10,000 letters sent over bogus accounts

AROUND 10,000 more letters have been sent out by the Revenue Commissioners to suspected holders of bogus non-resident accounts.

This is the third batch of such correspondence and this one relates to 6,000 accounts believed to have been used to avoid DIRT or other taxes.

The Revenue began posting the letters on May 1, warning those concerned that they have 60 days to sort out their tax affairs.

In total, the Revenue has now sent 80,000 letters in relation to 41,000 bogus non-resident accounts.

The holders of the accounts evaded DIRT, and in some cases income tax, by claiming they were Irish people who had addresses abroad.

The DIRT scandal was uncovered by the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee and resulted in a multi-million payout to the Revenue from financial institutions which had encouraged the evasion.

Some €163m has now been recovered from people who received the letters ordering them to pay up and from others who paid up after the amnesty or “voluntary disclosure” deadline by last November.

In all, the Revenue has recouped €610m, including €227m paid during the amnesty and a further €220m from the financial institutions.

The Revenue Commissioners has made wide use of High Court orders to force the banks and other bodies to disclose the names of those who have held bogus non-resident accounts.

However, the current trawl has also been criticised by some senior tax practitioners who blame the banks for the difficulties that many individuals find themselves in.

Pensioners have in some cases found their life savings wiped out after they were forced to pay huge interest and penalties on bogus non-resident accounts.

A group of former bank officials has set up a group to defend former bank workers from accusations that they personally encouraged evasion.

The last batch of letters sent out by the Revenue in January related to 21,500 non-resident accounts with Irish addresses.

The Revenue said that, in many instances, more than one name was associated with an account and that the total number of individuals linked to them was 40,000.

These people were given until May 27 to contact the tax office and to pay underpaid tax, interest and penalties in order to avoid prosecution.

The first batch of letters was sent in October, 2002 to nearly 30,000 people with Irish addresses.

Those who did not respond to the Revenue’s enquiries will face immediate investigation and possible prosecution. The Revenue Commissioners also publish all settlements above €12,700.