Irish Examiner view: Unpaid warehoused tax is a €100m scar in Ireland's post-covid economy

Revenue introduced tax debt warehousing to allow businesses survive covid-19 as trade and cashflow collapsed. Maybe they need to step up the effort to recoup the missing millions

The way we were: St Patrick's Street in Cork practically empty due to covid lockdown around noon on Wednesday April 22, 2020. This was a background to the State's debt warehousing scheme. File picture: Larry Cummins

As the Department of Finance yesterday revealed there had been little “scarring” of the Irish labour market in the post-covid era, the news came little under a week after Revenue said 7,000 companies had failed to engage with them to pay unpaid taxes.

More than €3bn in business tax debts under the debt warehousing scheme has now been settled or secured, according to the State’s tax authority. However, Revenue is now looking to reclaim some €100m in unpaid money. While some 97% of those who utilised the scheme were in compliance with its terms and responsible for some €30m in monthly collections, an alarming number are still in default.