Premier Hotels in dispute over VAT bill for €230,000

PREMIER HOTELS, which was placed in liquidation last week, is in dispute with the Revenue Commissioners over a €230,000 VAT bill.

Creditors of the company recently appointed Thomas L Keane of Dublin accountancy firm, BKRM, formerly Bastow Keane, as liquidator.

Premier Hotels is part of the hotel management business Prem Group, in which developer Paddy Kelly and his family were involved until they exited last year. Prem continues to trade and is responsible for managing a number of hotels in Ireland and Europe.

Company documents show that a dispute with the Revenue Commissioners over a VAT bill related to some of its previous property dealings emerged at the recent creditors’ meeting of Premier Hotels.

The Revenue’s representative, Thomas O’Brien, questioned why the company was stating that it owed the tax authority €30,000, while the Revenue’s own estimate was in the region of €230,000.

Premier’s accountant, Anthony Weldon, of Kieran Ryan Company, said the company was disputing the additional liability and pointed out that the matter was under appeal. A spokeswoman for the company said yesterday that, as far as the directors were concerned, there was no VAT due other than the €30,000.

Premier Hotels was responsible for managing the Days Hotel close to Dublin airport up to last month, when it announced that it would hold a creditors’ meeting in the first week of August to appoint a liquidator and begin winding up the company.

Up to May 2010, it also managed 57 apartments in Sandyford, Dublin on behalf of their owners. The company owes them rent dating back to before last May.

A number of the landlords attended and spoke at the creditors’ meeting. Two pointed out that they had not received rent for several months.

The directors decided to place Premier in liquidation after failing to agree a deal on a six-figure rent arrears bill with one of its landlords, Pierse Santry Cross, a subsidiary of the Pierse construction group, which has since appointed a new management company to the hotel.