‘Taste of Dublin’ organiser settles €120,000 tax bill

The organiser of the Taste of Dublin food festival — which takes place this weekend at Iveagh Gardens — has been named on the Revenue Commissioners’ latest quarterly defaulters list, in respect of a tax settlement totalling €120,000.

Avril Bannerton — whose company, Brand Events has previously organised such high-profile events as ‘Top Gear Live’ and ‘7-Up Christmas on Ice’, at Dublin’s RDS — is listed as settling for under-declaration of income tax.

Interest on the €58,267 she owed in tax amounted to €44,252; while the penalties incurred came to €17,480.

Ms Bannerton — a former Image magazine ‘Businesswoman of the Year’ — was not the biggest defaulter in the first quarter of the year.

During that period, Revenue took in just over €21.3m in settlements. Another event management firm, Offset Events — which has been liquidated — is listed as making a settlement for nearly €122,000, regarding the under-declaration of Vat.

The largest settlement was made by landlord Alan Miller of Stepaside, in Dublin, who under-declared for income tax and capital gains tax and ended up settling for nearly €3.1m. Sean and Anthony Deane — who run Deane Homes in Sandyford — settled for €2.65m, after under-declaration of Vat.

Other big settlements included car dealer Stephen Fisk of Co Meath, who paid Revenue €1.27m for under-declaration of Vat; Mayo-based garage proprietor Thomas Peyton who settled for almost €295,000 for under-declaration of Vat and income tax; and Wexford-based collection agent Michael O’Toole, who paid €342,846. The operators of Thurles Racecourse paid a settlement for under-declaration of PAYE and PRSI totalling nearly €305,000.

A total of 103 tax settlement cases were published in Revenue’s first quarter list. Of that total, 45 were for amounts exceeding €100,000, of which five were over €500,000 and four exceed €1m.

Six of the published settlements resulted from Revenue’s offshore assets and funds investigations and yielded €710,000 in payments. While property developers featured prominently, the latest list also includes publicans, farmers, restauraters and barristers.