Revenue receives €240m from top 10 unpublished tax settlements

The number of cases enforced by Revenue in 2025 went up by more than 10,000 on the previous year

The top 10 individual unpublished tax settlements last year yielded €240.47m for the Exchequer, according to new figures provided by the minister for finance, Simon Harris.

The figures show that Revenue last year received €692.38m from unpublished tax settlements — an increase of €134.34m or 24% on the €558m yielded from unpublished tax settlements in 2024.

In a written Dáil reply to Aidan Farrelly of the Social Democrats, minister Harris confirmed that the €240.47m from the top 10 individual settlements was a 43% increase on the €168.39m from the top 10 individual settlements for 2024.

The average unpublished settlement for 2025 from the top 10 was €24m.

Minister Harris told Deputy Farrelly that due to Revenue's obligation to protect taxpayer confidentiality it is not possible to provide the value of each of the 10 individual settlements and the sector in which the taxpayers operated “as such disclosure may lead to the disclosure of taxpayer information”.

In an indicator of Revenue increasing enforcement action in 2025, the number of cases last year totalled 72,881 which compared to 62,793 cases in 2024 — a rise of 10,088 or 16%.

Sectoral contributions

In the information, minister Harris discloses that last year the largest amount in unpublished settlements came from ‘scientific research and development’ at €139.72m from 194 cases compared to the modest €1.2m in unpublished settlements from 225 cases in that sector in 2024.

The second highest sectoral contribution came from ‘financial and insurance activities’ at €107.82m — the sector provided the largest amount from unpublished settlements in 2024 when Revenue yielded €85.26m.

Last year, 'IT and other information activities' contributed €74.19m — almost a tripling of the €26.9m recovered in settlements from the sector in 2024.

Other large contributors in 2025 include ‘public administration and defence, compulsory social security’ at €55.48m while the value of unpublished settlements from the ‘wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles' reduced from €63.08m in 2024 to €50.36m last year.

That sector accounted for the highest number of cases in 2025 at 14,267 and it was also the sector ranked first for the highest number of cases at 12,832 in 2024.

In 2024, the ‘transportation and storage’ sector provided €37.13m in unpublished settlements and this reduced by 69% to €11.5m last year.

The figures also show that ‘legal, accounting, management, architecture, engineering, technical testing and analysis’ produced €19.57m in unpublished settlements compared to €22.37m in unpublished settlements from the same sector in 2024.

The total yield from 'accommodation and food service activities' last year totalled €15.37m compared to €10.3m for 2024.

Entities operating in the construction sector last year made €35.39m in unpublished tax settlements arising from 10,678 cases compared to €22.9m from 6,613 cases in 2024.

The ‘arts, entertain and recreation’ sector last year yielded €12.12m in unpublished settlements from 959 cases compared to €42.9m from 1,020 cases in 2024.

Those entities which do make voluntary disclosures to Revenue may benefit by experiencing the minimum level of penalty and generally not risk either publication or prosecution.