Champion trainer O'Brien settles €500,000 tax bill
Champion Irish horse trainer Aidan O’Brien has been hit with a bill for more than €500,000 for unpaid tax.
The director of Carriganog Stud in Piltown, Co Kilkenny, was among the top 10 biggest settlements on the latest defaulters’ list.
He settled a bill for €526,077 with the Revenue Commissioners following an investigation into tax evasion on offshore assets.
Former champion amateur rider O’Brien – now master at the famous Ballydoyle stable – has trained a winner in almost every major Flat race in Ireland and Britain, and celebrated successes in France and the United States.
He is enjoying another fine season, with his standard bearer being Australian import So You Think.
The giant five-year-old has won the Tattersalls Gold Cup, Eclipse Stakes and Irish Champion Stakes, and is the current favourite for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp next month.
The settlement, made under the name of Whisperview Trading Ltd, included unpaid tax of almost €177,640 and interest and penalties of nearly €348,500.
A total of 114 businesses were named and shamed on the latest defaulters’ list. They made €26.25m of payments between April and June.
The largest amount – for more than €3.6m – was made by Co Antrim-based property developers Eassda Ireland Ltd. It included nearly €2.6m for unpaid tax and fines and penalties of just over a €1m.
Two other defaulters also exceeded the €1m mark – with company director Kieran Kenny of Duncarrig Road, Sutton, Co Dublin, paying €1.2m and Spanish engineering firm Felguera Montajes y Mantenimiento handing over €1m.
Revenue Commissioners said the total yield from audit and investigation programmes settled in the period over the three months was €113.1m.
The list also featured every person who had a fine or other penalty imposed by a court for failure to file a return, filing an incorrect return, illegally selling of tobacco, cigarette smuggling, or an excise or licensing offence.
Among those was charity campaigner, property developer and publican Niall Mellon who was fined €700 for failing to hold a current liquor licence at his premises Taylors Three Rock on Grange Road, Rathfarnham.
