Five settle Revenue tax bills of more than €1m each

Five tax settlements made with the Revenue Commissioners during the third quarter of the year topped the €1 million mark, figures released yesterday show.

The Revenue's defaulters' list for the three months to the end of September shows that 201 individuals and companies settled for sums between €1.7 million and €12,900. Many of those who settled are self-employed or in business.

The largest settlement was €1.73 million, paid by Knockvale Ltd, a glazing contractor based in Co Meath. The total liability is for undeclared corporation tax, VAT and a bogus non-resident account (NRA).

The actual tax liability is €486,534, while the list shows that the company agreed to pay just under €1.25 million in interest and penalties.

The Gibney family from Navan, Co Meath owns Knockvale Ltd. Current company records name its directors and shareholders as Mr David Gibney of Abbeygrove, Navan; Mr Gerald V Gibney of Moathill, Kells Road, Navan; Mr Paul Gibney of Fitzherbert Court, Navan; and Mr Martin Gibney, of Proudstown, Navan.

Mr Peter Byrne, director of the Byrne Group of oil distributors in Castlefinn, Co Donegal, is another named in the top five.

Mr Byrne agreed to pay €1.2 million in tax, interest and penalties. He owed €534,396 in tax; the balance is interest and penalties.

His liability related to undeclared income tax and VAT.

He was also one of two individuals who settled as a result of the Revenue investigation into National Irish Bank (NIB). Earlier this year, a High Court inspectors' report into NIB's activities in the 1980s and 1990s found that it used bogus NRAs and schemes such as the Isle of Man-based Clerical Medical International (CMI) bonds to aid its clients in evading tax.

Bookmaker Mr John Mulligan agreed to settle as a result of another Revenue probe, the offshore assets investigation. His total liability was €1.1 million. Of this, the list showed that he owed €790,000 in interest and penalties. The balance was the actual tax liability.

Mr Michael Scally, a farmer from Kinnegad, is named as another who used a bogus NRA to evade tax. He settled for just over €1 million, with more than €700,000 accounted for in interest and penalties.

The late Noel Corrigan, a former company director from Castleknock in Dublin, also used the bogus NRA scheme. The settlement in his case was €1.46 million. The actual tax liability was just under €800,000.

The high level of interest and penalties in these cases mainly reflects the fact that their tax liabilities date back over a decade.

In all, 154 people settled as a result of various Revenue investigations. They agreed to pay a total of €22.54 million.

One hundred and forty-four had bogus non-resident accounts, and accounted for €20.66 million of this figure.

The list only covers those with liabilities of more than €12,700 with whom the Revenue made settlements for tax, interest and penalties as an alternative to taking proceedings against them.

A Revenue statement yesterday said that the published settlements reflected only a portion of all the audits and investigations that it completed during the three-month period.

"The total yield from Revenue audit and investigation programmes in the period July 1st to September 30th was €97.11 million," it said.

"Besides the cases detailed, it included 527 settlements in excess of €12,700 that did not fall to be published. The settlements in such cases total €66.79 million."

The Revenue also published a list of individuals and business fined or jailed for offences ranging from failure to make tax returns to cigarette smuggling.