Help with tax man

sambuka41

Bit of advice for family member. My father was self employed and his work went with the celtic tiger, he is now on dole and finding it hard to get work (as are a lot of people I know!) Problem is that he still owes tax for those years. Its personal tax,not millions either under the €10,000 mark. The guy in the tax office is hounding him for the money. My dad sent a letter offering as much as he could afford each month but they told him they dont "do negotiations"

So what can he do here? He sent all the paper work to prove that he has no money and that's all he can afford but they just keep phoning. Its really upsetting him as he has worked for over 40years and always paid his tax. MABS said that they can't help with tax.

Bigcheeze

Probably better to ask for a meeting where he can explain his situation and what he can pay. If he doesn't feel comfortable doing it alone, a family member could go with him.

They will negotiate a repayment plan with him and won't be as dismissive face to face.

dbran

Hi

+1 Bigcheese

You should try to get a meeting with the tax person involved. But you also need to come equipped with facts, don't be vague and evasive. Have an accurate statement available of your income and outgoings and how much you can afford to pay. In this statement, be sure not to include luxury or discretionary expenditure as they will just tell you to cancel them.

Be prepared to show your personal bank account etc as back up to these facts. You also need to be able to pay a decent chunk up front (say 3k) and the balance in installments over the next few years. Push for as long as you can but the max you can hope for would be about 3 years.

I have written a blog about getting into difficulties with the revenue you might find helpful. http://www.irishaccounts.ie/blog/2010/06/getting-into-difficulties-with-revenue-and-irish-tax-arrears/

If you do that, and he still wont negotiate, tell them enough of the bad cop.. you want to speak with the good cop now

Hope this helps


Kind Regards


dbran

sambuka41

dbran wrote: »

You also need to be able to pay a decent chunk up front (say 3k) and the balance in installments over the next few years. Push for as long as you can but the max you can hope for would be about 3 years.

Hey thanks for the replies. I think meeting face to face might actually help. Unfortunately he doesn't have €3000 he doesn't even have 300. The only asset he has is his house, which he cant sell (he has tried). He paid them €5000 at the start of 2009 and has been battling with them ever since. They could 18 months of payments by now but they just kept arguing with him.

But he never done face to face, dont know why that never occurred to us before!!

It's a bit of an extreme reaction to threaten someones house for €7,000??? Guess the country needs cash from anywhere they can get it.

dbran

Hi

So you are in an installment arrangement already?


dbran

sambuka41

No they wouldn't accept his offer, it was 18 months ago that he first offered to pay them a fixed amount each month. But they just keep insisting on the entire lump sum. He gave them as much as he had at the time and told them that there was no more after that. (actually the family helped at that time too because he was saying he could send a Sheriff to the house)

They took the money but disregarded his statement of how much he could pay after. And they've just been hounding him ever since. The guy has been quite rude and bullying; he's accused my dad of hiding money even though he has sent him all his bank,credit card, credit union, post office statements. Theres no money in any of them,actually he owes other people too. His work folded very unexpectedly. My dad isn't a big business man and this is really overwhelming for him,all the grief the banks get and they have been more sympathetic to his case and he owes them a mortgage!!