Oireachtas named on Revenue list of tax defaulters

The Houses of the Oireachtas have been named by the Revenue Commissioners on a list of tax defaulters for under-declaring liabilities of over a quarter of a million euro, largely relating to staff use of taxis, meal allowances and other issues.

They are just one of 113 defaulters listed for the first quarter of 2014, representing some €23 million in settlements and penalties.

Of the total number of cases published today, 48 were for amounts exceeding €100,000 and 13 for more than €500,000.

Seven of those listed relate to investigations into offshore accounts, yielding €2.3 million.

Listed as a “Revenue audit case”, the Houses of the Oireachtas in Kildare Street are labelled as having under-declared PAYE and PRSI contributions and made a settlement of €333,412.

In a statement following the publication, it said that in December 2012 it made an unprompted voluntary disclosure to the Revenue Commissioners relating to the shortfall.

“The Houses of the Oireachtas Service has had an on-going practice to provide taxis to staff who stay late to perform official functions for the Houses of the Oireachtas,” it said.

“During analysis of all trips taken during the course of the last three years it was apparent that many taxis taken from work to home were taken outside of Revenue allowable taxi journeys.”

Accordingly, it said it carried out a review of journeys on which it owed benefit in kind payments.

As a result, Revenue undertook an audit. “[IN] late 2013 Revenue presented its revised calculations of additional liabilities identified in the course of the audit...on all PAYE items identified during the course of the audit,” it said.

Other settlement payments included meal allowances and taxation regarding the employment status of some workers.

Revenue also released details of those prosecuted in court.