The Revenue looks set to be given wide-ranging powers next Thursday to look into details of taxpayers' accounts with financial institutions.

The move is part of a package to be announced in the Finance Bill by the Minister for Finance Mr McCreevy in a bid to tackle fraud and tax evasion.

The details have yet to be agreed and will be finalised by the Cabinet on Tuesday. However, indications are that the Revenue will get many of the powers it has been seeking to track down tax evaders.

At the moment the Revenue powers are actually quite restricted. It can get access to a resident individual's accounts by an order from the High Court Appeals Commissioner, if there is a prime facie case that the bank records will show tax evasion.

However, this cannot be used as a trawling exercise and the Revenue must have the individual's name and evidence that the bank records will show tax evasion.

For this reason the Revenue is not believed to have been able, for example, to get any details of those holding accounts in the Ansbacher deposits held in the Irish banking system, even though records exist of these deposits in Ireland. This is because the Revenue does not know the names of the depositors.

The Bill will give the Revenue extra powers in this direction, to allow it greater scope to look at records held by financial institutions.

One possibility is that the Revenue will only need prime facie evidence of tax evasion to seek to look at an individual's bank records and will not need to demonstrate that it believes that this will be positively proven in the bank accounts.

Sources believe that the legislation could also allow for more general examination of financial account records in cases where tax evasion is suspected. They point out that what has stopped such powers being given to the Revenue before - a fear that capital could leave the economy if the regime was too strict - is not now such a vital factor. However, some restraint is likely to remain on the Revenue's powers in this area.

The Minister will also be tackling the issue of Irish non-resident companies - companies registered here but with no real connection to the economy, some of which have been used for criminal purposes. These companies will be targeted both through specific taxation measures as well as changes in company law.

The changes to be introduced by the Finance Bill and by changes to company law should bring many of these companies into the tax net.

Sources say that the Finance Bill will be one of the longest of recent years, as it includes all the legislation to move the standard rate of corporation tax to 12.5 per cent by 2003, in line with an agreement reached late last year with the EU Commission. The Government is moving to include this in the Bill to copper fasten it as part of Irish legislation, as some of the other EU states have indicated that they do not approve.