Revenue does recognise the difficulty farmers will face in paying the income tax now demanded on purchased patronage shares.On 18 November, the day the initial letters were posted to Kerry farmers, internal emails between officials including Kerry tax district manager Anne Dullea, assistant secretary for the southwest Charlie Phelan and national commissioner Gerry Harrahill discussed this.
Revenue does recognise the difficulty farmers will face in paying the income tax now demanded on purchased patronage shares.
On 18 November, the day the initial letters were posted to Kerry farmers, internal emails between officials including Kerry tax district manager Anne Dullea, assistant secretary for the southwest Charlie Phelan and national commissioner Gerry Harrahill discussed this.
Dullea reported she had a meeting with Kerry Co-op secretary Brian Durran that morning and received a phone call from an unidentified man understood to be involved in Kerry Co-op’s tax affairs. “Brian advised him that a lot of the shareholders are broke,” Dullea wrote.
“I advised that such taxpayers would also have difficulties paying other taxes as well and would be dealt with through Revenue’s normal suite of options for taxpayers in such situation including inability to pay in extreme cases,” she added.
Despite this, Dullea wrote that some letters had already gone and all 400 would be in the post that day.
She brought up the farmers’ expected difficulties to pay as an afterthought in a second email, apologising that she “forgot to mention” that aspect in her first message.
Listen to a discussion of the Revenue's Kerry co-op project in our podcast below:
Listen to "Inside the Revenue's Kerry co-op project" on Spreaker.
Read more
Exposed: Revenue’s Kerry co-op project
3,500 Kerry suppliers to get tax bills this year
Only 128 share sales over seven years
The people at the centre of Kerry shares project
More than €400,000 in tax already recouped from Kerry Co-op shareholders
Kerry case leads to Revenue staff manual revision
Revenue may target 2013 Kerry spin-out
Revenue to use UK case law to defend Kerry tax approach
Full coverage: the Revenue's Kerry co-op project
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: