Ireland Publishes Defaulters List

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

15 March 2010

The Irish Revenue Commission has published details of its latest defaulters list which contains details of audit and investigation settlements completed by the Revenue in the period from October 1, 2009, to December 31, 2009.

The defaulters list comprises two sections, the first part being a list of every person upon whom a fine or other penalty was imposed by a court for committing the following offences:

• Failing to file a return;
• Filing an incorrect return;
• Illegally selling tobacco;
• Cigarette smuggling; and/or
• Committing various excise and licensing offences.

The second section lists audit settlements where the Revenue Commissioners have accepted a specified sum in settlement of any additional liability for tax, interest and penalties instead of instituting proceedings for the recovery of the penalties, and where a qualifying disclosure was not made by the taxpayer prior to the commencement of an audit, and the amount of fine or penalty included in the settlement exceeded 15% of the tax.

In the three-month period to December 31, 2009, there were 88 settlements accepted, totaling EUR28.96m, significantly more than that recorded in the previous quarter, when 76 settlements were agreed for a cumulative of EUR17.66m. Of the 88 published settlements, 44 were for amounts exceeding EUR100,000, of which the number of cases exceeding EUR500,000 doubled over the quarter to fourteen, and seven of that fourteen exceeded EUR1m.

Of the 88 settlements:

• 9 settlements totaling EUR1.96m related to Bogus Non-Resident account holders;
• 11 settlements totaling EUR9.61m related to Revenue investigations into Offshore Funds – an almost fourfold increase, and;
• 17 settlements totaling EUR2.23m related to the Revenue’s Single Premium Insurance Products Cases.

The published settlements reflect only a portion of all Revenue audits and investigations concluded in the three-month period to September 30, 2009. The total yield from Revenue audit and investigation programs settled in the period October 1 to December 31, 2009 was EUR119.5m. The total figure includes tax, interest and penalties.

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