In my Financial Statement to the House on 11 October 2016, I indicated that I would act to restrict the opportunity for tax defaulters to use the voluntary disclosure regime with effect from May 2017. In line with this undertaking, section 56 of the Finance Act 2016 provided that, as and from the voluntary disclosure deadline date, the making of a qualifying disclosure is no longer permitted where the tax liabilities involved relate to offshore matters.
The period during which a qualifying disclosure could be made to the Revenue Commissioners in relation to offshore matters ended on 4 May 2017. Disclosures received are still being processed and final data about them will be available shortly. I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that the number of disclosures exceeds 2,500, with a value of more than €73 million. I understand also that the disclosures relate to a range of offshore matters, including foreign sources of employment–related income, foreign pensions, income from overseas property, offshore bank accounts and trusts and funds. A breakdown between tax, interest and penalties is not available at this point.
Revenue will now proceed to examine all of the disclosures received, to determine which of them can be settled without further action and to identify any cases in which further inquiries may be required before they can be brought to finality. Anybody who has tax liabilities relating to offshore matters and who did not act by the deadline of 4 May to address them now faces the prospect of substantially higher penalties, publication in Revenue’s quarterly list of tax defaulters and possible prosecution. Revenue has assured me that it is committed to making full and effective use of the large volumes of data that it will receive, under international arrangements for the automatic exchange of information, to identify and pursue anybody who attempts to evade his or her tax obligations by using offshore accounts, assets or structures.
