Brexit and pandemic trigger surge in customs declarations

Brexit and a pandemic-related surge in ecommerce triggered a 1,400 per cent jump in customs declarations being processed by Revenue last year.

End-year figures published by the agency show it dealt with 25.4 million customs declarations on goods being imported from abroad in 2021, up from 1.8 million the previous year. Some 18.2 million related to goods being imported from Britain, which are now subject to new rules as a result of Brexit.

Customs duty collected on goods imported almost doubled to €526 million, Revenue said, with more than 40 per cent (€215 million) applying to goods imported from Britain.

Under the Brexit free-trade agreement goods imported from Britain into the EU, which do not originate in Britain, are now subject to customs duty.

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“The pandemic accelerated the growth in ecommerce which, along with new EU VAT rules that came into effect in July, has seen an exponential growth in the number of customs declarations processed,” the agency said.

It noted that on November 30th last, four days after Black Friday, it processed a record-breaking 300,000 import declarations alone.

Temporarily suspended

The UK government temporarily suspended the introduction of new import requirements that would have applied to Irish exports to Britain from the start of this month.

“ Businesses are strongly encouraged to make sure that they are familiar with and ready for the implementation of these changes when the temporary suspension is lifted,” Revenue said.

The figures showed that more than €4.6 billion was paid under the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) last year to 47,600 employers in respect of 628,000 employees.

The Covid Restrictions Support Scheme (CRSS), which provides working capital to Covid-hit businesses, issued subsidy payments worth €470 million to 21,300 businesses.

The figures also show that more than 100,000 businesses have parked debt worth nearly €3 billion under the Revenue’s Debt Warehousing Scheme. A breakdown of this showed that €1.44 billion related to VAT while €1.38 billion related to PAYE liabilities.

The Revenue said payment compliance in relation to the Local Property Tax (LPT) following the new valuation period, which began in November, was 91 per cent. Receipts transferred to Local Government Fund in 2021 – in value terms – came to €552 million.

Taxes and duties

The Revenue’s report show it collected a record €68 billion in taxes and duties for the exchequer in 2021, as well as more than €17 billion on behalf of other departments, agencies and EU member states.

During the year, it completed more than 464,060 audit and compliance interventions yielding €1.4 billion in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties. This compares to about 378,500 such interventions yielding €484 million in the previous year.

The Revenue also secured six criminal convictions for serious tax evasion and fraud, published 80 tax settlements in the tax defaulters’ list and settled 125 tax avoidance cases yielding €11.7 million.

Work tackling smuggling and other illegal activity also continued, with the seizure of more than 60 million cigarettes worth about €43.5 million and more than 5,700 kilos of drugs with an estimated value of €115 million.

‘Exceptional year’

Administrative costs for the Revenue and its 6,528 staff came to €488 million.

"The provisional statistics we have published today show that, on a number of fronts, 2021 was an exceptional year for Revenue," Revenue chairman Niall Cody said.

“The ongoing pandemic led to further economic and social disruptions during the year, with significant public health restrictions impacting many business sectors. However, despite this, there was a strong economic performance resulting in record tax receipts.”