Revenue publishes list of tax defaulters

Today (10/09/2019), Revenue published the List of Tax Defaulters in respect of the period 1 April 2019 to 30 June 2019. 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 (30 June 2019). 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 wherethere is no agreement to a penalty, or a person 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:
  •  9 such cases are published and €591,071.42 is the total amount of the Court determined penalty.
• 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.
  • 176 such cases are published and €551,724.50 is the total of court fines impose. These cases include:
    • 96 cases of failure to file a tax return, failure to file a VAT return, failure to lodge a P35 return, or failure to deliver a statement of affairs. Court fines of up to €32,500 were imposed in these cases
    • 38 cases of misuse of marked mineral oil, in respect of which Court fines of between €2,500 and €24,000 were imposed. Other court penalties for these offences included a 7-day closure order and a 240-hour community service order
    • 39 cases of excise, licencing and VRT offences including, cigarette smuggling, illegal selling of cigarettes, failure to hold a current liquor licence, illegal betting, and possession of an unregistered vehicle. Court fines of up to €3,000 were imposed and other Court penalties included custodial sentences some of which were partly suspended, suspended sentences and Community Service Orders
    • 3 cases of obstruction of a Revenue Officer and failing to keep a vehicle stationary in respect of which a court fines of between €1,250 and €3,000 were imposed.

Part 2: Settlements

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

• 43 cases are published today and €9,800,331.78 is the total settlement amount in these cases 
• 21 cases were for amounts exceeding €100,000
  • of which 6 exceeded €500,000
• 19 are cases in which the settlement was not fully paid as at 30 June 2019 
• € 6,578,418 was the amount unpaid as at 30 June 2019. 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 30 June 2019, a total of 740 Revenue audit and investigations, together with 22,040 Risk Management Interventions (Aspect Queries and Profile Interviews), were settled, resulting in yield of €118.6 million in tax, interest, and penalties.

[ENDS 10 /09 /2019]

List of Tax Defaulters