About 85 per cent of the €1.65 billion of Irish business taxes deferred during the Covid-19 pandemic had either been repaid or scheduled for future repayment by a deadline this week to avail of cheaper repayment terms, officials said on Thursday.

There were fears that the May 1st deadline could lead to a spike in business failures after 55,500 firms or individual taxpayers – 5,000 of whom owed €50,000 or more – had not put a repayment plan in place by the middle of April.

However, the Office of the Revenue Commissioners reported a surge in applications over the last week and said on Thursday that firms could still avail of a 0% interest rate and flexible payment options if they engaged immediately.

The Government introduced the tax warehousing scheme in May 2020 to help businesses navigate some of Europe’s toughest lockdowns. At its peak, over 100,000 companies or around one in three firms in the country owed €3.1 billion. – Reuters