Revenue targets 60 wealthy individuals over non-payment of domicile levy

A total of 60 wealthy individuals are under inquiry for not paying a €200,000 domicile levy aimed at extracting more tax from people who are Irish-domiciled but choose to live abroad for tax reasons.

The levy was introduced by former minister for finance Brian Lenihan in the 2010 budget following concerns that high net-worth individuals were not paying their fair share of tax.

The measure applies to individuals with a worldwide income of €1 million or more, Irish property assets worth more than €5 million and an annual income tax liability less than €200,000.

Non-resident
Latest figures show there are about 13,500 people who have filed income tax returns that indicate they are non-resident for income tax purposes.

The vast majority are not high net- worth individuals.

During the first year of the domicile levy – 2010 – just 11 individuals made tax returns in which they disclosed they were liable for the domicile levy, resulting in a tax yield of just over €1.6 million.

This prompted Revenue to launch a targeted compliance programme last year aimed at wealthy people who had a possible requirement to pay the levy, but had not yet done so.

Surge
Since this occurred, there has been a surge in the number of people paying the tax retrospectively for previous years.

Some 25 individuals have so far this year made returns in which they have paid the levy for previous years.

In a statement, the Revenue said it has stepped up a compliance programme aimed at those who have not yet made returns but may have a liability. To date, it has issued inquiries to 60 individuals.

It said this programme has resulted in additional returns and payments being received. Inquiries are still on-going in a number of cases.

Introduced
The measure was introduced following figures which showed that some of the wealthiest individuals in the country were paying minimal amounts of tax through use of tax-avoidance measures. Figures produced in the months before the levy was introduced showed that as many as 3,800 people who earned more than €100,000 paid no tax on their incomes.