Dealers get tax veil
The Revenue is granting confidentiality to illegal drug dealers registered for tax.
Drug dealers can register their business with the Inland Revenue andstered for tax. enjoy confidential treatment, it emerged last week.
The Revenue confirmed that dealers in illegal drugs can register their business for tax purposes and officers will protect their identity from the police and other government agencies.
The revelation follows the settlement of a case earlier this month by the Revenue over demands that a convicted cannabis dealer should pay tax on his illegal earnings.
A spokesman for the Revenue said: ‘Tax law doesn’t discriminate between profits made from illegal or legal activities.
‘We only report taxpayers to the police if we suspect they are involved in murder.’
MPs condemned the situation, which they said hindered the fight against serious crime.
Helen Liddell, Treasury economic secretary, said last week that the Revenue should be forced to report cases of money laundering, which includes drug trafficking, as part of a government crackdown on financial crime.
But dealers would still be able to register, even under this regime, unless Revenue officers suspected they were involved in large-scale laundering activities.
Tax experts said that dealers might want to register to promote the cause of legalising drugs such as cannabis. One said: ‘The authorities will look pretty silly in court if the accused can show several years of tax records.’
Mark Jacobs, a partner in the London-based chartered practice of Scodie Deyong, said the situation arose after a court failed to confiscate the full amount of a cannabis dealer’s illegal earnings.
Commenting on the case, he said: ‘A proportion was left over. We got involved when the Revenue wanted to tax the remainder. But if drug dealers can be taxed then they can register for tax, which is bizarre.’