Revenue collects €22.85m from tax defaulters

THE REVENUE Commissioners collected €22.85 million in tax settlements from 120 individuals and companies in the final three months of 2007, according to the latest tax defaulters' list. Simon Carswell, Finance Correspondent, reports.

The list includes the names of 22 farmers, 20 company directors, 11 publicans, five landlords, five developers, eight shopkeepers, two solicitors and a surgeon.

The largest settlement, for €1.5 million, was made by businessman Colm Kehoe of Walterstown, Knockbridge, Dundalk, Co Louth, following a Revenue investigation. He reached the settlement after Revenue found he had undeclared his income tax and VAT. The settlement included interest and penalties totalling €795,649.

Mr Kehoe (48) owns the Lisdoo bar and restaurant and Ridley's nightclub in Dundalk. He is listed as a director of a number of companies, including Barry's Taverns and Oakthorpe Trading, which has an address at Cafe Metz on Francis Street in Dundalk.

The second largest settlement was made by James Souhan, a landlord with an address at The Watercourse in Templeogue, Dublin. He paid Revenue €1.4 million, including interest and penalties of €1 million, arising from Revenue's bogus accounts investigation.

One settlement related to an Ansbacher account holder. Sam Field-Corbett was a close associate of the late Des Traynor and a player in the Ansbacher tax evasion scheme devised by Mr Traynor. He made a settlement of €1.15 million, which included interest and penalties of €834,396, for underdeclaring income tax. His settlement was the third largest in the list.

Mr Field-Corbett's company, Management Investment Services, provided secretarial services to many companies linked to the Ansbacher deposits.

Some 36 settlements totalling €6.62 million relate to Revenue's investigation into offshore funds, 23 amounting to €3.58 million relate to the more recent investigation into single premium insurance products and 14 totalling €3.34 million relate to bogus non-resident account holders.

Only one settlement, a payment of €610,108 by surgeon Francis Brady of Knocknashee, Goatstown, Dublin, related to the investigation into the CMI scheme operated by National Irish Bank.

Three settlements exceeded €1 million, 10 were for amounts greater than €500,000 and 57 settlements exceeded €100,000.

The settlements reflect only a portion of all investigations and audits in the final three months of 2007. Revenue collected a total of €250.1 million from audits and investigations during that period.

Revenue had collected more than €2.4 billion from its various special investigations by the end of last year. The offshore assets investigation, which has brought in €906.1 million from 14,665 cases, has yielded the highest amount, followed by the bogus non-resident accounts inquiry, which has yielded €859.8 million from 12,200 cases.

Publican Christy Cowen, brother of Minister for Finance Brian Cowen, made a settlement of €96,351, which included interest and penalties of €34,956.

Retired publican John O'Farrell, whose bar in Ballyporeen, Co Tipperary, was visited by US president Ronald Reagan in June 1984, made a settlement of €470,000. The payment, which includes interest and penalties of €327,803, was made following Revenue's offshore investigation.

Mr O'Farrell sold the fittings and sign of his pub, The Ronald Reagan Lounge, in 2005 to an Irish-American businessman who relocated the bar to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California.

Solicitor Damien Tansey, whose address is listed as Law Chambers, Wine Street, Sligo, made a settlement of €177,650 arising from Revenue's investigations into bogus non-resident accounts and offshore assets. Co Tipperary solicitor Raymond Flynn of Sunnyside, St Michael's Road, paid Revenue €41,860 following its investigation into offshore funds.

Revenue said earlier this month that it would no longer publish the names of deceased tax defaulters or apply penalties unless they had reached settlements and agreed penalties before their deaths.