Fuels group faces €400,000 Revenue bill if it fails to repay €100,000 Covid support

A fuel and oil distributor and retailer has been warned that it faces a Revenue bill of €400,678 if it doesn’t repay Covid-19 supports of €100,169 without “unreasonable delay”.

Tax Appeals Commissioner Andrew Feighery upheld a Revenue Commissioners’ finding that the firm didn’t qualify for inclusion in the Covid Restrictions Support Scheme (CRSS).

Mr Feighery ruled the oil distribution company must now repay the €100,169 paid to the firm in error. Failing this, Revenue is authorised to demand €400,678.80 from the fuel business – four times the amount paid out in error.

A company director told the commission that he had had to refinance the business during the Covid period to keep it afloat. To now ask for repayment of the sums paid to it could result in the forced decision of having to cease trading, he said.

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The firm applied for inclusion in the CRSS on November 5th, 2020 and was approved for registration on November 17th.

However, Revenue carried out a review and determined in June 2021 that the business was not eligible for inclusion in the scheme and demanded the return of the €100,169 paid to that point. This was appealed to the Tax Appeals Commission by the firm.

Revenue foundthe business was considered an essential service and was not required to prohibit or significantly restrict members of the public from accessing its business premises – an essential requirement to qualify for payments under the CRSS.

When Revenue requested repayment of the money, an agent for the oil distributor told Revenue it was “unjust and unreasonable to expect my client to repay this amount when they were awarded the scheme and understood they were eligible after Revenue carried out their initial assessment at the point of registration”.

His client “simply does not have the resources to repay this back as they are already under severe financial strain”, the agent stated.

A director of the business told the Tax Appeals Commission that the business was under severe financial strain owing, not only to the loss of custom but also arising from stiff cross-Border competition, to which it was particularly vulnerable due to its geographic location.

Mr Feighery in his ruling said the business should have been deemed ineligible for inclusion in the CRSS and should not have received any payment as the turnover of the business fell as a consequence of Covid-19 and not as a result of “specific terms of the Covid restrictions announced by the Government”.