THE NEW chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, Josephine Feehily, says that if there are Irish residents on the list of 1,400 suspected tax defrauders obtained by the German authorities from a whistleblower at a Liechtenstein bank, the sums involved will be "substantial", writes SIMON CARSWELL, Finance Correspondent.
Ms Feehily, who took up her new post last month, said that the Revenue was awaiting information from Germany on whether Irish residents were on the list of wealthy individuals who held money in anonymous trusts in the LGT Bank in Liechtenstein. BND, the German intelligence agency, paid a former LGT Bank employee for the list of 1,400 trust-holders at the bank, only 600 of whom are German residents.
She said: "I can't see people going to that much trouble unless they are substantial. It is not the sort of ordinary behaviour. I imagine it costs a certain amount. I think you need to be moving in certain circles to have access to that kind of arrangement."
Overall net taxes collected by the Revenue in 2007 totalled €47.2 billion, up from €45.5 billion the previous year. Ms Feehily said that the Revenue collected €151.4 million from its investigation into the construction industry in 2007, up 21 per cent on the €125 million yielded by the inquiry the previous year.
Just over a quarter of all Revenue audits in 2007 were in the building and property sector. The Revenue collected €129.6 million from 3,807 audits of the construction industry and €21 million from 40,000 "assurance checks" of builders and property developers. Ms Feehily said that the Revenue would monitor whether companies were paying on time as the economy slowed.