THE DEPARTMENT of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has said it paid a €15,000 penalty to the Revenue Commissioners this year as a result of “a technical accounting breach”.
In response to questions asked by The Irish Times of all Government departments about tax compliance, the Department of Communications said it paid the penalty following a voluntary disclosure and there was no loss of revenue to the exchequer.
The department did not disclose the nature of the breach, but did say it “has never engaged in any instance of tax avoidance/abuse”.
“The department is not being examined, investigated or questioned by Revenue in relation to the tax treatment of any contracts in which it is involved,” it said.
It also said the disclosure was “a prompted qualifying disclosure” with co-operation on the part of the department arising from a query from Revenue.
According to Revenue guidelines, a penalty of €15,000 is typically imposed where there has been disclosure of a breach prompted by notification of an upcoming Revenue audit and the breach is categorised as “careless behaviour”.
Questions asked of all departments by this newspaper were prompted by a circular sent from the Revenue Commissioners to Government departments.
The circular said there were a number of instances in which it considered that offensive tax avoidance and/or abuses of the tax system had occurred.
By last night, all 15 Government departments had responded to the questions.
Thirteen said they were not the departments referred to in the circular.
These are Agriculture, Arts, Children, Education, Environment, Finance, Public Expenditure, Foreign Affairs, Jobs, Justice, Social Protection, Transport and the Taoiseach. The Department of the Taoiseach added it did not respond earlier to the questions because it did not receive the email.
The Department of Education and Skills did say, however, it was currently the subject of a routine audit.
In its response, the Department of Health said it endeavoured at all times to be compliant with the tax code.
“In relation to any specific queries from the Revenue Commissioners, the department fully co-operates in following up any such queries. The department does not comment on any specific queries the Revenue Commissioners may have.”
Asked for further clarification, a spokesman said the department would not be commenting further.
