Revenue Audit

infamous

Friend of mine has an upcoming revenue audit, he was under financial preassure and naively claimed a vat refund he was not due, he has decided to disclose this fact to the revenue what are the possible consequences, the general advice he has been getting has been to burn the books and plead ignorance he has decided this aint the way to go, are the revenue open to repayment plans or will he have to have money upfront to pay.

J.Ryan

The best thing your friend can do is contact his accountant, who will (hopefully) word the disclosure in the best terms possible.

Knowingly making a false return is a serious offence, I feel you friend is right to make a full disclosure.


How much was the false claim (how much of a refund + how much he should have paid)

kranbo

I would advise your friend to make a Voluntary Disclosure in advance or on the day of the audit. It will lower the penalty and avoid prosecution. If he has no back-up to his claim Revenue will disallow the refund and depending on the amount involved could throw the book at him

dbran

Hi Infamos

You should get in touch with your accountant before you do anything. As the above posters have said you should make a voluntary disclosure to mitagate the penalties by up to 50 %. Also there is various categories of penalties based on the level of deceipt or fraud involved. Careful wording of the disclosure is critical.

Part of the rules of voluntary disclosure is you have to calculate and pay the money up front to qualify for the reduced penalties.

You may be able to negotiate a part payment scheme if you get a reasonable revenue auditor.


Kind Regards

dbran

infamous

Hi All,

Thanks for the replys, he claimed 9k when should have been due a small refund few hundred euro. Just really unsure what route to take with the wording, put it down to a calculations error or misinterpretaion of vat rules he would have limited accounts knowledge.

Worst case scenario: civil and criminal penalties, up to c126,970 and imprisonment for a period of up to five years.

dbran

infamous wrote: »

Hi All,

Thanks for the replys, he claimed 9k when should have been due a small refund few hundred euro. Just really unsure what route to take with the wording, put it down to a calculations error or misinterpretaion of vat rules he would have limited accounts knowledge.

Put it down to a miscalculations, you are responsible for knowing about the VAT rules or getting proper advice so i'd be careful about using that as an excuse.

Also did it happen once or loads of times?

Kind Regards

dbran

infamous

Worst case scenario: civil and criminal penalties, up to c126,970 and imprisonment for a period of up to five years.

Thanks for that PG, ye one off dbran so hopefully they will accept his explanation and hit him with the fine and interest