Revenue publishes list of tax defaulters

Today (14/06/2022), Revenue published the list of tax defaulters in respect of the period 1 January 2022 to 31 March 2022. 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 March 2022. 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 are published when the Court determined penalty exceeds 15% of the total tax (where the total amount of tax only exceeds €50,000) and a qualifying disclosure has not been made:
  • There was 1 such case in the 3-month period to 31 March 2022 with €144,897.98 being the 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.
    • 44 such cases are published and €89,950 is the total of court fines imposed.

These include:

• 19 cases of failure to file a tax return and failure to produce books and records. Court fines totalling €34,450 and one hour of community service in lieu of imprisonment were imposed.
• 13 cases of misuse of marked mineral oil, in respect of which Court fines totalling €43,000 were imposed.
• 12 cases of excise offences for tobacco smuggling, illegal selling of tobacco and possession of untaxed tobacco for sale. Court fines totalling €12,500, one 6-month sentence and one 8-month sentence (both fully suspended on condition), one 10-month sentence (partially suspended on condition), two 4-month sentences and 100 hours of community service, in lieu of imprisonment, 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:

• 9 cases are published today and €11.6m is the total settlement amount in these cases. 
• 9 cases were for amounts exceeding €100,000
  • of which 1 exceeded €500,000
• 3 are cases in which the settlement was not fully paid as at 31 March 2022 
• €10,465,384 was the amount unpaid as at 31 March 2022. Revenue vigorously pursues collection/enforcement of unpaid settlements. In some cases, collection/recovery of the full unpaid amount will not be possible (e.g. 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 March 2022 a total of 331 Revenue audit and investigations, together with 13,567 Risk Management Interventions (Aspect Queries and Profile Interviews), were settled, resulting in a yield of €2.218 billion in tax, interest, and penalties.

List of Tax Defaulters

ENDS [14/06/2022]