The Taoiseach has said new measures announced by the Revenue Commisioners to deal with holders of bogus non-resident accounts are in no way a new tax amnesty.
Earlier, the Revenue Commissioners gave people who held bogus non-resident accounts until next November to come clean about their tax liabilities.
The Taoiseach said the new scheme would be hard for the Revenue to administer, but said chairman Dermot Quigley had left people in no doubt about the strict measures he would take after the voluntary disclosure scheme ended in November.
Announcing a series of measures to deal with bogus account holders this morning, the Commissioners said anyone who made a voluntary disclosure by the November deadline would not be prosecuted.
They said after November they would use their new powers of access to information and records of financial institutions to pursue other account holders.
The Revenue Commissioners have denied that this is an amnesty. Chairman Dermot Quigley said this was not a game of bluff. He said the Revenue would use all their powers after November to get the names of bogus non-resident account holders. He said after November all bets would be off and files would be prepared for possible prosecution.
For those who meet the November deadline, the following arrangements apply:
1. Interest on penalties will be capped at 100% of the tax, so account holders will have to pay the tax due and up to the same amount again in interest and penalties
2. The Revenue Commissioners will not prosecute for related tax evasion offences. Details of the payment will not be published.
These arrangements will not be available to cases already under audit or inquiry by the Revenue, the Ansbacher investigations, the Flood or the Moriarty Tribunal.
* The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland today welcomed the new plans for dealing with holders of non-resident accounts. ICAI tax spokesman Kieran Ryan said the Revenue's announcement was a pragmatic and sensible approach to resolving this issue.
'The entire DIRT scandal has done nothing for Ireland's reputation internationally as a good place in which to do business. Hopefully this tackling of those whose underlying evasion led to the scandal will bring the entire episode to some sort of closure,' he said.
