Revenue leave no safe haven to hide

THE Revenue Commissioners warned yesterday that tax dodgers’ days are numbered.

Chairman Frank Daly said the EU Savings Directive and proposed money laundering legislation from the OECD will mean that within a few years tax evaders will literally “have no where left to hide.”

Due to the changes in the law Revenue are actively engaged in talks with their counterparts in the Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey and the Cayman Islands.

With the OECD pushing for the same open door policy it means the days of the safe havens are nearing an end, warned Mr Daly.

It was meant to be a stark warning that Revenue has new powers and is fully prepared to use them to hunt down those who attempt to defraud the state.

To date it has carried out seven prosecutions in the past 18 months and of those just one suspended sentence was handed down by the courts.

However Mr Daly insisted it should be clear by now that there are no longer any safe havens for hot money - whether onshore or offshore.

“My message to these people is simple: come to Revenue before Revenue comes to you.”

Last year it took in over €700m from bogus non-resident accounts, Ansbacher and other offshore tax havens.

While the Revenue hailed the €700m bonanza as a great success Labour Party spokeswoman on Finance Joan Burton said the report for 2002 showed evasion was rampant.

That 254 people used trust structures with Bank of Ireland Trust to evade tax, highlights the on-going problem with tax evasion in Ireland.

For years, those who had called attention to the problem of tax evasion had been told that none existed.

“The fact that total payments from the DIRT and bogus non-residents accounts investigations now exceed €600m, that €42.75m has been collected in relation to the National Irish Bank investigation and €21.03 in relation to the Ansbacher investigation, points to the scale of the evasion which has taken place” she said.

The Revenue report includes a long and sorry list of tax evasion schemes.

“The fact that a major and respected institution such as the Bank of Ireland should feature in the Revenue report in this way is frankly quite damning,” she said.

Meanwhile the report drew attention to the weakness in tax revenues last year.

While €29bn net was taken in last year, more than 1 billion ahead of the previous year, it was €1.2bn below the Budget estimate.

These reflected the slowdown in economic growth and were below target in a number of areas including corporation tax, income tax (especially PAYE) and capital gains tax.

The Revenue pointed out that daily payments to the Collector General’s Office during 2002 averaged €130m with the largest amount lodged on a single day reaching €1.23 billion.