Revenue Commission Widens Irish Insurance Policy Tax Probe

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

13 April 2005

The Irish Revenue Commission has widened its investigation into outstanding tax from insurance-based investments to include new forms of life assurance products not initially included in the probe, the Irish Times reported this week.

According to the report, the Revenue is extending its investigation beyond outstanding liabilities from single life insurance policies to include unit-linked bonds, tracker bonds and guaranteed growth bonds.

Measures passed in the Irish Finance Bill have given the Revenue Commission the tools to collect an estimated EUR1 billion in outstanding tax from around EUR30 billion worth of life insurance policies bought between 1988 and 2001.

The investigation is similar in form to the recent probe into offshore bank accounts, and tax officials will be given the right to access the accounts and telephone records of suspects, in addition to new powers to question individuals in police custody.

In the early phases of the probe, the investigators are focusing their energies on those who made aggregate investments of more than EUR20,000.

The Revenue Commission has assured that those who make a voluntary disclosure before May 23 will not have their names published, although it warned that it will go through the courts to catch those who do not declare their evaded tax.

Life assurance firms have been urged by the Revenue to write to around 200,000 customers informing them of the investigation. The industry itself is not under investigation for selling the insurance products in question.

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