Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 April 2014
111. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Finance the number of Revenue Commissioner's staff devoted to chasing the property tax as a proportion of total staff; and what the intake would be from redirecting those staff to pursuing black market activity and-or tax evasion. [16285/14]
View answerI am taking it that the Deputy is referring to follow up activity in relation to property owners who are not complying with their Local Property Tax (LPT) obligations. In this regard, I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that very little activity of this nature has taken place to date and accordingly it is not possible to disaggregate the numbers as requested by the Deputy. The staff currently assigned to the LPT project are involved in a range of activities primarily focussed on supporting voluntary compliance. This includes providing customer support, updating the register and processing returns and payments for LPT. This year, up to 31 March, some 82,000 telephone calls and about 90,000 items of correspondence have been handled by Revenue staff in relation to LPT and Household charge.
As the Revenue Commissioners announced some weeks ago, a final opportunity was afforded to property owners to bring their LPT and Household charge affairs up to date before they begin to focus on tackling LPT non-compliance. This will commence in the coming weeks as soon as Revenue has processed the large volume of payments and correspondence, of which there is about 40,000 items on hand, received up to 31 March. The Commissioners advise me that they expect to deploy 40-50 full time staff initially on this work.
In regard to LPT staffing, it is internationally recognised that property taxes require proportionately more resources to administer compared to other forms of taxation. However, the introduction of property taxes needs to be considered in the context of broadening the overall tax base to achieve a more sustainable fiscal position. I am satisfied that Revenue has prioritised its staffing resources appropriately to ensure the successful introduction of a significant new tax.
The Revenue Commissioners are subject to the Employment Control Framework staffing reductions imposed since 2009 in the context of government policy Revenue's overall staffing levels have reduced from a total of 6,581 at the end of 2008 to its current level of 5,757. Notwithstanding this reduction, Revenue staff resources assigned to compliance activities have been maintained at around 2,000. These front-line activities include anti-smuggling and anti-evasion, investigation and prosecution, audit, assurance checks, anti-avoidance, returns compliance and debt management. I am satisfied that the Revenue Commissioners have accorded a very high priority to tackling tax and duty evasion, including the shadow economy. Revenue is committed to ensuring that despite the staff reductions that this compliance work will continue to be resourced to the maximum extent possible.
The return on investment can vary depending on the activity and the availability of suitably trained and experienced staff. There is a very different grade and skills mix, for example, between LPT and revenue audit activity. Reassigning staff from one activity to another would require significant investment in learning and development before they become fully effective in their new role. Once fully trained, the direct return on investment for a Revenue auditor could be expected to be €10 for every €1 spent.
