Revenue publishes Annual Report for 2005
Frank Daly, Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, today (31/05/06) announced the publication of Revenue's annual report for 2005 having earlier presented it to the Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen TD.
The most significant developments for Revenue in 2005 were:
- Another year of very strong tax collection performance. Net receipts amounted to €39.5 billion, some €3.7 billion above the corresponding figure for 2004 and €1.8 billion above the Budget estimate.
- A substantial decrease in the overall debt figure from €1,217m (in 2004) to €1,085m in 2005. Arrears of tax and duty as a percentage of total gross receipts now stands at an all time low of 2%. Revenue is confident of collecting 90% of the outstanding debt.
- Special investigations yielded a total of €536.8 million in 2005 of which €382 arose from the Single Premium Insurance Policy investigation. The cumulative total from special investigations currently stands at 2.2 billion.
- Twenty-four convictions for serious tax and duty offences were secured in 2005 (twelve of these for tax offences). A further 1,683 convictions were obtained for summary offences. Over 1,000 of these were for the non-filing of tax returns, the balance were in respect of other offences such as cigarette smuggling, unlicensed trading, marked mineral oil offences, etc.
- Total audit and assurance check activity yielded €575.37 million
- Drugs with an estimated street value of over €37 million were seized and more than €500,000 of suspected criminal cash was detained.
- A new mobile x-ray scanner was delivered from China in October and came into operation in February of this year.
- The continued substantial growth in the use Revenue On-Line service: almost two-thirds of income tax self-assessment returns were made through ROS. The value of payments made via ROS amounted to €12.1 billion.
Mr Daly also announced the introduction of a new ROS service - PAYE anytime for PAYE taxpayers. This new facility which has all the benefits of on-line services (no delays, no queues, viewing your up to date tax records, etc.) will be rolled out over the coming months starting this weekend. Revenue will be writing to every taxpayer in the country to tell them about it.
Speaking today, Mr Daly said:
"At the end of our 83rd year I am pleased to report solid progress on so many levels, to note that the vital signs in Revenue are good and to record our professional satisfaction with a very successful year."
Annual Report 2005 (PDF, 725KB)
[Ends 31/05/06]
