Penalty for late tax return

And what about the fact the household charge and I think also the NPPR are being added to the LPT, how will surcharges work on that?

NPPR of course is not a problem for home owners.
 
Thankfully we have only had one so far, the client somehow had prepaid the following year, so surcharge was lifted.

The penalties for LPT and NPPR are very when compared to the other taxes where a 10% -30% penalty is available.
 
I have always considered the 10% surcharge without any credit for PAYE to be very punitive. Make sure you appeal the assessment within 30 days. If you have no luck with the Revenue's discretion you can always take a case to the Ombudsman. If it goes to Appeal you probably won't get very far but at least it will stop the amount going for collection while you take your case through the Revenue system.

A number of years back two taxpayers were paying rent to a non-resident landlord and did not deduct income tax on the rent. There was no collection agent so it was correctly their liability. However upon appealing the matter to the Ombundsman it was held that it would be unfair for the taxpayers (non-chargeable persons) to expect to be aware of the provision and they not due to pay the tax that they did not withhold. Worth an attempt in any event.
 
Last edited:
  • A proprietary director is deemed to be a chargeable person, regardless of whether they derive any income from the directorship. They must file a tax return by the filing date or the surcharge applies. The surcharge is based on their liability from all sources of income.
  • Revenue will only consider a surcharge appeal if you provide a valid reason as to why the return could not have been filed on time.
Am I the only person who thinks that when you have 10 months to file a return (10.5 months if you file via ROS), and you still submit it late, you deserve to be surcharged?
 
  • A proprietary director is deemed to be a chargeable person, regardless of whether they derive any income from the directorship. They must file a tax return by the filing date or the surcharge applies. The surcharge is based on their liability from all sources of income.
  • Revenue will only consider a surcharge appeal if you provide a valid reason as to why the return could not have been filed on time.
Am I the only person who thinks that when you have 10 months to file a return (10.5 months if you file via ROS), and you still submit it late, you deserve to be surcharged?

The complaint isn't with the fact that a surcharge is imposed, its with the injustice inherent in the fact that the scale of the surcharge will be substantially higher for a so-called proprietary director than for another self-assessed individual with the same level of income.
 
Tommy,

Isn’t this because of the degree of power, which an owner-director has over company matters?
The higher surcharge is, I assume, to act as a deterrent against late or non-filing by those who have the most control because it would delay cross-checks with company returns.

Although the OP’s husband knew that he did not derive any income from the company, how would Revenue know what was happening during these 5 years in the absence of returns?

According to Tax Briefing, Issue 36, page 10, this measure was introduced for proprietary directors:

“to ensure the effectiveness of Self Assessment audits of companies.
Because of the close association between a company and its directors, the effective auditing of the company requires full returns of all payments made to or expenses incurred for the benefit of the directors.”

The above quotation refers to proprietary directors only.
 
I don't see any justification there for treating proprietary directors any differently from sole traders. Your argument about Revenue needing to know what's going on in a company is weakened by the fact that company director salaries are all subject to PAYE regulations and are reportable on P35 returns by 15 February each year. This doesn't apply to sole traders.

It says a lot that the extra surcharge for proprietary directors was introduced by the well known tax law expert and paragon of financial probity, Bertie Ahern.
 
Just wanted to update - revenue have waived the fine. I appreciate the help I received here.
 
Back
Top