Tax amnesty attracts 1.5% of £700m owed

As the November 15th deadline approaches for bogus non-resident account holders to avail of the latest tax amnesty, only £10 million of an estimated £700 million owed has been collected, it has emerged.

This is despite a massive advertising campaign and repeated warnings from the Revenue that there would be no escape after the deadline.

But Revenue Chairman Mr Dermot Quigley said he was not surprised by the low level of payment so far.

Speaking on RTÉ radio today, Mr Quigley said: "We don’t have a history in this country of people paying well in advance of the date".

He said: "In addition wherever we have had tax schemes, the feature has always been that there is a delayed rush into those schemes".

He said the Revenue was not despondent about the figures because he said the scheme is very attractive when compared with what will follow after the November 15th.

The Revenue has repeatedly warned there will be no benefits, no excuse and no escape for those it says are foolish enough not to disclose and pay by the deadline.

But it has promised that those who declare their bogus accounts will have any interest and penalties capped at 100 per cent of the tax due and that there would be no public disclosure nor investigation for prosecution.

Fine Gael finance spokesman Mr Jim Mitchell said today the time for talking about tax evasion was over.

Mr Mitchell called for more political will in tackling tax evasion. He said the fact that the decision to prosecute was made not by the Revenue but by the DPP was undermining the Revenue’s position.

He called for the imposition of mandatory jail sentences in some cases, the setting up of a special revenue prosecutions court and for the establishment a new post of fiscal prosecutor.