Taoiseach insists no tax owed on €50,000 ‘dig-out’

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern last night insisted he did not owe any tax arising from the €50,000 “dig-out” he took from friends while Finance Minister.

The emphatic statement hardened up weekend comments in which he indicated that he would have to settle with the Revenue over the matter.

“If I owe much in the end, it will be very little,” he said on Sunday.

However, 24 hours later, his stance changed as he insisted he had never owed tax in his life when asked if he had missed payments while Finance Minister.

The Taoiseach also strongly denied he had misled the Dáil last autumn when he assured no tax matters were related to the payments and loans he accepted from friends and Manchester businessmen in 1993-94.

It emerged at the weekend Mr Ahern had lodged a sum with the Revenue after the Bertiegate affair emerged last September in case he did owe tax.

“I was tax compliant. When I said that in the Dáil I hadn’t even communicated with the Revenue. My advisers believe that I am totally tax compliant and won’t owe anything. But as normally happens, we made a provisional allowance so we could deal with those discussions in an upfront way. I do not believe that I am anything other than tax compliant and always have been in my life,” he told Today FM.

Ministers closed ranks around the Taoiseach over the matter. Cabinet colleagues refused to be drawn on whether Mr Ahern had misled the Dáil.

When asked about the Taoiseach’s possible tax liability, Finance Minister Brian Cowen said he had not discussed the matter with Mr Ahern.

“I can’t add anything to this other than the Taoiseach has acted in good faith.

“I think that he has taken a precautionary step and put in a provisional payment and he expects to be rebated a lot of that,” he said.

Health Minister Mary Harney added her support by insisting the treatment the Taoiseach had received over the issue was “unfair”.

“The Taoiseach has given a very, very full statement and matters between him and the Revenue Commissioners and him and the tribunal, they are not matters for me,” she said.

She added that it was “very regrettable” details of his dealings with the tribunal had been leaked.

Mr Ahern was hoping to draw a line under the affair with his detailed Sunday statement on matters relating to the renting and purchase of his Drumcondra home in the mid-1990s.

However, the matter may re-surface again in the final days of the battle for Dáil seats.