Fashion store magnate hit with €6m tax bill

One of the country’s leading names in fashion has paid more than €6m to the Revenue for tax dodging, it was revealed.

Sean Barron, who brought popular stores Pamela Scott and Richard Allan to the high streets here, was one of six people who made settlements of over €1m.

In all the Revenue Commissioners secured €158.55m in unpaid taxes and penalties in the last three months of last year.

Mr Barron founded the Flairline Fashion Group in the 1970s after starting in wholesale and is recognised internationally for his successes and in recent years brought the prestigious fashion house Escada to Dublin’s Grafton Street.

Last October he earned €22m after selling his luxury home and gardens in Killiney.

But he has since been hit with a bill for unpaid taxes and penalties totalling €6,406,238.

It comes after inspectors probed his finances as part of Revenue’s investigation into Bogus Non-Resident Accounts and Offshore Assets and found he had underdeclared both income tax and VAT.

His settlement is one of 131 major cases published in the the Revenue defaulters list in the latest edition of Iris Oifigiuil from October to December last year totalling €35.44m.

Six settlements exceeded €1m. Included in that were a number of retired businessmen including Manus Gallagher a retired newsagent from Rathmines, Dublin who paid €1.01m and Desmond Green, now living in Estoril, Portugal who settled for €1.34m.

Others were former vet Patrick Maughan, from Ballina, Co Mayo who faces a €3m bill and former farmer John McCreesh, from Blackrock, Co Louth who settled for €2.84m.

One man who has since died was also listed; Frederick O’Donoghue, from Killarney, who had a caravan business faced a €1.39m bill.

Sixty-three were for amounts exceeding €100,000 and 14 exceeded €500,000.

The Revenue said 40 settlements totalling almost €15m relate to Bogus Non-Resident holders.

Twenty-two cases worth €6m relate to Offshore Funds and 30 settlements totalling €5.23m relate to the Single Premium Insurance Product Investigation.

Two Ansbacher account holders repaid €800,000.

Revenue said those published were only a portion of all audits and investigations in the last three months of 2006.

In all Revenue secured €158.55m.