asked the Minister for Finance the average delay by the Revenue Commissioners in presenting VAT and income tax cheques for payment.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - VAT and Income Tax Cheques.
8.
I understand from the Revenue Commissioners that the procedures operated by the Collector-General are designed to have all payments of £5,000 or over lodged on the day following their receipt. This is aimed at achieving as far as possible the objective of protecting the cash-flow to the Exchequer.
The volume of payments amounting to less than £5,000 each is large and tends to fluctuate considerably from day to day. It would be neither cost-effective nor feasible to set the staffing level on a continuing basis at that required to dispose immediately of peak volumes of payments in this category. A sample survey suggests that there is an average of three days in lodging payments in this category.
Longer delays than those mentioned may occasionally occur. These generally arise where it is not immediately clear what a taxpayer's intention is regarding the appropriation of a particular payment and some investigation is required before receipting and lodging can proceed.
My understanding is that there are delays of far longer then three days in cashing cheques under £5,000. Would the Minister indicate what financial gains or savings there would be in the prompt lodgment of these cheques?
I am sure what the Deputy says is correct because the figure of three days that I gave is an average and so, by definition, quite a number of cheques are not lodged within three days. Equally, the same number would be lodged in less than three days. I think the problem here is really staff. These peaks tend to come occasionally and, if you have sufficient staff to make sure that they were all lodged in time, you would have that staff perhaps not fully occupied for most of the year. For example, one peak occurs in the latter half of November. All self-employed tax and farm tax falls due on 1 October and more than 55 per cent of the annual yield of these taxes is paid and lodged between mid-November and mid-December, because of the operation of the period of grace for interest etc. Obviously, you will have peaks of that kind and difficulties arise. It is a pragmatic judgment for the Revenue Commissioners to decide how many staff to allocate to this work. I have not yet had an opportunity to have discussions with the Revenue Commissioners, but I shall raise this matter with them and ask if they have any observations to make on what Deputy Doyle has said.