As the Deputy is aware, Revenue is precluded by virtue of the provisions of section 851A of the Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997 from providing public comment on the tax affairs of both individuals and other entities, such as corporates. As a result, Revenue is, on occasion, prevented from providing a detailed breakdown of data which would facilitate the identification, with a degree of probability, of individual taxpayers. Revenue is also obliged by the provisions of the legislation to ensure that taxpayer information about individual taxpayers or a small group of taxpayers cannot be deduced from data released. Accordingly, I am advised by Revenue that it is not in a position to make any comment whatever about the matters raised in this question.
It should be noted that Revenue’s responsibilities are confined to ensuring that taxpayers comply with tax and customs legislation. I am advised by Revenue that its compliance management framework is data driven, based on the identification of tax risks and responsive to the taxpayer’s own behaviour. The selection of a case for a compliance intervention, and the nature of that intervention, is determined by the tax risks presented by the case. Taxpayers are selected for compliance interventions based on the presence of various risk indicators in accordance with the “Code of Practice for Revenue Audit and other Compliance Interventions”. This Code of Practice may be consulted at the following link www.revenue.ie/en/self-assessment-and-self-employment/code-of-practice-and-compliance/index.aspx.
With regard to the Deputy’s question on the transfer of money to offshore jurisdictions, I would note that any business or person operating within the State, regardless of origin, is subject to anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) regulatory measures contained in the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010, and falls under the supervision of the relevant competent authority to ensure that it is in compliance with these obligations.
In addition to these direct measures, Irish solicitors, auditors, bankers, paying agents and registrars are subject to AML/CFT requirements in respect of their own customers.
Ireland’s AML regime has recently been peer reviewed by the FATF and this evaluation found that “Ireland has a sound and substantially effective regime to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing”. The competent authorities under the Act follow a risk-based approach in the supervision of their respective sectors and have established good cooperation with financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions. Coordination, cooperation and the use of financial intelligence are strong points of the Irish AML/CFT framework.
