The State's largest union, SIPTU, has angrily rejected the granting of a "sweetheart deal" for tax evaders who held bogus non-resident accounts as the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, told the Dail he had not had any input into the proposal. In a statement, SIPTU general president Mr Des Geraghty said tax evaders should be subject to the full rigours of the law, and named and shamed. "Government and opposition parties seem to be united in saying this is not another tax amnesty. But a rose by any other name still smells the same. And this one stinks."
The proposals will give bogus non-resident account holders six months to regularise their affairs, and will cap the level of penalties and interest they can face, but the Revenue has insisted it was not an amnesty for tax evaders.
Mr Geraghty said the Government had committed itself, in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF), to increasing the resources applied to tackling tax fraud and evasion. "If the Government's delivery on that has yet proved inadequate, it is no excuse for letting tax evaders off the hook." Mr Geraghty added: "The PPF is also committed to ensuring that tax reductions should be delivered in the most straightforward, equitable and transparent way. Little did we think that inequitable tax reductions were now going to be delivered to criminal tax evaders and that these would not be at all transparent." Speaking in the Dail yesterday, Mr Ahern said there had been no discussion with the Revenue over its proposals to tackle the beneficial owners of bogus non-resident accounts, although he was informed by the Revenue Commissioners of them. Mr Ahern told the Dail the proposals were within the powers of the Revenue Commissioners and a matter for it alone. His only question, when he was informed on Tuesday of the measures, was "if they were seeking any additional or amended powers, and it was made clear to me that they were not".
Mr John Gormley, Green Party TD and Mr Joe Higgins, Socialist Party TD, described the proposals as another tax amnesty, while Labour leader Mr Ruairi Quinn said there was a "suspicion that wrongdoing will once again be rewarded". His party colleague, Mr Tommy Broughan, described the Revenue's proposals as "clandestine" and a "disgraceful tax amnesty".
