Tax dodgers set to avoid exposure

HUNDREDS of tax cheats will escape being named and shamed by the Revenue Commissioners when Finance Minister Brian Cowen changes the settlement limit at which they can be identified.

Tax defaulters who currently make settlements of over €12,700 are named every quarter in the list published by the Revenue Commissioners.

But Mr Cowen indicated yesterday that he plans to raise the settlement limit at which tax defaulters are named to somewhere between €25,000 and €50,000.

The Law Reform Commission has recommended that the limit should be raised from €12,700 to €25,000.

But a separate organisation, the Revenue Powers Group, recommended last year that the settlement threshold should be raised even further to €50,000.

Mr Cowen said yesterday that he will raise the settlement threshold to "somewhere in between both recommendations" in his first Finance Bill tomorrow.

"I believe we can find a balance between both recommendations that updates revenue powers in that and other areas as to what they are, you'll first have to wait a few more days," the minister said.

The Revenue Commissioners confirmed that 201 tax defaulters made settlements of over 12,700 in their last report published in December. And 164 tax defaulters made settlements of over €25,000; the number of defaulters who made settlements of in excess of €50,000 was 112.

If Mr Cowen just raises the settlement threshold to the minimum of €25,000 then 364 of December's tax cheats would have escaped being named. And if he raises it to the maximum of €50,000 then 477 of the December tax cheats would have escaped.

The opposition strongly criticised the move accusing the Finance Minister of helping more tax cheats escape public humiliation. "The deterrent of naming and shaming should apply to all tax cheats there should be no settlement limit," Green Party finance spokesman Dan Boyle said.

Mr Cowen confirmed his plan to change the limit for naming tax cheats at the launch of the Law Reform Commission's (LRC) latest report on a Revenue Court and Fiscal Prosecutor.

The LRC said there was no need for a special Revenue Court or Fiscal Prosecutor to try people for tax evasion.

But white collar criminals should be hauled before the courts as ordinary lawbreakers, the LRC recommended.

Mr Cowen said that his department and the Revenue Commissioners would carefully study the report before deciding on a course of action.

"We have to find a balance between discouraging non-compliance by making sure evasion doesn't pay and encouraging enterprise through streamlined and simplified requirements wherever possible," he said.