Revenue writes to suspected evaders

The Revenue Commissioners have issued a batch of letters to suspected tax evaders in the latest phase of their single premium instance investigation.

The letters were sent yesterday to individuals who did not come forward when previously contacted about single premium insurance accounts held in their name.

They inform the recipient that Revenue is aware that they invested in the type of policy under investigation and urge them to address urgently "any undeclared tax liabilities".

The Revenue began investigating single premium accounts in 2005 and its campaign has, to date, yielded €440 million in unpaid taxes and penalties from 5,298 cases. Revenue declined to say how many letters were sent yesterday.

The investigation, which began with a voluntary disclosure phase, has focused on policies containing €20,000 or more.

Revenue's efforts were boosted last year when it secured 11 High Court orders requiring insurance firms to pass on details of those holding the policies in question.

As part of this step, Revenue asked the insurance firms to contact policyholders who had not availed of the voluntary disclosure phase and inform them of the need to contact the tax authority.

The latest set of letters has been sent to those policyholders who have to date not been in touch with Revenue about any possible liability arising from a single premium product.

Those who have a liability have been invited to pay the sum due, including interest and penalties, before January 18th. They are also informed that co-operation with the scheme will allow them to avoid prosecution.

A compliant taxpayer who has no liability can put the matter to rest by filling in a declaration form and sending it to Revenue.

The single premium investigation forms part of Revenue's "special investigations" efforts, which have collectively yielded almost €2.4 billion in unpaid taxes and penalties over the past decade.

Revenue has also stepped up efforts to source information from equivalent tax authorities across Europe and other locations on Irish taxpayers who may be hiding money abroad, possibly through property purchases.

Last year, Revenue learned of 143,244 Irish citizens who held €2.9 billion in foreign savings accounts.

This information was relayed to tax authorities around the country, which then considered whether the information merited further investigation. The bulk of foreign accounts were held in the UK.

In return, the Irish authority informed 33 foreign jurisdictions about 75,056 people holding accounts containing €1.4 billion in Irish savings accounts.

By the end of March this year, this had risen to 137,194 foreign-based entities, although the amount deposited in the relevant accounts had fallen to €889 million.