Some €120m of outstanding tax debt dating back to the Covid 19 pandemic has been deemed uncollectable by the Revenue Commissioners, according to the Minister for Finance Michael McGrath.
The written-off tax income relates to companies that became insolvent or bankrupt.
Speaking in Brussels, Mr McGrath said a further €200m in "active tax debt" remained outstanding and that 11,700 businesses had been served with notices by Revenue last week.
"They now need to make contact with the Revenue Commissioners, either by phone or online, if they are to avail of the very final opportunity to take advantage of the 0% interest rate that we agreed back in February, and also the enhanced flexibilities," he told reporters.
The minister warned those businesses that "the Revenue Commissioners will go about their work in the normal way, with the normal interest rates applying, and that would make life more difficult for businesses, because the interest rates can be burdensome."
During the pandemic, the Government set up a "tax debt warehousing scheme" that allowed for the deferral of the payment of VAT, Employer PAYE, and certain self-assessed income tax liabilities.
The deferred tax debt was "parked" at 0% interest up to December 31, 2022.
The scheme was extended in October 2022 to the effect that businesses had until May 1 this year to repay the tax debt, at a reduced rate of 3%, compared to the general interest rate of 10%.
Mr McGrath said the bulk of the 11,700 businesses who still owe €200m in unpaid tax is made up of 800 businesses who owe more than €50,000 each.
He said of the initial €3.2 billion in warehoused tax debt, some €1.6 billion had been repaid by April 1.
"Overall, that represents excellent progress. I want to commend the Revenue, the businesses and their advisors, for all of the work that has been undertaken in recent weeks to get us to this point," the minister told reporters ahead of a meeting of EU finance ministers.
"There is an amount of about €120m of tax debt that has been deemed uncollectible by Revenue for various reasons, that would include insolvencies, bankruptcies," he said.
"It was always expected that there would be some proportion of the overall amount that would not ultimately be collectible, but in the context of €3.2 billion of tax that were warehoused in very dark times during Covid-19, I think that that is a relatively modest overall proportion," he added.
