Taxes of €222m written off last year over failed businesses

A GROWING number of failed businesses arising out of the economic downturn led the Revenue Commissioners to write off almost €222 million in taxes last year.

The latest annual report by Revenue published yesterday also revealed that some €2.1 billion of outstanding taxes was still to be collected at the end of 2009.

It also highlighted how the scale of the economic downturn has heavily impacted on overall tax revenues, which fell by 19% last year. Overall tax receipts fell by €7.8bn to €33.3bn, and was €14bn lower than in 2007.