Revenue Commission Publishes Defaulters List For First Quarter

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

15 July 2004

The Irish Revenue Commission has this week published details of audit and investigation settlements completed between January 1 and March 31, 2004.

The Defaulters List for the first quarter of this year was published in two parts, with the first listing every person upon whom a fine or penalty has been imposed in the Republic's courts for the offences of: failing to file a return; filing an incorrect return; selling tobacco illegally; smuggling cigarettes; and committing various offences under the excise and licensing acts.

The second section lists audit settlements where the Revenue Commissioners accepted a specified sum in excess of €12,700 in settlement of any additional liability for tax, interest and penalties instead of instituting proceedings for the recovery of the penalties, and where a voluntary 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.

According to the tax authority, in the three month period to 31 March 2004 there were 259 settlements in excess of €12,700 which fell to be published. The settlements in these cases have been agreed and paid by the respective taxpayers and total €47.63 million.

Of the the 259 published settlements 89 were for amounts exceeding €100,000; 16 exceeded €500,000 and 10 exceeded €1,000,000.

The Revenue Commission went on to reveal that the published settlements reflect only a portion of all Revenue audits and investigations concluded in the 3-month period to 31 March, and that the total yield from Revenue audit and investigation programmes in the period 1 January 2004 to 31 March 2004 was €104.25 million.

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