Taxing
Matters

by Craig Hughes | Jul. 29, 2015

Using thirteen years of official Revenue figures, the RTÉ Investigations Unit has analysed all recorded convictions in the period 2002 to 2014 for certain types of tax offences. When we put the data under the microscope, it showed remarkable differences in the rate of convictions across different counties, industries and gender.

In total, more than 11,000 people were convicted of failing to lodge income tax returns during the thirteen year period examined, with fines totalling more than €20 million levied.

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Geographical Variations

There were stark variations in the rate of conviction dependent on the county and region, according to the analysis of the tax data.

County Roscommon had the highest rate of convictions by far, where the number of cases per 100,000 of population was 671. That was almost ten times higher than the lowest in Kilkenny, where the rate was just 68 per 100,000.

High rates were recorded across the North West and Midlands where Longford, Leitrim, Offaly, and Donegal joined Roscommon to make up the top five. It is important to note that enforcement rates can differ according to county.

i Hover your mouse over the counties for more detailed information.

Tax offences cases per 100,000 people,
2002-2014

Tax offences cases per 100,000 people,
2002-2014

  • > 600
  • > 500
  • > 400
  • > 300
  • > 200
  • > 100
  • > 0

Total Convictions

There were more than 11,000 convictions in total across the thirteen years of figures that we analysed.

Dublin, chiefly because of its massive share of the national population, registered the highest number with a total of 2,533 cases while Kilkenny was lowest with just 65.

The county with the next highest number of cases after Dublin was not one of the major urban centres as might have been expected but Donegal, where there were 864 cases.

iHover your mouse over the counties for more detailed information.

Number of convictions for tax offences 2002-2014

Number of convictions for tax offences 2002-2014

  • > 1200
  • > 1000
  • > 800
  • > 600
  • > 400
  • > 200
  • > 0

Industry

For ease of understanding, we grouped occupations into five broad sectors of the economy to see where most tax offences were taking place.

The construction sector had more than double the offenders of any other sector, and accounted for over a third of all the convictions.

The financial and professional services industry was responsible for 16% of offences recorded with a broad category of agriculture making up another 15%.

i Hover over the bubbles for more detailed information.

Number of convictions for tax offences 2002-2014

Construction
Hospitality & Catering
Financial
Transport & Auto Industry
Agricultural
Other

Occupation

When the figures were broken down still further into individual occupations, farmers accounted for the biggest number of tax convictions.

They made up 10.4% of the Revenue list, followed by company directors (4.7%), builders (3.5%) and building contractors (3.2%).

It is of course important to point out that the people listed, in the main, are those who have responsibility for organising their own taxes. That means a virtual exclusion of PAYE workers where tax is deducted at source.

i Explore the breakdown by occupation further by hovering over each of the bubbles.

Convictions for tax offences by occupation 2002-2014

Construction
Hospitality & Catering
Financial
Transport & Auto Industry
Agricultural
Other

Fines

More than €20 million was paid in fines on foot of these tax convictions with the share of that money reflecting the different industries that have already featured prominently.

Farmers had fines of €1.76 million levied on them, while company directors also paid out in excess of €1.1 million after being found guilty of tax offences.

Around €2 million was paid by builders, carpenters, building contractors and plasterers with a further €485,415 paid by people involved in letting property.

i Explore the fine breakdown still further by hovering over each of the bubbles.

Fines for tax offences by occupation 2002-2014

Construction
Hospitality & Catering
Financial
Transport & Auto Industry
Agricultural
Other

Gender

Men accounted for the overwhelming majority of the convictions in the Revenue data, with 94.2% of the cases involving males.

The enormous disparity is obviously influenced by the types of industries which feature heavily in this data and where men tend to predominate: farming, building etc.

Females who received tax convictions were most likely to work in the following five areas (in descending order): company director, letting of property, farming, publican and hairdresser.

Convictions for tax offences by gender 2002-2014

Male
10471 offences

94%

Female
639 offences

6%

Geographical Clustering

Clusters of Revenue activity can be spotted throughout the data where specific counties or industries appear to be targeted in a particular year.

For example in 2005, 20% of all the convictions recorded in the country occurred in Donegal. In a striking change of fortunes, there wasn’t a single conviction in the county in 2014.

Similarly, 73% of all the convictions recorded in Galway have taken place over the past five years while 74% of all convictions in Carlow happened in 2004 and 2005.

i You can use the slider to run the rule over different years to identify if and when your county might have come in for particular attention from the Revenue Commissioners.

Number of convictions
for tax offences 2002-2014

Number of convictions
for tax offences 2002-2014

  • > 150
  • > 125
  • > 100
  • > 75
  • > 50
  • > 25
  • > 0

More on this investigation

Read the full RTÉ Investigations Unit report into the Revenue Commissioners data analysis.

Read the full report