The Revenue Commissioners are owed €85 million in unpaid taxes by Galway businesses under the Covid-19 era Debt Warehousing Scheme.
The Debt Warehousing Scheme (DWS ) was introduced during the Pandemic in May 2020, and later extended in October 2022, allowing tax payers to effectively defer paying taxes – warehouse it – under an emergency amnesty.
At its peak during 2022, over €3 billion of tax debt had been warehoused by over 105,000 businesses across Ireland. Today, around 60,000 businesses nationally still owe €1.8 billion to Revenue under the scheme, with 3,233 tax payers in Galway owing €85 million.
Most businesses owe less than €5,000 according to Revenue, although a chunky €1.5 billion (85% of the total debt ) is understood to be owed by just 10% of the participating companies. It’s unknown if any of these super debtors are based in County Galway.
Last week, Galway-based government senator Ollie Crowe (FF ) called on Revenue officials to be flexible with small businesses who face tax bills for warehoused debt.
“Recent years have been especially challenging time for businesses, particularly SMEs which have emerged from a global pandemic and faced significant cost increases in the following years due to inflation, increases in minimum wages and sick leave entitlements amongst other challenges,” he said.
