Horse trainer O’Brien settles €500k tax bill

A COMPANY co-owned by horse trainer Aidan O’Brien has made a tax settlement of more than €500,000 with the Revenue Commissioners.

The latest quarterly list of tax defaulters, published yesterday by Revenue — shows that Whisperview Trading Limited — a horse training and breeding services company based in Piltown, Co Kilkenny — reached a total settlement of €526,077.

Of this, €177,639 covered unpaid tax, with interest and penalties amounting to €348,437. Revenue said the settlement covered the under-declaration of corporation tax and PAYE/PRSI. It also said it qualified for an offshore assets investigation case.

Mr O’Brien — who since 1996 has been the trainer for John Magnier’s Coolmore Stud operation — and his wife; Anne-Marie O’Brien are listed as the only two directors of Whisperview, according to files lodged with the Companies Office.

A statement on behalf of Mr O’Brien’s firm said: “Certain monies earned by Whisperview Trading in the period from 2000 to 2003 were lodged to an overseas account. These sums were repatriated in full to Ireland in November 2003.

“Full corporation tax at the prevailing rate was paid on these monies. However, the tax rate in 2003 was lower than the rates which applied in the period between 2000 and 2002. The underpayment of tax in respect of the years 2000, 2001 and 2002 gave rise to the additional corporation tax and to the interest and penalties which were also paid. The matter is now resolved and Whisperview Trading is fully tax compliant.”

The latest defaulters list shows that Revenue recovered €113m from its audits and investigations, in the second quarter of the year — including €26.25m from 114 tax settlements.

Of those settlements, 11 were for totals exceeding €500,000 and three for €1m plus. Twenty two of the settlements — totalling a combined €5.01m — related to investigations into offshore funds.

Other notable settlements were made by Dublin-based Dawson Jewellers, to the tune of €130,000 and Sean Foley — owner and proprietor of the popular Dublin pub, Foley’s of Merrion Row — who settled for a total of €49,481 after under-declaring income tax.

Businessman and charity owner, Niall Mellon was fined €700 for not holding a current liquor licence for his pub interest in Rathfarnham.

On the settlements list, the largest case was a €3.64m settlement with the property company, Eassda Ireland which went into administration two years ago owing €33m to a banking consortium of Ulster Bank, Northern Bank and Bank of Ireland.