Musicians Foster and Allen are to appeal a court ruling which leaves them with a bill of about €6 million for taxes and penalties owed to the Revenue Commissioners.
Legal challenges by the duo to demands by the Revenue for about €3 million each for unpaid taxes were dismissed by the High Court yesterday.
They had unpaid taxes of about €1 million each but the total amounted to more than €3 million because of penalties and interest charges.
The Revenue sought summary judgment for €3.389 million against Anthony (Tony) Allen, Kileenatoor, Mount Temple, Co Westmeath, for unpaid income taxes and penalties between 1986 and 1997. Mr Allen argued yesterday he had a bona fide defence to the demand and the matter should go to full hearing.
In separate proceedings, Michael Foster, Walshtown, Mullingar, Co Westmeath, asked the court to set aside a summary judgment order for €2.947 million obtained by the Revenue in December 2008 over unpaid taxes from 1986 to 2002.
Speaking today, Mr Allen said he believed he and his musical partner did not actually owe that much money. He said they had hired a tax barrister four or five years ago who had issued them with a statement assuring them their tax affairs were up to date and “100 per cent”.
Mr Allen said the pair had always paid their taxes on tours and live shows but this issue was about royalties and record sales and had been going on for a few years.
They had hired an accountant to look after it. But it turned out after four years that “the whole thing was a forgery” and that money they’d given the accountant for the Revenue Commissioners “never actually got to Revenue”.
Speaking on RTÉ radio, Mr Allen said some two thirds of the amount was fines and charges.
“We have been trying over the last few years to sit down and talk to the Revenue but they just refused to talk they just wanted to go to court and get a judgment against us.”
He said they would obviously appeal the judgment and “try and get our side of it heard properly in court”.
“That’s what we were trying to do all along was to get Revenue to sit down and talk about the whole scenario in a civil manner…”
Asked if they had the money should the appeal not prove successful, Mr Allen said:
“Not at all. Where would we get €6 million? We are not U2.
“We’ve been working very hard for the last 30-odd years and we’ve been selling records and all the rest, but it doesn’t mean we’re multi, multi, multimillionaires.
“If we had this kind of money it would be great but we don’t have it. I don’t know what the answer is to that question. We just have to keep working to survive. Most working music acts, that’s all they do – they live from year to year.”