Vol. 576 No. 6
32 Mr. Costello asked the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to the recent claim made by the chairman of ISME that the black economy was costing the State up to ?6 billion annually, with a loss to the Exchequer of ?2 billion in unpaid taxes each year; his views on the figures quoted by ISME; the steps being taken to eliminate the black economy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30081/03]
I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that it has not proved possible to design a tool which is capable of computing shadow economy activity with any level of certainty as all available techniques for measuring the magnitude of the shadow economy suffer from significant limitations. Countering tax evasion in the shadow economy is a major focus of every tax administration in the developed world including Ireland. The primary focus of revenue administration as set out in the Revenue Commissioners' statement of strategy 2003-05 is on improving compliance and maximising revenue collection. The Office of the Revenue Commissioners has recently established a new organisational structure that is focused on the needs and risks in its customer base. Through its new structures, Revenue will better target potential areas of fraud and evasion and effectively deploy its resources to address these areas. Revenue is in the process of deploying advanced risk assessment and case targeting tools to ensure that its audit and investigation resources are deployed where they are most needed.
In addition, the hidden economy monitoring group has been in existence for a number of years under the terms of the national agreements between Government and the social partners and it continues to meet as appropriate to monitor developments and review the effectiveness of measures to combat tax evasion and social welfare fraud. I have asked the Revenue Commissioners to bring the claim of the chairman of ISME to the attention of the group at its next meeting in January.
