THE largest sum ever paid by the Revenue Commissioners for information about tax evasion was £15,500 and it led to the recovery of many millions of pounds, the Dail Committee of Public Accounts has been told.
The chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, Mr Cathal MacDomhnaill, told the committee yesterday the Revenue was allowed to pay up to £5,000 to an informant. A higher sum would require authorisation.
Mr MacDomhnaill said the of money for information leading to the discovery of evasion was a very difficult for them. "You'd be amazed many people try to use us as whipping boy" out of vindictiveness or other motives, he added.
He said the vast majority of information the Revenue Commissioners received did not require a payment.
When an informant raised the issue of compensation, the Revenue Commissioners had to satisfy themselves that they would not get the information anyway, Mr MacDomhnaill said.
Mr Eric Byrne (Democratic left) told the committee that tax evasion was robbery and should be described as a criminal offence. He also congratulated Mr MacDomhnaill on the success of the Revenue Commissioners in recovering £1 million from three directors of a public relations firm, Murray Consultants.
Much was written about ordinary crime but white collar crime got very little publicity, Mr Byrne said.
Mr MacDomhnaill said that the Revenue Commissioners would prefer to avoid the use of the word "crime" and speak instead of a "Revenue offence".
The committee was also told that Revenue have a new policy to deal with what Mr MacDomhnaill described as the phoenix syndrome, when directors liquidate a company, leaving unpaid creditors and then start a new business.
Mr Tommy Broughan (Labour) asked if the Revenue Commissioners would be able to identify the names of directors that recur in the phoenix syndrome.
Mr MacDomhnaill replied that Mr Broughan had put his finger on the nub of the new policy. Though the courts might rule that each new company is a separate entity from any that preceded it, Mr MacDomhnaill said the Revenue felt entitled to make a rapid response when they identified principals in a new company as having been previously involved in a failed company which had left creditors unpaid.
Mr Broughan asked Mr MacDomhnaill if he agreed that the Residential Property Tax was expensive to administer and mainly penalised Dublin house owners. Of the total take of £14 million from the tax in 1994, Mr MacDomhnaill said 22,000 house owners in Dublin had contributed £8.9 million. He added that urban areas such as Cork and the dormitory towns around Dublin also made substantial contributions.
Mr MacDomhnaill said the Revenue Commissioners expected total tax revenue in 1995 would be £10.9 billion an increase of £481 million on the tax take of 1994.