Compliant taxpayers have every reason to be cheerful about the content of yesterday's Finance Bill.

The proposed legislation has gone as far as it could in implementing the recommendations of the Dail Committee of Public Accounts (PAC) report into DIRT tax evasion. In the words of the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, it is very likely to result in very, very large fines for some of the main financial institutions.

The PAC made a very wide-ranging and lengthy list of recommendations following its inquiry into the non-payment of DIRT by such institutions. Most of these recommendations are being dealt with. The Revenue can now do a full look back at the institutions involved and charge full interest and penalties.

This is likely to cost the wrong doers hundreds of millions but according to the Minister the calculations involved are so arduous that it is impossible to come up with an estimate. But we will have a much better idea by the end of the year, he said.

The calculations involve looking at each DIRT account operated by each institution. The interest will be based on the interest rates prevailing at the time and could thus be up to 15 per cent, while the penalties are based on the number of transactions on each account. That could make for some very substantial payments.

Other recommendations of the PAC have also been taken on board by the Minister. The issue of dormant accounts will be included in separate legislation which is now circulating in relevant departments but should be before the Dail by summer, according to Mr McCreevy. The legislation setting up the new single financial regulator will be used to add responsibility for tax compliance to the duties of chief executives.

The recommendation that the banks be charged a levy has not been included following advice from the Attorney General that it would be unconstitutional. For the same reason the Exchequer, rather than the banks, will pick up the bill for the Revenue tax investigation.

The change to legislation to allow the Revenue to publish more detail about tax defaulters will also be welcomed.

In the past, anyone who paid their full penalty or was fined by a court did not have their name published on the quarterly lists. Now their names will be published and the reason for the settlement given. Thus the names of the Ansbacher depositors and other offshore account holders will be made public if they settle for £10,000 (€12,697) or more.

Tax individualisation: The Bill also undoes most of the inequity around the move to full individualisation of the tax bands. A £3,000 allowance for stay-at-home carers has been introduced. This narrows the gap between the benefits of having a dual-income or single-income household. The extra tax benefit of having two earners has now been reduced to £660 from £1,320. The ability to earn up to £4,000, while availing of the allowances, is also likely to be widely welcomed.

However, it is still not clear to what extent the differences in the tax treatment of single-income and dual-income couples will widen over the next few budgets.

The Minister has the agreement of the social partners to move to individualisation but there is no set target for the level at which taxpayers would move from the standard to higher tax rates.

In December's Budget, Mr McCreevy suggested an amount of £28,000 for every individual taxpayer over the time-frame of the next two budgets. Now he will only say that the figure involved will be whatever is necessary to ensure that 80 per cent of all taxpayers are in the standard rate tax band.

That could be close to the £28,000 threshold in a few years' time and as the Minister himself said, he is known for delivering on those sorts of promises.