BoI Warns Customers About Tax Investigation

by Carla Johnson, Investors Offshore.com

14 April 2003

The Bank of Ireland has written to around 400 customers with accounts at its Jersey branch warning that the Revenue Commissioners will be looking into their accounts in June to ascertain whether they have evaded Irish taxes.

According to the Irish Times, which saw a copy of the letter sent out by BoI, customers were told that if they had undeclared assets in their accounts, they could reduce penalties payable on those assets from 100% to between 3 and 10% by making a voluntary disclosure to the tax authority before the end of May.

According to the Times report, those who choose to take advantage of this partial amnesty are also likely to escape prosecution, and will not have their names published in the Revenue's list of tax defaulters.

Both the Revenue Commissioners and Bank of Ireland have stated that these terms have been available since September 2002 to all taxpayers wishing to make a voluntary disclosure over tax evasion activity, and are not specific to BoI customers.

Although the tax authority admitted to the Irish newspaper that it was 'unusual' for individuals to be tipped off by their bank prior to an investigation, Bank of Ireland sees nothing strange in its actions.

'We knew the Irish Revenue was shaping up to look at this and have been in discussion with them. There is no reason to believe that people have a liability, but we believed they were entitled to be told about the investigation,' a spokesman told the Times last week.

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