Revenue windfall - Tax cheating is really theft

EVEN in the days of helicopters in the back garden, weekend shopping trips to New York, record car sales and getting the horse ready for Cheltenham, €736 million is a decent ball of cash.

That’s the figure the Revenue Commissioners gathered up last year above and beyond that which was volunteered to them. Yesterday’s report showed that their special investigations in just one sector — the building industry — gathered up €154m after audits in tax, interest, penalties or assurance checks.

Investigations into offshore assets yielded €54m, the single premium insurance policy investigation €30.5m and our old friend, the Ansbacher accounts, €35.2m. The cumulative total from special investigations stands at €2.4 billion.