Revenue holiday shopping operation yielded €22,921

A Revenue operation to enforce compliance with the tax laws by transatlantic Christmas shoppers yielded just €22,921 in VAT and duty, a Dáil committee was told yesterday.

It heard that 4,599 pieces of baggage were searched by Customs officers at Dublin, Shannon and Knock airports, but only 108 seizures were made from passengers exceeding the duty limit of €175 per person.

Revenue chairman Frank Daly told the Public Accounts Committee that nearly 7,000 passengers in total were stopped at the three airports between early October and mid-December, having arrived on flights from the US.

He said Revenue was sensitive to claims that it had not being doing enough about transatlantic shoppers and had made a concerted effort over the last two Christmases, but he said it was "essentially a two-month phenomenon" and the perceived risk to the economy was "overstated".

However, he said Customs officials would continue to monitor passengers coming in off transatlantic flights. "If nothing else there is a law to be complied with," he said.

He also said that, though the limit for paying duty was €175, shoppers could, for instance, bring in €800 or €900 worth of children's clothes which is exempt from VAT.

Mr Daly said he didn't understand how you could bridge the gap between what was seized by Revenue staff and a claim by business leaders that transatlantic shopping was costing the economy €1 billion a year, and €300 million was being lost to the taxman.

A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, which was presented to the committee yesterday, said that a "blitz" had been done in November and December of 2006 and had concluded that there was "no significant revenue evasion issue".

Irish Small and Medium Enterprise (ISME) chief executive Mark Fielding stood by the figures and said it was "crazy" to suggest that it was not a major problem. "We know from our own research that 175,000 Irish people flew out to New York for Christmas shopping and that they spent an average of between €1,500 and €5,000.

"Are the Revenue really suggesting that so many of these people came under the €175 limit?"