Anglo Irish Bank has said it is the financial institution that has handed over information to the Revenue Commissioners on Irish customers with funds deposited at its bank in the Isle of Man. Siobhán Creaton, Finance Correspondent, reports.
The bank, which holds more than €1 billion in funds in the Isle of Man, was recently required to disclose customer details to the Revenue following a High Court order.
Anglo Irish Bank's chief executive, Mr Sean FitzPatrick, told The Irish Times, that 3 per cent or around €30 million of those funds, are owned by Irish residents. "We have not written to those customers and don't expect to be writing to them," he said.
The bank is understood to have taken legal advice on the amount of information it was required to disclose to the Irish tax authorities and that the details handed over so far are thought to be fairly general. It is likely that it will vigorously contest any further demands for specific information on individual account holders.
On Thursday, Revenue Commissioners chairman Mr Frank Daly said it was examining information related to one financial institution in the Isle of Man but refused to name it.
In the past three weeks, 281 Irish people voluntarily disclosed that they had evaded taxes through offshore investments. Some 254 of these were customers of Bank of Ireland's trust business in Jersey and a small number have lodged €8 million as a payment on account with the Revenue while the investigation continues. Mr Daly expects that this investigation will yield a substantial sum of money and was preparing to start discussions with other banks with offshore operations.
It is possible that some of the 27 individuals who were not Bank of Ireland customers may have been clients of Anglo Irish and that this could have prompted the Revenue to seek more information.
Meanwhile, Permanent TSB is preparing to close deposit accounts held by more than 750 Irish customers at its operations in the Isle of Man. The bank, part of the Irish Life & Permanent group, will send letters to these individuals next week telling them to make other arrangements for their funds.
At the end of 2002, the bank had £200 million (€287 million) on deposit in the Isle of Man. Yesterday a spokesman said its decision to withdraw this service to Irish customers was unrelated to the Revenue's increased efforts to catch individuals using offshore locations to evade tax.
"This is a relatively small part of our business, which was established in 1993. As the bank now offers a much wider range of savings and investment products, it was decided to end this service," he said. The bank will continue to accept deposits from clients who are resident outside the State.
Most Irish financial institutions have operations in the Channel Islands. AIB, Bank of Ireland and Irish Nationwide have a presence in the Isle of Man.
Mr Daly has stated that financial institutions that are discovered to have aided and abetted tax evasion will face penalties.
