Tax evaders who ‘come clean’ warned

TAX evaders may not get the full benefits of a voluntary settlement with the Revenue Commissioners if they have already paid out on a previous inquiry.

As the Revenue launches a full probe of individuals who hid money in insurance products to evade paying tax, there was a warning yesterday that anyone who has made a settlement on other investigations would not “get the same treatment” even if they come forward voluntarily.

The Revenue says it is giving individuals who have invested more than €20,000 in single premium insurance products six weeks to disclose their intention to make a voluntary settlement in return for a reduced interest and penalty bill. However, those who have made a settlement with the offshore assets, bogus non-resident or Ansbacher inquiries, may not received the full benefit of coming forward.

Individuals who do not make an early settlement face the full might of the Revenue’s powers, including a potential jail sentence and massive penalties. With €33 billion invested in single premiums since 1980, there could be thousands of individuals with tax liabilities. About 25,000 people have made settlements since November 2001 when it launched its first major inquiry.

The Revenue would not comment on how much it expects to net from this latest inquiry, but the figure could run to hundreds of millions of euro. Previous probes have shown that considerable sums have been hidden from the Exchequer. The first phase of the offshore assets probe yield €723m in voluntary settlements and it is now pursuing others who refuse to come forward.

There was criticism of the time period given by Revenue to come clean. The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI) said it had sought a date nearer the end of the year.

“An investigation of this nature will bring forward members of the public who have not availed of accounting services before. We have seen with previous investigations of this nature, the difficulties there have been in meeting tight deadlines with the Revenue being forced to give effective extensions,” ICAI chief executive Pat Costello said yesterday. “There should be no underestimating the size of this inquiry. Government has budgeted to receive €200m from special investigations this year and this inquiry goes back to 1980. When first mooted, it was suggested that there might be thousands of people involved and the amount of money invested was in excess of €30bn,” he added.