Revenue publishes list of tax defaulters

Today (07/12/2021), Revenue published the List of Tax Defaulters in respect of the period 01 July 2021 to 30 September 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, if any, that remained unpaid at the end of the period 30 September 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 was 1 such case in the 3-month period to 30 September 2021 totalling €35,801

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.

• 90 such cases are published and €198,032.50 is the total of court fines imposed.

These include:

• 47 cases relating to failing to lodge tax returns, failing to remit VAT, failing to keep/retain proper books and records, producing an incorrect invoice/document and delivering incorrect VAT returns. Court fines totalling €81,400, one 2-year custodial sentence and one 4-month sentence, fully suspended, were imposed;
• 15 cases relating to the misuse of marked mineral oil and 1 case of the failure to hold a current mineral oil licence in respect of which Court fines totalling €46,000 were imposed;
• 25 cases relating to excise offences for tobacco smuggling, illegal selling of tobacco, illegal betting and failure to hold a current liquor licence in respect of which Court fines totalling €69,132.50 were imposed;
• 2 cases of obstruction of a Revenue officer, in respect of which Court fines totalling €1,500 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:

• 15 cases are published today and €2.8 million is the total settlement amount in these cases; 
• 9 cases were for amounts exceeding €100,000
  • of which 1 exceeded €1 million
• In all cases, settlement was either fully paid or arrangements to fully pay were in place as at 30 September 2021. 

Revenue Compliance Yield

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

In the 3-month period to 30 September 2021 a total of 280 Revenue audit and investigations, together with 14,142 Risk Management Interventions (Aspect Queries and Profile Interviews), were settled, resulting in a yield of €94.9 million in tax, interest, and penalties. 

List of Tax Defaulters

ENDS [07/12/2021]