The Revenue Commissioners has extended the deadline for the disclosure of overseas assets.
The clampdown applies to anyone who has an asset outside the Republic or who receives income in another country.
The tax authorities have said they will accept voluntary disclosure of money or assets abroad on which tax should have been paid, under a measure first announced in the budget last year by Minister for Finance Michael Noonan.
Anybody coming forward by that date will be able to avail of reduced penalties on any money owed.
After that, Revenue has said that failure to disclose and pay tax due on foreign income and assets will be seen as an act of deliberate tax evasion. That could see penalties jumping from the “discounted” 10 per cent rate for qualifying disclosures to as much as 100 per cent.
Revenue chairman Niall Cody said the deadline for disclosure was being extended until Thursday, May 4th at 5.30pm.
“Regarding this final opportunity before new exchange of information rules vastly increase the data available to Revenue about taxpayers’ offshore interests, any person or business affected is strongly advised to avail of this last opportunity to contact us and make a full disclosure, before we contact them,” he said.
Meanwhile, in its annual report, Revenue said it collected €47.95 billion for the exchequer in 2016. “Significant year-on-year increases were recorded in each of the main taxes,” said Mr Cody.
Taxes on income were up 4.5 per cent; VAT was up 4.2 per cent; and corporation tax was up 7 per cent.
“The overwhelming majority of taxpayers want to do the right thing and be tax compliant,” said Mr Cody. “This is demonstrated by the very high timely return filing and payment rates in the 90 per cent plus range.”
Data analytics
Referring to the 8 per cent reduction in debt available for collection, Mr Cody said Revenue had leveraged the insights gained from the use of data analytics to facilitate an earlier intervention when taxpayers start to develop a pattern of paying late.
Describing Revenue’s debt management activity as “fair and even-handed”, he said it worked “very effectively” with viable businesses and taxpayers who ran into payment difficulties and who were co-operative in dealing with issues which had arisen.
“Taxpayers and businesses that fail, or refuse, to engage with Revenue will face real challenges including the additional cost of the enforcement action that will be taken by Revenue,” he said.
Revenue also announced an overall yield of €555.6 million from its audit and compliance interventions in 2016.
As regards plans and challenges ahead, Mr Cody spoke about the expected significant impact on trading relationships arising from the UK exit from the EU, and said Revenue would “respond proactively” to all challenges.
