Carlow motor dealer tops latest tax defaulter list with €10m settlement

Revenue secured €3.54bn in three months through audits and investigations

The Revenue Commissioners published details of 12 settlements totalling €12.5m. 10 cases were for amounts exceeding €100,000.

A Carlow motor dealer, a Dublin insurance broker and a retired Offaly builder are amongst those appearing on the latest tax defaulters list published by the Revenue.

The former vehicle dealer topped the list with settlements of just under €10m. Meridian Motors 2014 Ltd, which is now in liquidation, of Sleaty Road, Carlow was the subject of a Revenue audit case for the under-declaration of PAYE/PRSI/USC and VAT. The settlement was made up of €1.9m in taxes, €1m in interest and €1.9m in penalties. Revenue said that the entire settlement amount of €4.8m remained unpaid as of June 30. 

The Revenue listed a second case against Meridian Motors Limited of the same address for a similar audit. It resulted in a penalty of €5.8m that remains unpaid made up of €2.2m in tax, €1.3m in interest and €2.2m in penalties.

The case is one of 12 published by the Revenue with total settlements of €12.5m. 10 cases were for amounts exceeding €100,000.

MTIS Ltd, an insurance brokerage and consultancy firm at Unit 301, Omni Park Shopping Centre, Swords Road, Dublin 9 had the third largest settlement in a Revenue audit case for the under-declaration of VAT. The settlement of €298,236 was made up of €182,517 in tax €60,964 in interest and €54,755 in penalties.

In a statement, Revenue said the published settlements reflect only a portion of all their audits and investigations. In the three months to the end of March, a total of 287 audit and investigations were settled, resulting in a yield of €3.54bn in tax, interest and penalties.

Revenue also published details of 67 prosecutions they pursued in court that included 16 cases of failure to file a tax return and failure to produce books and records, 22 cases of misuse of marked mineral oil and 18 cases of excise offences for tobacco smuggling, illegal selling of tobacco and possession of untaxed tobacco for sale.

Last month, the Irish Examiner reported that the Revenue Commissioners made unpublished tax settlements of more than €1.36bn during the course of last year.

The enormous tax haul related to 62,418 separate disclosures, Revenue said, though more than €1bn of the total related to just a small number of cases.

They said the top 20 unpublished settlements were worth €1.052bn, for an average of around €52.6m each.

That meant the other 62,398 settlements were valued at around €311m, or an average of approximately €5,000 in each case.