said she was satisfied that the issue was not 'an appealable matter' and ruled that she had to refuse to accept the appeal.
However, the commissioner noted that even if she was wrong in her decision, the company had been given numerous opportunities to furnish documents to show it was acting for motor dealerships but none had been provided to date.
Under regulations, Ms Millrine observed that persons who failed to state they are acting as a customs representative shall be deemed by Revenue to be acting in their own name or on their own behalf.