Revenue catches 87,000 tax cheats in five years
But only 18 tax defaulters were prosecuted in the same period while three of these were convicted and ended up serving jail sentences, according to Labour’s finance spokeswoman Joan Burton.
“The Revenue Commissioners must be congratulated in pursuing these tax defaulters and yielding €1.6 million for the Exchequer, but they must use their powers to initiate more prosecutions if the current level of tax evasion is to be curtailed,” Ms Burton said.
But Revenue staunchly defended its record last night and said there are 60 cases under active investigation with a view to prosecution.
Ms Burton said she did not believe that everyone involved in tax evasion should automatically be prosecuted or go to jail, but the continuing level of criminal tax evasion must be a matter of concern to compliant taxpayers.
The imposition of heavy fines and the shame of having names published in Iris Oifigiúl was seen to be a sufficient deterrent to tax evasion, Ms Burton said.
“But these figures would suggest that this is not the case and each published list of tax defaulters in Iris Oifigiúl shows that plenty of people still believe tax evasion is worth the risk,” Ms Burton said.
There were 1,319,822 taxpayers last year, according to official figures.
The 87,000 settlements with tax defaulters over the past five years suggest that 6.5% of all taxpayers were forced to make settlements with the Revenue Commissioners, Ms Burton said.
But a Revenue Commissioners’ spokesman said they have put it on record on many occasions that they are determined to prosecute all cases of serious tax evasion.
“We have established a dedicated investigation and prosecution division and there are currently some 60 cases under active investigation with the view to prosecutions,” he said.
The Revenue Commissioners also intends to continue detailed investigations in the future, he said.
Meanwhile, a new MRBI/Fine Gael poll published yesterday revealed only 3% of the public believe the Government has spent their taxes well in delivering public services over the past seven years.
In contrast, 30% of people believe their money has been spent “not at all well”, Fine Gael’s finance spokesman Richard Bruton said.
These results are a wake-up call for a Government more interested in changing how it looks, rather than changing how it works, he said.
“The real challenge is to set an ambitious reform agenda that would ensure our taxes and services get through to those that really need them,” Mr Bruton said.
The MRBI poll, commissioned by Fine Gael in the second half of November, asked 931 members of the public what they thought of the Government’s use of their money.
“This is a damning comment on the poor decisions, the poor systems and the politically driven spending regime that lies at the heart of this Government,” Mr Bruton said.
