Revenue Sheriff letter

Confused dad

Looking for some advice. I wound down a small business last in 2018 to take up full time employment. My tax bill for 2018 came in much higher that expected at 5 thousand (tax credits moved over to my main job). I approached revenue who were quite accommodating. I made a 50% down payment and was to enter into a phased payment arrangement for the balance. I had to set up the phased payment plan through ROS. Due to some technical difficulties with ROS it took longer than expected to set up same. The Caseworker put a stop on the liability for " a few weeks" on 14th February to allow time for a decision on a credit union loan (to pay down payment) and to sort issues with ROS. Got a letter from the Sheriffs office today demanding full payment of the balance with interest and sheriffs fees and threatening seizure of goods. I called the sheriffs office to ask when it was referred and to explain the situation. I Was told they had no information on my case other than a warrant and to contact revenue myself. I found that a little strange. I then Contacted my case worker in revenue and they said they can't promise anything regarding withdrawing the warrant. I didn't ignore any letters from revenue and called them the day after my return was submitted to explain that I didn't have the funds to settle the liability up front and to make an arrangement to settle the bill as quickly as possible. Am I wrong to think that referring it on to a sheriff without even a final demand issuing in the post is a little heavy handed? Anyone else had any experience of this?

davindub

Confused dad wrote: »

Looking for some advice. I wound down a small business last in 2018 to take up full time employment. My tax bill for 2018 came in much higher that expected at 5 thousand. I approached revenue who were quite accomodating. I made a 50% down payment and was to enter into a phased payment arrangement for the balance. I had to set up the phased payment plan through ROS. Due to some technical difficulties with ROS it took longer than expected to set up same. The Caseworker put a stop on the liability for " a few weeks" on 14th february to allow time for a decision on a credit union loan (to pay down payment) and to sort issues with ROS. Got a letter from the Sheriffs office today demanding full payment of the balance with interest and sheriffs fees and threatening seizure of goods. I called the sheriffs office to ask when it was referred and to explain the situation. Was told they had no information on my case other than a warrant and to contact revenue myself. Contacted revenue and they said they can't promise anything regarding withdrawing the warrant. Anyone else had any experience of this?

Ask the sheriff for a payment plan instead of Revenue, they might accept it, but 2500 and the sherriffs fees is a low amount so it might be better to get a loan elsewhere to pay for it.

Once an amount has gone to the sheriff, Revenue won't do a PPA on it.

Confused dad

Thanks Davindub. Forgive my ignorance, but what is a PPA?

GM228

Confused dad wrote: »

Thanks Davindub. Forgive my ignorance, but what is a PPA?

A phased payment arrangement.

Confused dad

Cheers, I'm a little green with these things. I would rather deal directly with revenue if possible and not with the sheriff. Would I have any recourse with revenue given that I had made a 50% down payment and was in the process of setting up a payment plan with them (all agreed with the caseworker). I think the actions from revenue are completely disproportionate to the situation, given that I was completely proactive in dealing with the situation.

Podge201

Borrow the few quid off someone and pay your debt.

mickdw

I think its really over the top what revenue have done in not following through with what they have said. Still once its gone to sherif, id imagine you are best deal with now and pay them off quickly.

davindub

Confused dad wrote: »

Cheers, I'm a little green with these things. I would rather deal directly with revenue if possible and not with the sheriff. Would I have any recourse with revenue given that I had made a 50% down payment and was in the process of setting up a payment plan with them (all agreed with the caseworker). I think the actions from revenue are completely disproportionate to the situation, given that I was completely proactive in dealing with the situation.

It's unfortunate but you don't have recourse, revenue have full discretion on how to collect monies due after the due date.

BnB

davindub wrote: »

It's unfortunate but you don't have recourse, revenue have full discretion on how to collect monies due after the due date.

I think you're right here. We had a similar(ish) experience about 10 years ago now. I don't know if things have changed since.

As a small business, we were submitting out VAT returns and were short about €5k to pay. We were due payment of a significant invoice (from a government body) for work already completed 3 weeks after the due date to revenue and this would have given us the money to pay the VAT return.

We rang revenue about it and explained the situation. They told us to get written confirmation that the invoice would be paid in 3 weeks (we did) and submit it with our return. We did all that and all was good.

Out of the blue, the following week we get a knock on the door of the business and who was it only the sheriff. Demand for the full money straight away.

The most infuriating thing was that it changed nothing. We didn't have the money - we couldn't pull it out of the air. We still had to wait a few weeks till the invoice was paid, and then we paid Revenue as we said we would. The only difference was, we had to give an additional almost €1k to the Sheriff for him walking down to our office one afternoon for 5 minutes.

We appealed and appealed up the line in revenue and got talking to supervisors and next level up again etc but in the end we had to give up for the good of our mental health. They were all just towing the line and not going to turn on the first one that made the decision.

Cedrus

I feel that Revenue have got very trigger happy with referring late payments to the sheriff in the last year. The new way of doing PAYE returns seems to be something to do with it and these also is a disconnect with the Revenue inspectors and ROS.

Last year I was working mad hours to get a project done about the time my P30 was due so missed the deadline, I copped it and paid it about two weeks late. A day or two later the Sheriffs letter landed in with all the dire threats. I had the money so decided to pay it and let my accountant fight it later, unfortunately (fortunately) I forgot to sign the cheque. A week later my cheque came back with a letter pointing out my error but also saying that as the debt was paid before the warrant was issued, the warrant was quashed.

Roll on a couple of months, the next VAT3 is due, I go online and pay it, in plenty of time. A week after the due date I get a letter from Revenue threatening me with the Sheriff so I check ROS to see if I'm going mad. ROS says that I elected to pay a future bill on a date 6 months after I thought I had paid this bill! So, I pay the bill, check the date, check that it actually went through. A few days later another dire warning letter arrives from Revenue so I rang them and a very nice Inspector had a look and confirmed that I had paid, asked how to cancel the future bill that I apparently elected to pay and was told "Oh, you'lll have to call ROS about that, they are a law unto themselves".