Following our highlighting of the difficulties some Chartered Accountants were experiencing in obtaining fund details from various agencies, Revenue issued a clarification on the operation of the PFT deadline of 7 June last.

The PFT notification window was scheduled to close on 7 June. We received reports from our members that the HSE and other agencies, in some instances at least, may have been tardy in responding to fund capital value enquiries. Further, we were made aware of at least one instance where the HSE commented:

• “The inclusion of Professional Added Years for the purpose of calculating a Personal Fund Threshold (PFT) is under consideration, and further advice will issue on this when a decision has been made. You should note that a PFT notification to Revenue after 6 June 2011 would be acceptable if it has not been possible to finalise your uncrystallised pension benefits as of 7th December 2010 by that date.”

Therefore we asked Revenue:

1. Will there be any leeway on the PFT notification deadline where it can be shown that information was delayed from a State or other authority?
2. Can the comment quoted from the HSE correspondence above regarding notifications after 6 June be relied upon?

Revenue responded that the position is as follows:

“Under the legislation the PFT notifications are required to be received in Revenue by 7 June 2011.

However, the legislation does make provision for a late notification (S.787P) in certain circumstances i.e. ‘. .’ if the Revenue Commissioners consider that, in all of the circumstances, the failure of the individual to meet the condition in the time limits specified in that subsection should be disregarded’.

If it is the case that an individual's PFT application arrives after the specified date and it can be shown that the failure was due to an unavoidable delay in receiving the information necessary to complete the application correctly, such as outlined by you in point (1) below, then Revenue would consider allowing a late application. It must be borne in mind that six months notification has been given for applications to be received so Revenue will expect few late applications and only if the circumstances warrant such late applications.

If the question of Professional Added Years has not been determined by 7 June 2011 that will be a situation where Revenue would be prepared to allow a late application. However it should be emphasised that Revenue will expect to receive those PFT applications within a reasonably short period once the position regarding Professional Added Years has been clarified.”