Revenue to widen net for super-rich in reorganisation

Drop from €50m threshold part of ‘realignment’ plan as economy grows

REVENUE is poised to drop the threshold at which taxpayers qualify as super-rich, which is likely to see hundreds of people come under the remit of a unit focused on high-net-worth individuals.

At a recent meeting with tax professionals, Revenue outlined how a new threshold will be set by the end of next month as part of a wide-ranging organisational ‘realignment’ designed to keep pace with the growth in taxpayer numbers and boom in economic activity.

The new structure is based around five national divisions — the large corporates division, the high-wealth individuals division, the medium enterprises division, the business division and the personal division.

As part of this reorganisation, the threshold for those considered to be high-networth individuals will be dropped from the current cut-off of €50m.

“The high-wealth individuals (HWI) division is currently reviewing the threshold level for determining high-wealth individuals, and this review is expected to be completed by the end of quarter one 2019,” said a Revenue spokeswoman.

“The new threshold and the number of additional individuals that will be within the responsibility of the division will be determined when the review is completed.”

Revenue’s anti-avoidance units are also operated by HWI division.

Revenue chairman Niall Cody has previously indicated that he would favour seeing the threshold for the HWI division fall to as low as €20m.

Senior accounting sources said that taxpayers in the HWI division are expected to face greater scrutiny.

At the meeting with tax practitioners, Revenue also said that under the realignment, the large corporate division (LCD) financial services cases would be managed by a team in Galway “starting with aircraft leasing, investment funds, Section 110 and non-banking financial companies”.

As has been previously reported, Revenue is also setting up a medium enterprises division dealing with companies with turnover of between €3m and €190m.

Revenue told the meeting that reorganisation “was driven by several environmental factors including, growth in taxpayer numbers and business activity, taxpayer expectations of consistent and fair treatment, greater use of IT/ technology and the roll-out of PAYE modernisation”.

At the meeting, practitioners expressed concerns that the changes could cause delays for taxpayers.