Final Demand from Revenue. HAP property.

I'm wondering if this has happened to anyone else. I just opened my letterbox to find a final demand from revenue for 4.5k!

It seems they sent an amended assessment via ROS in April. I only ever log into ROS to do my tax return so I missed this completely.

I got no other notification in writing from them that I can recall but that's not the issue at hand.

The amended notice gives no credit for the 4,5k that Limerick city and county council withheld and allegedly forwarded to revenue. I have the R185 form from the council and the amount being demanded exactly matches what the council say was forwarded or would be forwarded to revenue.

Clearly something has gone wrong and either the tax was not forwarded (correctly) or it was not processed correctly by Revenue.

Nicely I have been given until tomorrow to pay this money I don't owe.

Has this happened to anyone else? Correct me if I'm wrong but as I'm non-resident the legal responsibility for paying 20% of the rent was always the tenant's and even in the unlikely event the money has vanished, I am not personally liable. Is that right?

I will get straight on the phone in the morning but it would be nice to hear that I'm not alone and that it's trivial to clear up!

Thanks for any pointers.

I hope you can get through!
Last time their answering service told me to go online
Because they don't have capacity to answer all the calls

You should outline the situation on MyEnquiries immediately, as there will be a written record that you contacted them.
If you have difficulty getting through on the phone, you will know that the issue is on record even uif it takes a while to sort out.

Excellent call. I've filed a enquiry there just now to get something in the system. While I was in there I found the original request from Revenue to see the R185, so let this be a lesson to anyone like me who wasn't keeping an eye on my Revenue correspondence! They have until now, never asked to see the R185 so I always assumed they reconciled these things internally. I guess they just take your word for it and occasionally "audit" them. I will be more careful to watch out for this in future. Interestingly the demand for the R185 only came in February of this year, 4 months after the tax return had been submitted. I think my email programme's spam filter swallowed the ROS alert that I had correspondence.

murphaph1 said:

Correct me if I'm wrong but as I'm non-resident the legal responsibility for paying 20% of the rent was always the tenant's and even in the unlikely event the money has vanished, I am not personally liable. Is that right?

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I don't think that this is right.

The tenant's responsibility is to forward payment of withholding tax, its still your responsibility to pay the income tax.

If the tenant has forwarded the payment you can deduct the amount from your income tax. If they haven't you cannot. They have not done what they should but you are still liable for the full amount of income tax.

Luckily for you Limerick Co. Co are unlikely to have run off with your money, much more likely to have a snafu in their paperwork.

Resign yourself to half a day on the phone, you are unlikely to be out the money.

Do try and resolve the thing asap. A Final Demand automatically leads to Sheriff or other enforcement if not acted on within the timeframe set out in the Demand.

Thanks all. The gentleman who originally requested the R185 has confirmed receipt of same in ROS myEnquiries and told me a new assessment with the credited 4.5k of withheld tax will issue shortly. So all is well, but a lesson learned! I don't even need to call them as the matter was responded to first thing this morning, so fair play to Revenue. It would take an awful lot longer dealing with the German Finanzamt!

murphaph1 said:

It seems they sent an amended assessment via ROS in April. I only ever log into ROS to do my tax return so I missed this completely.

I got no other notification in writing from them that I can recall but that's not the issue at hand.

Click to expand...

The normal practice is that the Revenue system automatically sends an email (to whatever email address you have registered with them) to advise you that you have new correspondence waiting in "myEnquiries" - so check your spam folder for April and if you find the email there then mark it as "not Spam"!

Groucho said:

The normal practice is that the Revenue system automatically sends an email (to whatever email address you have registered with them) to advise you that you have new correspondence waiting in "myEnquiries" - so check your spam folder for April and if you find the email there then mark it as "not Spam"!

Click to expand...

Notices of Assessment aren't normally issued via MyEnquiries though.

T McGibney said:

Notices of Assessment aren't normally issued via MyEnquiries though.

Click to expand...

Then perhaps I've got the name wrong! What I was referring to is the email inbox that one accesses after logging in to ROS.

UPDATE:

This is the sort of email that I was referring to:

Yeah it was in the damn spam folder still. Marked as definitely not spam now!