Almost €750m was paid last year to Revenue in unpublished tax settlements with more than €200m of that linked to the finance and insurance industries.
The Revenue Commissioners said the 20 largest settlements – specific details of which are not made public – accounted for €383m in tax payments, or an average of around €19.2m each.
Altogether, there were 57,873 cases settled by Revenue in 2023 where companies or individuals reached agreement over underpaid tax without their identities or names being listed in defaulter lists.
Figures released under Freedom of Information show that of the €749m in unpublished settlements made last year, most cases related to companies with payments totalling €612m.
There were a further 18,804 cases involving individual taxpayers, which accounted for €121m of the tax paid as part of agreements on arrears.
Another €6.1mwas paid by 1,215 different partnerships while 213 “trusts estates” paid up just over €5m, according to the figures.
There were also 828 unincorporated bodies that made settlements totalling €4.1m as well as a small number of other miscellaneous cases.
The Revenue Commissioners said they would not provide any further detail on the 20 largest settlements apart from the €383m total that was paid.
They said any further breakdown of the figures could serve to identify the companies or individuals who were involved in the tax agreements.
A breakdown according to sector showed that finance and insurance accounted for more than a quarter of all the unpublished settlements that were made in 2023 with a total yield of €206m.
The next highest total was in the pharmaceutical sector where payments totalling €74.9m were made, followed by food manufacturing where there was €57m in settlements last year.
Other sectors where large tax payments were made included construction with €29m, public administration and defence at €32m and real estate activities at €28m.
There were also unpublished settlements of €7.2m in the sector of “arts, entertainment, and recreation” and €3.5m in “publishing, audiovisual and broadcasting activities”.
Under the compliance information framework of the Revenue Commissioners, companies can avoid details of settlements being made public by making qualifying disclosures, which include the tax payment and any interest due.
Legislation also excludes from publication cases with a value of less than €50,000, and in other circumstances specified under tax legislation.
An information note said that taxpayers who avail of opportunities to review their tax compliance and address or disclose any issues can benefit through minimum penalties and without the risk of publication or prosecution.
“Information on the full range of opportunities available to taxpayers for regularising tax and duty defaults are outlined in Chapter 2 [of] the Code of Practice for Revenue Compliance Interventions,” it stated.
Article Source – €750m paid to Revenue in unpublished tax settlements last year – RTE