The Revenue Commission made undisclosed tax settlements of more than €1.36 billion during the last year.
The Revenue Commission said this relates to 62,418 individual disclosures, but the total of more than €1 billion relates to only a small number of cases.
The value of the top 20 unannounced settlements was €1,052 million, with an average value of approximately €52.6 million for each. In other words, his other 62,398 settlements were about €311 million, averaging about €5,000 each.
However, the Revenue Service did not provide specific details on the size of the maximum settlement, citing concerns over “taxpayer confidentiality.”
“Publishing the details of the 20 largest settlements in monetary terms could lead to the identification of individual taxpayers,” he said.
The Revenue Service said it introduced a new compliance intervention framework in May of this year to provide a “consistent, step-by-step response” to taxpayer behavior.
He said this would allow for a range of actions, from broader opportunities to voluntarily correct mistakes, to pursuing criminal sanctions for serious cases of tax evasion.
A spokesperson said:
She said there are some circumstances in which the individual or company making the settlement can avoid the published quarterly tax defaulters list. This happened when the taxpayer made disclosures eligible for revenue. This includes declaration and payment of taxes and interest.
She said legislation allows Revenue not to open a case if the settlement amount is less than €50,000 and in other relevant circumstances.
She said that if a “qualified avoidance disclosure” was made, or if a tax avoidance surcharge was incurred, it would not be disclosed.
She added:
