Revenue ‘interventions’ yield €492m for exchequer in 2017

Efforts by the Revenue Commissioners to tackle failures to comply with tax law yielded €492 million for the exchequer in 2017, a year that saw 24 criminal convictions for serious tax and duty offences.

The Revenue, which collected a record €50.7 billion in total last year, completed 646,633 “compliance interventions” as it sought to tackle tax evasion, its headline figures show.

This number compares with 537,183 such interventions in the previous year, which yielded €555 million for the exchequer. The 24 criminal convictions secured in 2017 marked an increase on the 17 recorded in 2016.

There were 1,610 summary convictions in 2017 with a total of €5.2 million imposed in fines, while 301 settlements were published in the list of tax defaulters.

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The Revenue also received an additional €83.8 million in May 2017 through 2,786 disclosures in the final opportunity for individuals to make an offshore disclosure settlement.

"These results are underpinned by very high levels of timely voluntary compliance and we want to acknowledge the commitment and effort of taxpayers and tax practitioners in this respect," said Revenue chairman Niall Cody.

Mr Cody added that the Revenue was continuing its work on the modernisation of the PAYE system, which will launch in 2019.

“It will result in improved accuracy and transparency for employers and employees.”

Mr Cody said it was “essential” that individuals or businesses that run into difficulties paying their taxes “engage with us” as soon as those difficulties arise and agree a payment arrangement. The Revenue currently has 10,203 phased payment agreements in place in respect of debt of €93 million.

“When a taxpayer or business does not engage with us, then, in fairness to those who are compliant, we have no alternative but to use our enforcement powers to secure payment.”

Cannabis seizures

The Revenue, which employs 6,000 people, had running costs of €411 million in 2017.

Its officials seized drugs, cigarettes and tobacco with a value of €93.5 million last year, up from €70.5 million in 2016.

Last year’s figure included 3,070kg of cannabis with a value of €54.2 million, more than three times the amount seized in the previous year.

The Revenue seized 27kg of cocaine and heroin with a value of €2.2 million and 34 million cigarettes with a value of €19.4 million, while it also shut down four oil stations and seized 194 vehicles as part of its efforts to tackle fuel laundering.

There were 6.5 million electronic tax returns, about 2.3 million electronic payments and almost 1.2 million electronic self-service transactions in 2017.

The Revenue also said it received almost 2.5 million calls via its 1890 telephone number during the year and a further 1.5 million written communications.