Irish Revenue to dig up dirty accounts
The Irish Inland Revenue has given the public until 15 November to disclose bank accounts being used to avoid paying deposit interest retention tax or face harsh penalties and possible prosecution.
The Irish Revenue turned its attention to individual account holders following a series of successful look-back audits of financial institutions, which yielded £173m in unpaid DIRT taxes.
But bogus account holders have been thrown a lifeline by the Revenue, which has offered concessions to those who make voluntary disclosures and agree to pay the tax before the deadline.
For those who meet the 15 November date, exposure to interest and penalties will be capped at 100% of the tax. In addition, the Revenue will not initiate the prosecution of related tax evasion offences, nor will details of the settlement be published.
Non-voluntary disclosure will mean full interest and penalties for account holders, an audit and investigation by the Revenue and possible criminal prosecution where evidence of serious evasion is established. The Irish Revenue has said it will also publish settlement details.
Revenue chairman Dermot Quigley said his organisation intended to track down and investigates every bogus account holder.
He said: ‘If bogus account holders don’t avail of the opportunity to pay up voluntarily by the 15 November deadline in accordance with the arrangements announced today, we will identify them using our new powers of access to financial institutions.
‘When we identify these cases we will carry out a full audit and investigation in each case – no matter how long it takes.’
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