Revenue audit of construction industry yields €200m

An investigation into the construction sector by the Revenue Commissioners has yielded over €200 million for the Exchequer over the last 18 months.

Publishing the Revenue's annual report for 2006 today; Frank Daly, chairman, said 25 per cent of its audit and compliance resources had been allocated to the this special investigation.

This process involved 1,600 visits to building sites. Some 1,000 cases were identified which were not registered with Revenue. He noted that in 500 cases, construction staff listed as sub-contractors were reclassified as employees.

The audit programme yielded €146 million in 2006 and a further €60 million so far this year.

Mr Daly said the investigation into the construction sector would continue in 2007, although with a reduced level of resources.

Labour Party finance spokesperson Joan Burton paid tribute to the Revenue Commissioners and their staff for their work with regard to under-payment and tax avoidance among sections of the construction industry.

Other areas of special investigation in 2006 included publicans, computer consultants, coffee shops, restaurants and take-aways and rental income.

Overall, the Revenue collected €45.5 billion in tax in 2006, an increase of €6 billion compared with 2005. The tax-take last year was €3.7 per cent above Budget estimates.

Overall audit and assurance checks yielded €691.8 million last year. This included almost €119 collected from a special investigation into the Single Premium Insurance Policy and Offshore Assets investigations, bringing the cumulative total to €2.3 billion.

In addition to this "direct yield", Mr Daly said these investigations were also creating a compliance effect, the yield of which is difficult to quantify.

Last year there were seven convictions for serious tax and duty evasion with a further 515 convictions for summary offences. Mr Daly said that in the main, those convicted were fined or in some cases had a suspended sentence imposed, rather than a custodial sentence.

Mr Daly said 2006 was a record year for customer contacts and that it receives almost 30,000 phone calls a day, or 7 million a year. On top of that nearly half-a-million people called in to one of the 130 Revenue offices last year.

The Revenue said that areas as a percentage of tax receipts reached a new low last year of 1.8 per cent, which Mr Daly said was one ofd the lowest in any tax administration worldwide. The overall debt last year was €1.1 billion.