Revenue amasses €500m from 'voluntary disclosures'

The Revenue Commissioners revealed this morning they collected just under €500 million from the current voluntary disclosure phase of their investigation into offshore-related tax evasion.

The figure was paid by some 11,000 individuals out of a total of 15,000 who came forward to make a voluntary disclosure. The discrepancy of 4,000 cases is made up of people who asked for an extension to the deadline, hardship cases who can't pay, or people who didn't have the money in liquid assets.

To date, the Revenue Commissioners have collected €1.52 billion from special investigations into Bogus Non-resident Accounts, Ansbacher, National Irish Bank/CMI and tribunal-related cases.

Speaking at the publication of the Revenue's Annual Report 2003 in Dublin Castle, commissioners chairman Mr Frank Daly said it is "increasingly difficult for people to hide money from us".

"Those who did not come forward to make a voluntary disclosure of offshore-related evasion cannot now rest easy. Revenue will pursue them, using all available means, with the same determination that we showed in following up  bogus non-residential account holders," he added.

However, Mr Daly said: "Revenue can be quite compassionate in very difficult hardship cases. . . . We would never put anyone out of their family home."

He said overall there were 47 cases where a person paid more than €1 million, with the highest single payment at €7 million.

According to Mr Daly the success of the commissioners' investigations was due to a number of such as increased powers, more international co-operation and more determination from the commissioners to follow through on investigations.

The report also showed that gross tax receipts for 2003 were over €43 billion while net tax and duty receipts reached €32 billion.

Drugs with an estimated street value of over €21 million and around 53 million cigarettes were seized in 2003. There were also nine detections of oil-laundering plants, saving the exchequer around €9 million.