Value Added Tax Consolidation Act 2010 section 116

Penalty for deliberately or carelessly making incorrect returns, etc.

Section 116 imposed tax-geared penalties for deliberately or carelessly furnishing incorrect VAT returns, claims or declarations, and provided for the forfeiture of goods in certain circumstances. This section ceased to apply from 25 December 2021 and was replaced by section 116A.

• Tax-geared penalties applied where a person deliberately or carelessly furnished an incorrect return, claim or declaration, or failed to furnish a return; the base penalty was 100 per cent of the tax shortfall, with reductions available for cooperation and qualifying disclosures.
• Qualifying disclosures had to be made in writing, signed, and accompanied by a declaration of completeness and a payment of the outstanding tax and interest; they were classified as either prompted (made after notification of an investigation but before it started) or unprompted (made voluntarily before any investigation or notification).
• Fixed penalties of €3,000 (careless) or €5,000 (deliberate) applied for use of incorrect documents such as invoices, credit notes or registration numbers, and a penalty of €4,000 applied for improper importation of goods or acquisition of goods using a false VAT number.
• Goods were liable to forfeiture where zero-rated export goods were found in the State, where goods were acquired VAT-free using a false VAT number, or where goods were supplied by a person who should have been but was not VAT-registered.