Hoteliers hand over €1.3m in unpaid tax settlements

The Revenue Commissioners recovered over €1 million in unpaid taxes from hoteliers in the first three months of 2006, the latest tax defaulters list shows.

Information in the Government publication Iris Oifigiúil shows that 11 hoteliers made settlements valued at €1.3 million with the Revenue.

Two cases arose from an investigation into bogus non-resident bank accounts, and the other nine hoteliers were the subject of Revenue audits.

A Revenue spokesman said that from time to time particular sectors and particular areas of the country were targeted for audits.

One of the hoteliers, Fallmor Ltd, with an address at Kilcarberry Business Park in Dublin 22, is in liquidation. It paid almost €63,000 for underdeclaration of PAYE/PRSI.

The other hoteliers' names published were: Paddy Foyle and Anne Foyle of Co Galway, who both made settlements of €264,558 arising from bogus non-resident accounts; Hotel Nuremore Ltd, Dublin 2; Imperial Catering Ltd, Co Monaghan; L&A Entertainments Ltd, Co Roscommon; Lands Ltd, Co Longford; Mount Errigal Hotel Ltd, of Letterkenny, Co Donegal; Navco Ltd, Co Meath; Pla Entertainments Ltd, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim; and Ridgedeen Ltd, also in Carrick-on-Shannon.

Three of the hoteliers - Lands Ltd, Hotel Nuremore Ltd and Navco Ltd - made settlements that exceeded €100,000.

The directors of Lands Ltd, James and Anne Reynolds, own the Longford Arms Hotel. Lands Ltd made a settlement of €167,000 for underdeclaration of PAYE/PRSI and VAT, of which €74,000 was for interest owed and penalties for late payment.

Mr Reynolds is the brother of former taoiseach Albert Reynolds.

The latest accounts available for Hotel Nuremore Ltd, for the year ending December 31st, 2004, indicate that the company had a pretax profit of €308,376. The hotel, owned by the Gilhooly family, made a settlement of €136,000 in relation to underdeclared PAYE/PRSI.

Accounts for Navco Ltd for the year ending March 31st, 2005 show that the company made a pre-tax profit of €288,433 and a settlement of €123,468.