It’s time to prosecute tax evaders

STARTLING disclosures by the Revenue Commissioners that offshore schemes could yield more than €1bn in unpaid tax have focused the spotlight on Ireland’s pervasive culture of tax evasion.

Despite the odium associated with offshore schemes, bogus non-resident accounts and the withholding of DIRT tax, almost €900m has so far been collected by investigators.

In recent months alone they netted €111m from secret offshore accounts and trust arrangements, tailor-made for tax evasion.

That a culture of evasion persists in the financial realm is clear from the evidence of Revenue chairman Frank Daly to the Dáil's Public Accounts Committee.

He disclosed that when the Bank of Ireland learned that investigators were targeting its trust in Jersey "they wrote to all their customers, advised them that Revenue were on the trail, as it were, and reminded them of the standard voluntary disclosure arrangement that are available to anybody who has a tax problem".

The result was a "fairly significant disclosure" from 254 individuals.

If anything, the 1bn estimate could prove conservative as more offenders, ranging from members of the so-called Ansbacher Golden Circle to farmers and publicans, are trammelled in the net.

Compliant tax payers have a right to be angry because it is patently clear that large-scale tax fraud is still going on. Two other financial institutions, including thousands of Irish Life & Permanent investors, are currently under investigation in the Isle of Man.

To evade tax is a criminal offence. Aiding and abetting evasion is also a crime. But, so far, there is no evidence to suggest the taxman is coming down heavily on known evaders.

The stark reality is that despite exposing the complex layers of this web of deceit, nobody in a position of a significance, whether in politics or business, has yet been prosecuted for tax evasion.

The fact that no tax cheat has been put behind bars will further strengthen public perceptions that there is one law for the rich and powerful and another for compliant workers of the PAYE sector.

It is an unjust, unacceptable and hypocritical scenario. People, as Deputy Michael Noonan succinctly put it, are sick of tax dodgers.

It is moot if the Government has the stomach to crack down on tax crimes. Whether Taoiseach Bertie Ahern likes it or not, Fianna Fáil are compromised, tainted by a whiff of nod-and-wink corruption, a feeling that if people can get away with it, they can do anything.

The party's roll of ignominy includes the tax evasion record of disgraced ex-Taoiseach and former party leader Charlie Haughey, the goings-on of former Deputy Liam Lawlor, jailed three times for withholding information from the Dublin planning tribunal, the political record of ex-minister Ray Burke, the bogus account of Limerick Deputy Michael Collins, the obfuscation of Ansbacher investor and former Kerry TD Denis Foley, and the disgraceful behaviour Deputy V G Wright who faces drink driving charges after running down a woman on his way home from the Dáil bar.

The tax dodger label also applies to disgraced ex-Fine Gael minister, independent TD Michael Lowery.

Not only should tax evaders be prosecuted those who aid and abet them must also face the full rigours of the law. The Revenue Commission should exercise its powers to the fullest extent, showing no fear or favour regardless of status.