HSE pays over €3m to Revenue after self-review reveals liability

More than €3 million was paid by the Health Service Executive to Revenue last autumn on foot of an internal self-review which identified tax liabilities.

The HSE said it had made a self-correction disclosure and payment to Revenue last September of €3.175 million, which included interest. The payment was made in respect of 2019, official papers released at the weekend show.

The HSE’s audit and risk committee was told that of the payment made, 53 per cent was directly attributable to payroll taxes and 37 per cent related to VAT.

The committee was also told that 5.6 per cent of the payment related to interest; 4 cent to relevant contract tax, while 0.8 per cent of the total was linked to professional services withholding tax.

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Some of the payment related to money paid by the HSE to non-Irish employment agencies that provided staff to the health service. The committee was told that this arose when the HSE cannot “get confirmation that the relevant non-Irish agency has accounted to Revenue for Irish payroll taxes from payments to these agency staff”.

The HSE said it had carried out a significant self-review of tax compliance for 2019. This had involved the assistance of external tax specialists and the process was completed last year.

"The self-review was conducted on an agreed risk-based assessment across all tax heads for which the HSE needs to account. The liability to taxes identified in the course of the self-review for 2019 was set out by means of a self-correction disclosure and payment (including interest) of €3.175 million was made to the Revenue Commissioners in September 2020," the HSE said in a statement.

“The HSE paid taxes in 2019 in the amount of circa €1.9 billion and therefore the self-correction made represents less than 0.17 per cent of the overall tax paid by the HSE for that year. The HSE has a dedicated in-house tax team resourced by tax professionals developing a strong relationship with Revenue and with access to external advisors where necessary. The HSE remains committed to exemplary tax compliance.”