The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in €967 million less government revenue than projected for 2020, the National Audit Office has found.

That year, the Commissioner for Revenue collected €2.43 billion, a shortfall of €796 million, while Customs collected €267 million, €86.5 million lower than the projection.

The NAO said the country’s anticipated economic goals did not materialise due to the severe impact of the pandemic.

This led to a substantial drop in all income streams during 2020, against the upward trends that were seen between 2016 and 2019.

In all, €3.7 billion were collected from income tax, social security contributions, capital transfer duty, value added tax and customs.

Figures from the Commissioner for Revenue showed that the gross revenue collected from Income Tax amounted to €1.6 billion, out of which €88 million went back out as refunds.

Income from social security contributions totalled €1,064 million, nearly €85 million short of the projections. Income from customs came up short by €69 million, owing to a lower amount of excise duty collected.

The partial lockdown between March and June 2020 meant no new property contracts were entered into, explaining the adverse variance of 37% on revenue from duty on documents and transfers, the NAO said.

While VAT income had experienced a steady upward trend from 2016 to 2019, reaching €220 million over the 2015 level, in 2020 €167 million less than the previous year was collected.

Legal action and agreements on waivers of interest were the most common enforcement tools applied to collect outstanding dues.

During the year under review, the revenue commissioner’s office carried out nearly 1,500 investigations, following which €29 million in assessments were raised.

More than 500 cases were referred to the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, from which €8.2 million was recouped.

Seven cases were referred to the police as they related to tax evasion.

Total VAT collected following enforcement action amounted to €23 million.