Revenue publishes list of tax defaulters

Today, 10/09/2024, Revenue published the list of tax defaulters in respect of the period 1 April 2024 to 30 June 2024. 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 2024. 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 exceeds €50,000) and a qualifying disclosure has not been made:

• There were 9 such cases in the 3-month period to 30 June 2024, with €1,882,871 being 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:

• 57 such cases are published and €98,530 is the total of court fines imposed.

These include:

• 9 cases of failure to lodge Income Tax return(s), 3 cases of failure to lodge VAT return(s) and 2 cases of failure to remit VAT, in respect of which Court fines totalling €13,500 were imposed. Sentences of varying lengths were also imposed as follows:
  • three sentences of two years imprisonment (suspended in full for 5 years)
  • and
  • two sentences of 3 years and 6 months imprisonment (with 2 years and 6 months suspended).
• 8 cases of misuse of marked mineral oil, in respect of which Court fines totalling €22,500 were imposed.
• 31 cases of excise offences for tobacco smuggling, illegal selling of tobacco and possession of untaxed tobacco for sale. Court fines totalling €60,000, and 8 sentences of varying lengths were imposed as follows:
  • one sentence of 3 years imprisonment (suspended in full)
  • two sentences of 6 months imprisonment (one suspended in full and one suspended in full for 18 months respectively)
  • four sentences of 2 months imprisonment (one suspended in full for 2 months and three suspended in full for 1 year respectively)
  • and
  • one sentence of 8 months imprisonment (suspended for 2 years).
• 4 cases of failure to hold a current liquor licence, in respect of which Court fines totalling €2,530 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:

• 11 cases are published today and €2,209,986 is the total settlement amount in these cases. 
  •  7 cases exceeded €100,000.                                                             
    • Of which, 1 case exceeded €500,000.
• 1 case in which the settlement was not fully paid as at 30 June 2024. 
• €178,780 was the amount unpaid as at 30 June 2024. 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 compliance interventions. In the 3-month period to 30 June 2024, a total of 16,941 Revenue compliance interventions were settled resulting in a total yield of €99,821,614.

List of tax defaulters

[ENDS 10/09/2024]