Revenue's Annual Report for 2003

Frank Daly, Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, today (15/6/04) presented Revenue's annual report for 2003 to the Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy TD. The most significant developments for Revenue in 2003 were:

• the start of a wide-ranging offshore assets investigation which has so far yielded €650 million; and
• completion of the restructuring of the Revenue organisation.

The vital signs for Revenue were also positive:

• Tax collection was above target
• General compliance rates are up
• Arrears of tax are down
• Tax written off by Revenue fell
• Prosecutions for tax evasion increased
• Class A drugs detections by Customs increased

Offshore Investigations

Mr. Daly revealed that in total €650 million has so far been collected by Revenue from their offshore investigations. Commencing last year €150 million had been collected in two initial phases from investors in Jersey Trusts and accounts with an Isle of Man financial institution. Just under €500 million has now been collected from people who came forward under the current voluntary disclosure phase of Revenue's wide-ranging investigation into offshore-related evasion. The deadline for paying up under this current phase was last Thursday, 10 June. Revenue expect this figure of €500 million to increase over the coming weeks.

Speaking today, Mr. Daly said:

'The success of our offshore investigations is due to a number of factors: the availability of increased powers, more international cooperation to combat evasion and money laundering, and an obvious determination on Revenue's part to follow through on investigations. Those who did not come forward to make a voluntary disclosure of offshore-related evasion cannot now rest easy. Revenue will pursue them, using all available means, with the same determination that we showed in following up on bogus non-resident account holders.'

Additional Information

Highlights of the 2003 Report

Tax Collection

• Tax and duty receipts again reached record levels. Gross receipts were over €43 billion, over €3.7 billion ahead of 2002, while net tax and duty receipts reached €32 billion, almost €3 billion ahead of the previous year.
• Overall debt as a proportion of gross collection is now 3.1%, down from 3.3% in the previous year.

Investigations and Prosecutions

• There were seven convictions for serious tax evasion with 38 cases under active investigation at year-end.
• Cases involving 25 individuals and companies were referred to the DPP for directions in connection with serious tax and duty evasion.
• Drugs with an estimated street value of almost €21 million were seized and € 582,000 of suspected drug related cash was detained.
• Almost 53 million cigarettes were seized. There were also nine detections of oil-laundering plants saving the Exchequer approximately €9 million per annum.

Compliance Programmes

• 16,000 audits were carried out yielding €428.65 million, a substantial increase of €160 million on 2002.
• There were 627 convictions for failure to file tax returns, 169 convictions for unlicensed trading, 145 convictions for marked mineral oil offences, and 65 convictions for smuggling and seven convictions for Vehicle Registration Tax offences.
• Collection enforcement through solicitors, sheriff and attachment yielded more than €195 million from more than 43,000 cases. The High Court was petitioned on 15 occasions to appoint liquidators to wind up companies.

Quality Customer Service

• A new set of customer service standards published in December 2003 set challenging targets for the whole organisation.
• Once again the Revenue website (www.revenue.ie), including the Revenue On-line Service (ROS), received a number of awards.

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