Revenue takes in record receipts of €48bn

Revenue made a record collection last year of almost €48bn, preliminary figures show.

There was also a 16% rise in drugs and illicit goods — particularly cocaine, heroin and cannabis — being seized and a 26% jump in debt collection operations involving state-appointed sheriffs and solicitors.

Revenue headline results for 2016 show an increase in revenues across seven of the 10 main tax categories and a drop in three.

The 5% rise in revenues, from €45.6bn in 2015 to €47.9bn in 2016, compared to a 10% increase in revenues between 2014 and 2015.

“Revenue collected a record €47.9bn for the exchequer in 2016,” said chairman Niall Cody.

Exchequer receipts across the tax headings show:

Customs: 3% drop, from €327m in 2015 to €318m in 2016;

Excise: 8% rise, from €5.3bn in 2015 to €5.7bn in 2016;

Capital acquisitions tax: 4% increase, from €400m to €415m;

Capital gains tax: 23% jump, from €669m to €822m;

Stamp duty: 6% drop, from €1.3bn to €1.2bn;

Income tax: 4% rise, from €18.4bn to €19.2bn;

Corporation tax: 7% rise, from €6.9bn to €7.4bn;

Value added tax: 4% rise, from €11.9bn to €12.4bn;

Local property tax: 3% fall, from €469m to €463m.

There was a 4% rise in people in PAYE employment, to 2.6m, and a 3% rise in self-employment numbers, to 687,000.

There was a 28% jump in the number of cases involving payment of taxes by instalment, from 8,500 cases to 10,900 cases.

There was a significant increase in the number of audit or compliance interventions — 537,200 in 2016, compared to 461,600 in 2015 — but a reduction in the amount recovered: €555m compared to €642m.

There were 1,029 cases of tax defaulters, in 2016, compared to 1,257 the previous year.

Court-imposed fines amounted to €2.5m in 2016 (€3.12m in 2015).

There were 372 settlements outside the courts in 2016, similar to 2015 (377). They amounted to €72m in 2016 and €77m in 2015.

There were 17 prosecutions for serious tax evasion and fraud in 2016 — compared to 27 in 2015.

A further 1,672 summary convictions were secured last year, compared to 2,063 in 2015. Fines imposed in those cases totalled €5.1m compared to €6.4m in 2015.

Special investigations yielded €8m in 2016, bringing the accumulated total to €2.8bn.

There was a 26% jump in debt collection operations by sheriffs from 38,340 in 2015 to 48,400, amounting to a yield of €214m in 2016. The total value of drugs and illicit products seized increased by 16%, from €61m to €70.5m.

The number of cocaine and heroin hauls went up from 92 to 134 and the quantity seized almost doubled from 95kg to 172kg — bringing the rise in value from €6.7m to €12.4m.

The number of cannabis hauls rose from 1,024 to 1,222, while the quantity seized increased from 626kg to 941kg (value rose from €12.4m to €15.4m).

There was a drop in the numbers and quantities of illicit cigarette seizures and a fall in fuel-oil offences.