Revenue Publishes List of Tax Defaulters

Today (14/09/2021), Revenue published the List of Tax Defaulters in respect of the period 1 April 2021 to 30 June 2021. 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 2021.

Part 1: Court Determinations

• Court Determination of Penalty: Subject to certain criteria, in settlement cases where there is no agreement to a penalty, or a person fails to pay an agreed penalty, the Court determines the penalty. Details are published 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:
  • There were 6 such cases in the 3-month period to 30 June 2021 totalling €730,313.96.
• 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.
  • 55 such cases are published and €137,750 is the total of court fines imposed.

These include:

• 30 cases relating to failing to lodge tax returns, failing to remit VAT and delivery of incorrect returns. Court fines totalling €76,500 and one 3-year sentence, fully suspended, were imposed
• 17 cases of misuse of marked mineral oil in respect of which Court fines totalling €43,500 were imposed
• 6 cases of excise offences for tobacco smuggling, illegal selling of tobacco and illegal betting in respect of which Court fines totalling €15,000 and 340 hours of community service in lieu of imprisonment were imposed
• 2 cases of obstruction of a Revenue officer, in respect of which Court fines totalling €2,750 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:

• 18 cases are published today and €3.39 million is the total settlement amount in these cases;
• 7 cases were for amounts exceeding €100,000
  • of which 1 exceeded €500,000
  • and 1 of which exceeded €1 million
• 5 are cases in which the settlement was not fully paid as at 30 June 2021
• €966,684.70 was the amount unpaid as at 30 June 2021. 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 2021 a total of 275 Revenue audit and investigations, together with 17,263 Risk Management Interventions (Aspect Queries and Profile Interviews), were settled, resulting in a yield of €152.7 million in tax, interest, and penalties.

List of Tax Defaulters

[ENDS 14/09/2021]