Scottish Provident Signals Opposition To Revenue Commission Probe

by Jason Gorringe, for LawAndTax-News.com, London

20 April 2005

It has been reported this week that a second major life assurance provider has refused to comply with the Irish Revenue Commission's investigation into the use of single premium life insurance policies for the purposes of tax evasion.

Earlier this week, it emerged that Irish Life & Permanent had refused to write to its customers informing them of the tax investigation, arguing that it is not legally obliged to participate in the probe, which will bring it significant additional costs for no benefit.

The investigation, which is expected to bring an estimated EUR1 billion in outstanding tax from around EUR30 billion worth of life insurance policies bought between 1988 and 2001 into government coffers, is similar in form to the recent investigation into offshore bank accounts. 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 a statement released this week, Scottish Provident announced that it too would not be writing to around 10,000 of its former and existing customers likely to be affected by the probe until it has received clarification on a number of issues from the Revenue Commission.

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