Revenue recovers €20m in dying hours of amnesty

LARGE-SCALE savers with undeclared money stashed away in deposit accounts handed over an additional €20 million in unpaid taxes in the dying hours of the Revenue Commissioners’ voluntary disclosure scheme.

The scheme, which allowed people with €100,000 or more in untaxed income on deposit to declare it without fear of incurring hefty late payment penalties, had brought in a total of €53.7m from 932 individuals by close of business yesterday — with €20m in the last 24 hours.

It was still open to people to make payments up to midnight but a Revenue spokesman said it was believed the bulk of the money had now been received. Most of the money is believed to come from undeclared windfalls from inheritances and sales of assets on which gift tax or capital gains tax was due.