A farmer, haulier and agricultural contractor has lost a €1.55 million tax battle with the Revenue Commissioners in a dispute over “green diesel”.

The Tax Appeals Commission (TAC) upheld an assessment served on the farmer by the Revenue Commissioners in 2018 concerning excise duty, income tax and VAT.

Tax Appeals Commission rulings typically do not name the parties involved.

The bulk of the assessment concerned a €1.29 million excise duty bill for green diesel, along with an income tax bill of €214,663 and aVAT bill of €54,072 relatingto the green diesel.

The lower tax green diesel is used mainly for agricultural work and is restricted to off-road purposes.

The rise in the price of green diesel, which has nearly doubled from €0.97 per litre in February to €1.80 in recent weeks, was one of the driving factors in protesters mounting blockades at major ports and oil depots in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, and Galway and locations across the motorway system in the past week.

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In the case before the TAC, appeals commissioner, Conor O’Higgins said the excise duty assessment arose from the appellant’s receipt of 3.44 million litres of ultra-low sulphur marked gas oil (MGO), often referred to as green or agricultural diesel.

O’Higgins found as a material fact in the case that the farmer, haulier and agricultural contractor had paid €2.47 million for the purchase of the 3.44 million litres of green diesel in 2014 and 2015 from a firm.

O’Higgins also found as a material fact that the farmer was engaged in 2014 and 2015 in the supply of green diesel to others “presumably for profit”.

In his appeal against the Revenue assessment, the farmer stated that he was in no position to pay the €1.29 million excise duty bill and were the Revenue to seek to enforce such a debt “it would result in the inevitable collapse of his business”.

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In his oral evidence at the TAC hearing, the farmer denied that he had received 3.44 million litres of green diesel.

The farmer challenged the €1.2 million excise duty assessment claiming that the sum assessed represented an “absurd” amount of green diesel for use on a maize farm or for agricultural contracting.

He also denied that he had made supplies of fuel to other farmers in the area.

In his findings, O’Higgins found that the absence of any corroboration of the farmer’s bare assertions regarding the level of green diesel that he received in 2014 and 2015 “causes the Commissioner to doubt his oral evidence on this matter and to find that it lacks credibility”.

As such, O’Higgins said there was no basis upon which to conclude that the excise duty assessment was in error.