Ahern willing to review contentious tax exiles law

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern yesterday said he was prepared to review the laws applying to tax exiles, apparently contradicting Finance Minister Brian Cowen who said that no review would take place.

However, Mr Ahern, responding in the Dáil to a Prime Time investigation on Irish tax laws, defended the controversial laws he introduced when he was Minister for Finance in 1994.

It allows non-resident Irish citizens to spend 183 days in the country without being liable to income tax. Many of the country’s wealthiest people have availed of its provisions.