Tax authorities allowed go 'behind' amnesty cert

AppealThe Revenue has successfully argued before the Appeal Commissioners that it be allowed go "behind" an amnesty certificate produced by a former Ansbacher depositor.

The depositor, whose name is not known, is appealing the decision to the High Court on a point of law.

The case is believed to be the first Ansbacher amnesty case to be successfully argued before the Appeal Commissioners. A number of Ansbacher depositors have produced amnesty certificates.

The 1993 amnesty gave persons who availed of it a certificate which, when produced, prevents the Revenue from proceeding further with inquiries into the person's tax affairs prior to the amnesty.

The certificates contained very little information other than the amount of the settlement made. The amnesty allowed people settle their debts with a payment equal to 15 per cent of the amount owed.

In order to win a case before the Appeal Commissioners, the Revenue has to establish a prima facie case that the person concerned did not make a full disclosure at the time he or she availed of the amnesty. It is rare, though not unprecedented, for the Revenue to take such a case.

The chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, Mr Frank Daly, said yesterday that its Ansbacher investigation was proving extremely difficult with some people fighting the Revenue every step of the way.

"We are not stepping back, in fact we are going to intensify our efforts," he said.

The recent victory of the Revenue in the High Court, where it won the right to access to confidential papers belonging to the inspectors who investigated Ansbacher, will be of "great value".

It is understood another key development will be the outcome of a court challenge being taken by the property developer, Mr John Byrne, who is seeking to overturn the finding of the Ansbacher inspectors that trusts he established with Ansbacher in the Cayman Islands, were sham trusts.

Mr Daly said the Revenue had been engaged in its Ansbacher inquiry since late 1999 and was inquiring into 289 cases.

"We have concluded settlements with 72 cases and a further 50 cases have made payments on account. The total amount recovered in tax interest and penalties amounts to €42.79 million."

The Revenue is due to get access to thousands of pages of confidential documentation belonging to the Ansbacher inspectors following the ruling in the High Court. The documentation may be all the more interesting because the persons to whom it belongs were told it would remain confidential if it did not have relevance to the inspectors' inquiries.

The High Court subsequently ruled, however, that if the individuals affected were tax compliant, they would not suffer any disadvantage. If they were not tax compliant, they would suffer no injustice in discharging their proper liabilities.