Bogus accounts – Crackdown on defaulters is welcome

COMPLIANT taxpayers will have little sympathy for defaulters who have so far paid out over €1 billion as the price of salting money in bogus accounts of one kind or another.

Nor will be there be any sympathy for those who have yet to put up their hands. As of Monday next, they will face the harsh reality of going to jail. Arguably, if they had come from the wrong side of the track, some defaulters would be put behind prison bars long ago. But because tax crimes invariably involve publicans, farmers or other business types, not to mention the golden circle of powerful and wealthy people, no tax dodger has yet gone to jail for cheating.

PAYE workers, who pay their taxes on the nail, will welcome assurances that the Revenue will, if necessary, prosecute in future. Nor should they hesitate to use new powers compelling financial institutions to open records held abroad for inspection. And not before time, given the reluctance of some banks to come clean.