Revenue publishes list of tax defaulters

Today (05/03/2019), Revenue published the List of Tax Defaulters in respect of the period 1 October 2018 to 31 December 2018. The list is published in Iris Oifigiúil, in two parts.

Part 1 persons in whose case the Court has determined a penalty relating to a settlement, or has imposed a fine, imprisonment or other penalty in respect of a tax or duty offence.

Part 2 persons in whose case Revenue has accepted a settlement offer instead of initiating court proceedings, or a settlement has been paid in full. This list reflects the amount of a settlement that remained unpaid at the end of the period (31 December 2018). Unpaid amounts are subject to Revenue’s normal debt collection and enforcement procedures.

Part 1: Court Determinations

• Court Determination of Penalty:Subject to certain criteria, in settlement cases wherea person does not agree liability to a penalty, or fails to pay an agreed penalty,the Court determines the penalty. Details arepublished when the Court determined penalty exceeds 15% of the total tax and the total of the tax, interest and penalty is more than €35,000 and a qualifying disclosure has not been made:
  • 6 such cases are published and €325,293.15 is the total amount of the Court determined penalties.
• Court imposed fine, imprisonment or other penalty: Details are published when a fine or other Court penalty is imposed in respect of tax or duty offences. Court penalties may include imprisonment, partly suspended or suspended sentences, community service in lieu of imprisonment, and closure orders.
  • 178 such cases are published and €429,090 is the total of court fines imposed. These cases include:
    • 114 cases of failure to file a tax return, failure to deliver a statement of affairs or failure to remit VAT. Court fines of up to €20,000 were imposed
    • 34 cases of misuse of marked mineral oil, in respect of which Court fines of between €2,500 and €6,000 were imposed and other Court penalties included 240 hours community service
    • 29 cases of excise and licencing offences including smuggling of tobacco products, illegal selling of cigarettes, processing illicit tobacco products, failure to hold a current liquor licence, possession of untaxed alcohol for sale and possession of an unregistered vehicle. Court fines of up to €5,000 were imposed and other Court penalties included 6 months imprisonment,  an 18 month custodial sentence fully suspended and a 2 day closure order
    • 1 case of obstruction of a Revenue officer in respect of which the court imposed a penalty of 120 hours community service in lieu of 4 months imprisonment.

Part 2: Settlements

Settlements are published when the extensive voluntary disclosure options are not availed of and the default arises as a result of careless or deliberate behaviour:

• 73 cases are published today and €12,718,967.69 is the total settlement amount in these cases 
• 37 cases were for amounts exceeding €100,000
  • 5 of which exceeded €500,000
  • and 1 of which exceeded €1m
• 24 are cases in which the settlement was not fully paid as at 31 December 2018 
• €5,398,219.44 was the amount unpaid as at 31 December 2018. Revenue vigorously pursues collection/enforcement of unpaid settlements. In some cases, collection/recovery of the full unpaid amount will not be possible (for example, company liquidation).

Revenue Compliance Yield

These published settlements reflect only a portion of all Revenue audits and investigations. 

In the 3 month period to 31 December, a total of 1,120 Revenue audit and investigations, together with 22,515 Risk Management Interventions (Aspect Queries & Profile Interviews), were settled, resulting in yield of €132.30 million in tax, interest, and penalties. 

List of Tax Defaulters

 [ENDS 05/03/2019]