Ireland: Senator Attacks Non-Resident Tax Rules

by Mandy Robinson, Tax-news.com, London

18 May 2001

Senator Joe O'Toole, an independent member of Ireland's Senate and general secretary of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation, has publicly attacked some of the country's most wealthy businessmen who reside abroad to escape paying income tax.

In an address to Ireland's Institute of Internal Auditors, Senator O'Toole said there is a 'strong view' that the current non-resident tax regulations favour the rich and he named and shamed businessmen such as Tony O'Reilly and Michael Smurfit who have 'managed to get the Revenue Commissioners to agree that as long as they have left the country before midnight the day is not counted as a day in Ireland.'

Under the current law individuals considered as non-residents (i.e. those who spend a minimum of 186 days out of the country) can work in Ireland and avoid paying tax if they abide by the midnight curfew. An outraged Senator O'Toole said: 'The idea of Michael Smurfit commuting from Monaco by private plane to spend the day in Ireland and not having to declare it or the profits he made simply because he was out of the country before midnight is disgraceful and unfair.'

Mr O'Toole is demanding an immediate change in the non-resident tax rules as the only way to make the business world in Ireland 'fair, honest and tax compliant'. He said people who are 'too selfish to pay their taxes on the same basis as the rest of us... should get out and stay out.'

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