Jamie Smyth

The Revenue Commissioners will begin a major investigation of Irish banks with operations based in well-known tax havens from March 29th. It will seek to identify customers who have opened bank accounts in overseas subsidiaries to evade taxes.

Irish-based banks with offices in the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands will be targeted in the inquiry. And in a significant departure for the Revenue, subsidiaries in Northern Ireland will also come under scrutiny.

The Revenue believes that millions of euros have been placed in Northern Ireland bank accounts by customers living in the Republic in an attempt to avoid paying tax to the exchequer.

A Revenue spokesman confirmed yesterday that the body had recently written to the 10 main Irish financial institutions seeking their cooperation.

"I can confirm we have written to the banks and we are now due to start an investigation on March 29th," he told The Irish Times.

The Revenue is understood to have asked the Irish banks to write to all their customers with accounts or policies in offshore locations to come forward to the tax authorities, according to reports in a Sunday newspaper. The Revenue has indicated that if customers come to them before the investigation starts, they are unlikely to face a prosecution.

The new investigation of offshore operations of Irish financial institutions was expected following comments made by the chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, Mr Frank Daly, in October 2003. In an address to the Public Accounts Committee, he said the Revenue would investigate all subsidiaries of Irish banks with off-shore businesses to hunt for tax evaders.

The Revenue Commissioners has been seeking High Court orders that would allow it to gain access to customer information such as transaction details and cheques that passed through the clearing system. It does not have the power to inspect documents held by subsidiaries of Irish financial institutions outside the Republic but has been tracking the movement of funds to these operations.

An earlier investigation by the Revenue into the tax affairs of customers of the Bank of Ireland Trust company in Jersey has netted more than €100 million in unpaid taxes from 254 people.