THE MINISTER FOR Finance Paschal Donohoe has confirmed that the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) has this year made a payment of €1.9 million to the Revenue Commissioners arising from an unprompted voluntary disclosure.

In total, Minister Donohoe revealed that NAMA has made payments totalling €4.4 million concerning two separate unprompted voluntary disclosures over the past five years.

In a written Dáil reply to Deputy Dara Calleary, Minister Donohoe stated that the voluntary disclosure concerning this year’s €1.9 million payment was made to the Revenue with regard to the treatment of Professional Services Withholding Tax (PWST) to professional services providers that were not engaged by NAMA.

Minister Donohoe stated that the €1.9 million payout to Revenue followed up on a €600,000 payment to Revenue in 2017 concerning the same unprompted disclosure with regard to the treatment of PWST.

A NAMA spokesman said today: “The matter arose as NAMA settled payments to third parties for professional services engaged by debtors and receivers on secured assets. NAMA identified the issue proactively and brought it to Revenue’s attention.”

Minister Donohoe stated that the other unprompted voluntary disclosure was made in 2017 and concerned the payment of €1.9 million to Revenue with regard to the treatment of VAT on professional services received from outside of Ireland.

In a separate Dáil reply on the issue of settlements with Revenue by State agencies, the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly told Deputy Calleary that the HSE made a self correction disclosure and payment, including interest, of €3.17 million to the Revenue Commissioners in September 2020.

Minister Donnelly stated that this followed a review that the HSE conducted itself for 2019.

He stated that in each of the past five years, the HSE has carried out a significant self-review of tax compliance with external specialist tax assistance.

He said: “These self-reviews are conducted on an agreed risk based assessment with Revenue under their cooperative compliance framework.”

He said that the level of review for 2019 was impacted by Covid-19 staffing requirements, and it was agreed with Revenue to perform a review focussed on specific areas which gave rise to the significant liabilities in previous years.