Vol. 461 No. 8
78 Mr. J. Mitchell asked the Minister for Finance the total amount of income tax paid by taxi drivers of all types in each of the past three years; the number of taxi drivers being pursued by the Revenue Commissioners in relation to arrears of income tax; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3960/96]
I have been informed by the Revenue Commissioners that statistics are not recorded in such a manner as would enable the precise information requested by the Deputy to be provided. The only relevant information available is an analysis of the tax returns for the income tax year 1992-93, the latest available, which indicates that a tax liability of £2.6 million arose for that year in respect of some 1,563 individuals who were identified as having income from the operation of taxi-cabs, chauffeur-driven hire cars and analogous activity. Other individuals on tax records may also have income from the same activity but are not so identified in the statistics.
Taxi-drivers are subject to the various audit and compliance programmes operated by the Revenue Commissioners. While statistics on tax arrears generally are not available by sector, it can be stated that significant progress in the carrying out of audits on taxi-drivers has been made in recent years, with nine audits completed to date for 1993, 60 audits completed for 1994 and 28 audits completed for 1995, at an average tax yield over the three years of £4,611 per completed audit. For the most part, these audits were selected on the basis of careful examination of the tax returns of taxi drivers and not on a random basis. Therefore, the results of these audits would not be representative of the tax position of that sector as a whole. The results for the 1995 programme to date are incomplete and the figures for these audits will increase over time. The increasing intensity of the audits activity is likely to have prompted an increased tax yield from this sector in more recent years.
