A Government Minister has suggested it will be possible for taxes owed by struggling small businesses to be written down in new âexaminership-liteâ proposals that could be enacted before the summer.
Robert Troy, Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, says he will bring proposals to Cabinet next week for a so-called âsummary rescueâ process for SMEs. This would allow insolvent SMEs to restructure debts using a fast-track administrative process, without the huge expense of going to court, which makes the current examinership system too costly for many SMEs.
Revenue is a priority creditor under insolvency law and gets paid ahead of most other creditors when a business goes bust, although in practice judges often sanction tax write-down deals in a full court-administered examinership.