College of Limerick is looking for Earnings mitigation from hobby and any consequences on a €1 million tax invoice, nearest purchasing 20 scholar properties within the flawed trust that the take charge of used to be released from stamp accountability.
A secret file at the affair one by one raised questions over post-deal recommendation from accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), auditors to UL’s governing frame. The file by means of former civil servant Niamh O’Donoghue mentioned PwC didn’t proper “incomplete” recommendation when UL clarified a query on stamp accountability, with months passing earlier than the legal responsibility changed into sunlit.
Stamp accountability errors compounded issues of the August 2022 housing take charge of. UL president Prof Kerstin Mey has been on unwell shed since March, nearest acknowledging the college overpaid €5.2 million for the houses.
The college paid a €1,007,866 stamp accountability invoice 3 months in the past, nearest its declare for an exemption on fields of its charitable condition used to be brushed aside.
UL didn’t snatch account of unused tax measures in 2021 when the Govt imposed stamp accountability at the bulk acquire of 10 or extra properties, to block funding finances purchasing more than one houses.
[ UL staff expressed ‘multiple concerns very early on’ over student housing project, PAC hears ]
A word for the Dáil Community Accounts Committee mentioned the plea for Earnings mitigation used to be made for Plassey Accept as true with Corporate (PTC), the campus lodging supplier.
“A submission in relation to mitigating interest and any penalties was made to Revenue by PwC on behalf of PTC on February 23rd, 2024, and a response from Revenue is awaited,” the word mentioned.
Earnings had deny remark. UL mentioned it had “nothing to add” to a listening to extreme occasion on the Dáil committee, age PwC didn’t reply to a request for remark.
It used to be the stamp accountability factor that induced UL to hunt a assessment of the housing take charge of from Ms O’Donoghue, former head of the Branch of Social Coverage. Her file, revealed in March, mentioned stamp accountability used to be first raised in a February 2022 memo from UL’s solicitor to the well-known company officer and well-known monetary and function officer.
Date it used to be asserted that “stamp duty does not arise for this acquisition” on account of UL’s charitable condition, Ms O’Donoghue mentioned that used to be no longer showed upcoming or earlier than the take charge of went for commendation.
[ Costly UL houses ‘unauthorised’ for students, Limerick planners say ]
A word that very same era from the director for structures and estates mentioned UL must search “specific advice” on stamp accountability: “There is no evidence that the suggestion was followed up at the time.”
The stamp accountability factor didn’t rise once more till August 2023 when a “very short query” used to be raised with PwC looking for affirmation of a charitable condition exemption.
“The response to this query, unfortunately, is incomplete insofar as it did not refer to the removal of the exemption (in 2021) where the acquisition related to 10 or more residential units,” she mentioned.
[ UL president takes sick leave as governing authority met to discuss report on €5.2m housing overpayment ]
“The incomplete nature of the response is somewhat explained because the query raised did not outline the nature of the intended purchase (20 houses). However, when this was clarified later, the advice which had been initially provided was not corrected. This meant that the liability to stamp duty did not become apparent until some months later.”
