University College Dublin (UCD) has paid close to €1 million to the Revenue Commissioners arising from an underpayment of VAT.
The university made a voluntary disclosure to the Revenue Commissioners regarding the issue. The payment to the Revenue Commissioners includes over €230,000 in interest.
In a statement, UCD told The Irish Times that the liability arose from an oversight in self-accounting for VAT on some transactions and non-EU purchases.
UCD said it had identified the issues itself and had self-reported to the Revenue Commissioners.
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The State’s spending watchdog, the Comptroller and Auditor General, told the Dáil Public Accounts Committee last Thursday that UCD had made a voluntary disclosure in relation to the underpayment of VAT.
Comptroller Seamus McCarthy said the issue related to the underpayment of VAT between 2018 and 2023.
He said the amount involved was €695,000 but because of the delay in making the VAT payment, a considerable level of interest – a total of €236,000 – was applied.
However, Mr McCarthy said because there was a voluntary disclosure by UCD, it avoided penalties being applied by the Revenue Commissioners.
He said the total amount paid over in payments and interest to the Revenue Commissioners by UCD was €931,000.
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Mr McCarthy indicated that the issue arose due to a misinterpretation by UCD of invoices which had been presented from abroad. He suggested that probably there was an unusual category of transactions involved.
In a statement to The Irish Times, UCD said: “The liability arises from an oversight in self-accounting for VAT on certain inter-subsidiary transactions and non EU purchases which was later identified by the university and self-reported.”
UCD did not reply to further questions about the background to the transactions and purchases concerned.
A note in UCD’s annual accounts for 2024 said it made a voluntary disclosure to Revenue in March 2025 in relation to a VAT liability arising on certain invoices from overseas subsidiaries and non-EU suppliers.
Separately, the accounts also maintain that UCD had “assessed expenditure of €1.46 million as having been non-compliant with public procurement regulations during the financial year ended September 30th, 2024”.
