Ireland’s Tax Man Asks For More Powers to Enforce Residency Rules

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

22 June 2004

Ireland's Revenue Commission is hoping to step up its enforcement of Ireland’s tax exile rules by gaining access to commercial flight passenger lists and private jet schedules, in order to prevent individuals falsifying the amount of time spent out of the country.

At present, investigators are only able to make cursory checks on the movements of individual taxpayers and a review has been called for to consider whether more thorough access to passenger rosters and other information is needed to police the system.

Current rules stipulate that commissioners must obtain a High Court order to gain access to such information, although this avenue has hitherto not been pursued by the tax man.

Reports also indicate that the Commission wants to reduce the number of days that non-residents may reside in Ireland for tax purposes. As in many countries, residence is assumed if an individual is present in Ireland for more than half of a tax year, or for 280 days in two consecutive years.

However, this may prove more difficult for the Revenue as such rules are governed at the EU level.

In a separate development, it has also been reported by the Times that the Revenue intends to investigate the financing of overseas property purchases by Irish citizens, and to ascertain whether the appropriate amounts of tax have been paid on exernal income or on capital gains through the subsequent sale of foreign property.

It has been estimated that up to 50,000 Irish nationals have bought property in Spain, and thousands more have acquired houses in other popular spots such as France, Portugal and the United States. The latest crackdown follows a series of dawn raids on estate agents in February, the Times report explained.

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