Thank you, Sir, for allowing me to raise this important topic. Nothing is as frustrating for the ordinary law abiding citizen as the apparent immunity from the law, including the tax law, enjoyed by some of the major crime figures in this country. This is graphically illustrated by the report in The Sunday World of 24 March 1996 concerning the tax affairs of an individual known as “the Monk” who was described as “Ireland's wealthiest gang boss”. According to the report, the individual in question was discovered to have paid no income tax between 1987 and 1991. The Revenue estimated he had earned approximately £115,000 in that period and issued a tax assessment of £57,600. Shortly afterwards, his file disappeared mysteriously. Apparently, that resulted in the tax assessment of £57,600 being withdrawn. He then assessed himself, apparently, and finished up paying £1,537.80 instead of the original sum of £57,600.
For the past six years he has paid a total of £7,925 in tax according to the newspaper report, that is, an average of £1,300 per annum. This raises the following questions which I want the Minister, or his Minister for State, to answer tonight. First, was the theft of this tax file reported to the Garda? Was there a Garda inquiry? What was the result? Was there an internal Revenue inquiry? The circumstances of this theft are extremely suspicious, in particular, in view of the fact that the exact afternoon of the file's disappearance can be pinpointed.
Second, did the Revenue not have a copy of the file data on computer? Was any effort made to reconstitute the file — I am informed that this would be quite easy to do? Third, on what basis was the original assessment of £57,600 withdrawn? It is my understanding that an assessment cannot be withdrawn or changed without evidence being produced by the taxpayer which would justify that withdrawal or change. Did this individual submit a set of accounts which would justify a change in the assessment? Did a hearing take place before the Taxation Appeal Commissioners which would justify a change in the assessment?
Fourth, in view of the fact that the original information is still available to the Revenue, why has a new assessment not been raised? Fifth, on what basis has this individual's income for tax purposes been calculated in the meantime? Does he submit accounts or is his annual tax based on Revenue estimates? Sixth, has this individual been audited since 1991? If not, why not? The Revenue invests a great deal of time and effort auditing approximately 30,000 individuals and businesses per annum. Is it not true to say that many of these are small and medium sized businesses? Will the Minister accept that much of this effort is not yielding proper value for money to the taxpayers? How many PLCs have been audited? How many multinational companies have been audited? How many Tsars of organised crime have been audited?
Seventh, did this individual avail of the tax amnesty? Is it not true that earnings from criminal activity are excluded from the ambit of the tax amnesty? Finally, what does the Revenue propose to do now? What steps do they propose to take to recover the original tax assessed of £57,600? What steps do they propose to take to raise realistic assessments for the intervening years?
Revenue has a vast array of powers available to it to bring recalcitrant taxpayers to book. These include powers to enter premises, even a private dwelling; powers of arrest; powers to seize assets and documents and powers to inspect property.
The Government should give consideration urgently now to constituting a task force drawn from the Garda, the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Social Welfare to target organised crime. If a major criminal cannot be prosecuted successfully for any breach of the ordinary criminal law, then it should be, and often is, possible to prosecute them for tax evasion or social welfare fraud. The latter day bosses of organised crime in Ireland are even more fearless, ruthless and arrogant than Al Capone. In effect, they seem to be untouchable. It is long past time for us to create our own untouchables to deal with them.
