Liz McManus
Question:20 Ms McManus asked the Minister for Finance if he will make a statement on the most recent list of settlements announced by the Revenue Commissioners in Iris Oifigiúl on 19 March 2004. [12981/04]
View answerThursday, 6 May 2004
Questions (26)
Written answers
The criteria governing the compilation and publication of lists of certain tax defaulters are set out in section 1086 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997, as amended. This section imposes an obligation on the Revenue Commissioners to publish in Iris Oifigiúil a list, within three months of the end of each quarter, of the name, address and occupation of every defaulter who falls within the relevant criteria.
I understand from the Revenue Commissioners that the audit settlements referred to in the question posed by the Deputy are where the Revenue Commissioners accepted a specified sum in excess of €12,700 in settlement of any additional liability for tax, interest and penalties instead of instituting proceedings for the recovery of the penalties and where: a voluntary disclosure was not made by the taxpayer prior to the commencement of an audit and the amount of fine or penalty included in the settlement exceeded 15% of the tax. In the three month period to 31 December 2003 there were 182 settlements in excess of €12,700 which fell to be published. The settlements in these cases total €25.20 million.
Of the 182 published settlements, the Revenue have advised me that 62 were for amounts exceeding €100,000. Included in this figure are eight settlements with a yield in excess of €500,000, four of which had a yield in excess of €1 million. Of the 182 settlements: 141 settlements totalling €22.25 million related to bogus non-resident holders; one settlement totalling €0.58 million related to an Ansbacher account holder; and one settlement totalling €0.11 million related to Revenue's NIB investigation.
The publication of the names of defaulters has been in operation for 21 years. I have introduced changes to make the impact of the lists more effective. In that time the monetary limit of £10,000, €12,700, has not been increased although the Revenue powers group has recommended that it be increased to €50,000. I will review this and other recommendations of the group in the context of Finance Bill 2005.