Doing business with the Revenue Commissioners is not supposed to be a pleasure, but nobody told that to Waterford builder Mr Noel Frisby.
Faced with a £2 million bill in tax arrears, interest and penalties, Mr Frisby decided there was "nothing for it but to pay up and be done with it". Far from being a knockout blow, it didn't even hurt.
"It gave me great pleasure to be able to write a cheque of that size to the Revenue Commissioners and stay afloat," Mr Frisby said yesterday. "Quote me on that." His settlement with Revenue, one of the largest of its kind, is one of 55 totalling £4.9 million, published in the latest edition of Iris Oifigi·il.
Mr Frisby, one of Waterford's best-known businessmen and the builder of many of the city's major housing estates, said a tax scheme that "came adrift" was responsible for the arrears that resulted in the huge tax bill.
A Revenue audit of his company, Pineview Construction, covering an 11-year period up to 1997, identified arrears of more than £500,000. Interest and penalties of £1.2 million were added. In addition, Mr Frisby was found personally liable for £128,000 in arrears, interest and penalties.
Pineview was no longer trading and his current company, Noel Frisby Construction, was "completely up to date" with its tax liabilities, he said. Mr Frisby and his wife, Ms Stephanie Taheny, a former Waterford Corporation planning officer, are directors of both companies.
The tax scheme which had fallen foul of Revenue officials was "a complex matter", he said.
"We thought it was okay, they said it wasn't - that was the nuts and bolts of it . . . We've put it behind us now and we're driving on."
