Deposit interest crackdown nets €70m

MORE than e70 million has been collected from tax dodgers as a result of the latest crackdown by the Revenue Commissioners on undeclared money kept in bank accounts.

Another 1,500 people will still have to explain apparent discrepancies in the amount of interest they have earned, Revenue said yesterday.

Many of these individuals are understood to have capital sums greater than e1m in their bank accounts.

The large payments resulted from a Revenue initiative set in action as a result of new legislation which obliges banks and other financial institutions to provide tax authorities with details of accounts where interest of more than e635 is paid per annum.

Taxpayers were informed last May that they had to give notice of their intention to make a voluntary disclosure of any tax on undeclared sums in excess of e100,000 before September 15 last. Anyone making such a declaration that they had not paid income, capital gains or capital acquisition taxes were able to avail of lower penalties for underpaid tax.

The chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, Josephine Feehily, revealed yesterday that e70m in tax, interest and penalties had been collected as a result of the initiative. She informed the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that 1,232 individuals had made voluntary disclosures before a deadline of January 15 last out of 1,800 people who had signalled their intention to make a declaration.

Six people paid out sums of over e1m, while the largest single payment was e1.6m, said Ms Feehily.

Ms Feehily said 480 others had made no payments as they were satisfied they had no outstanding tax liabilities. Cases whereby people had submitted notices of intention but had not made a disclosure were being pursued.

“It was a very useful and yielding exercise,” said Ms Feehily, adding that it would remain in place.

She told the PAC that an additional e30m had been collected as a result of another recent incentive on stamp duty which was designed to encourage old deeds to be presented for stamping before the introduction of electronic stamping later this year.

The committee heard that almost e2.47 billion has now been recovered as a result of special investigations conducted by Revenue since 2000, including inquiries into undeclared monies held in bogus non-resident accounts and life assurance products.

The figure also included more than e41m collected as a result of information uncovered at the Moriarty and Mahon tribunals.

Ms Feehily said e1.4m had been recovered from 1,138 people who had illegally held more than one account under the SSIA (Special Saving Incentive Account) scheme in which savers were given a 25% top-up on their investment.

The Revenue chairman said officials also reported cases to the Director of Corporate Enforcement where company directors were suspected of not passing on fiduciary taxes they had collected like PRSI and VAT to the tax authorities.