Revenue says timing of audit figures ‘coincidental’

The Revenue Commissioners have claimed it is purely coincidental that they released information on the amount of money recovered through tax audits in advance of the Oct 31 self-assessment tax deadline.

The Revenue Commissioners supplied RTÉ with statistics which revealed it had recovered €14.2m after carrying out 518 audits on what was described as white-collar professions.

A spokesperson for the Revenue Commissioners claimed that the Oct 31 deadline had played no role in the decision to publish the figures, which cover Jan 1 to Aug 31, this year.