Collapsed builder named in tax defaulters list after €6.7m tax settlement

Former Fianna Fáil TD Ivor Callely also settled with the tax authority earlier this year

A collapsed building company once controlled by Twinlite developers Rick and Michael Larkin has been named in the latest list of tax defaulters. Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA Wire
A collapsed building company once controlled by Twinlite developers Rick and Michael Larkin has been named in the latest list of tax defaulters. Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA Wire

A collapsed building company set up by Twinlite developers Rick and Michael Larkin has been named in the latest list of tax defaulters after reaching a €6.7 million settlement with the tax authority earlier this year.

Vieira Ltd, which developed a large 198-home estate in Tyrrelstown in west Dublin between 2001 and 2008, was involved in VAT dispute with the Revenue Commissioners, ending up in the High Court where the Larkin brothers were handed a tax bill for €2 million.

The firm collapsed into liquidation in late 2022.

Vieira has now settled with the Revenue Commissioners for more than €6.7 million, which includes the underdeclared VAT in excess of €2.4 million and interest charges of close to €3.6 million.

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Also named in the latest list of defaulters is Ivor Callely, the former Fianna Fáil junior minister who was jailed for five months in 2014 for expenses fraud, after he reached a €172,937 settlement with the tax authority earlier this year.

Mr Callely, whose occupation is listed as “motor vehicle dealer”, agreed to pay the sum after auditors discovered he had underdeclared VAT obligations in the order of €111,478. Interest charges of €28,115 and penalties of €33,344 were added to the principal, bringing the total settlement to €172,937.

The former politician, who is listed at an address in Killester, Dublin 5, was elected to Dáil Éireann for Fianna Fáil in the Dublin North-Central constituency in 1989, going on to serve as minister for state in the departments of health and transport.

He was jailed in 2014 after pleading guilty to making false mobile phone expenses claims.

In total, tax defaulters settled with the Revenue Commissioners for €15 million in the three-month period to the end of September, all except €7.4 million of which has been paid. That includes over €6.1 million of the Vieira settlement.

The 36 defaulters listed included 13 company directors, five medical practitioners, three car dealers, an accountant and a separate accountancy practice, a solicitor, a dairy farmer and a coal merchant.

The tax authority separately secured penalties in court against tax defaulters totalling €79,882 over the period. This included seven cases relating to failure to lodge income tax returns, 10 cases of misuse of market mineral oil, 11 cases of excise offences for smuggling or the illegal selling of tobacco and one case of failure to hold a current liquor licence.

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Ian Curran

Ian Curran

Ian Curran is a Business reporter with The Irish Times