General trader loses long-running €952,184 tax battle with Criminal Assets Bureau

A general trader who destroyed his financial statements at the end of every year has lost his long-running €952,184 income tax battle with the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab).

Tax appeals commissioner Andrew Feighery upheld the €952,184 tax bill issued in 2018 to the trader of different types of goods and commodities for a 16-year period from 1999 to 2015.

The ruling by Mr Feighery overturned an earlier Tax Appeals Commission (TAC) ruling on the case in 2019 which largely found in favour of the trader who is a member of the Traveller community and a company director who operated an international tarmacking business across Italy, Spain, Portugal, France and Germany.

However, after Cab challenged the 2019 decision in the High Court the TAC determination was quashed and the case was remitted back for a new hearing to the TAC for a different commissioner to hear the case from the beginning.

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The income tax bill was issued to the unnamed trader after Cab estimated that his revenues during the 15-year period totalled €2.02 million. It also estimated revenues of €511,772 for one year alone in 2007.

However, in response, the general trader’s solicitors contended that he operated in Ireland for only four weeks each year and his cumulative Irish revenues during the 1999 to 2015 period totalled only €187,906 and the estimated tax owed was €48,442.

In his findings, Mr Feighery found as material facts that the trader’s activities were in a ‘cash format’ and he destroyed his business records at the end of each year and when the records were destroyed the trader discarded them in a bin.

Mr Feighery stated that owing to the trader’s transient lifestyle he was not resident in any jurisdiction but was a chargeable person under the Tax Consolidation Act 1997.

Dismissing the trader’s appeal, Mr Feighery concluded that as the trader destroyed his financial records at the end of each year, he was incapable of discharging the requisite burden of proof as he had no corroborating evidence or documentary evidence to to demonstrate that the assessments issued by Cab were not payable.

Mr Feighery has made his ruling after a March 2023 oral hearing into the case and he noted that a summons was required for the attendance of the trader at the hearing “as he was incarcerated as at the date of his appeal”.

Before deciding on the substantive tax issue, Mr Feighery found the trader’s appeal invalid after declaring that it was a late appeal.

He stated that for the late appeal to be valid, the trader was required to pay the €952,184 plus statutory interest and make tax returns for the period in dispute and this had not been done.

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