Did Swiss account tax dodgers get amnesties?
Revenue to face PAC grilling
THE Revenue Commissioners face a grilling this week into their handling of the international multi-billion euro HSBC bank scandal.
The powerful Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee wants to know if taxpayers here lost out in the bank’s offshore Swiss banking scandal that has rocked the world of finance around the globe.
At one stage HSBC had as many as 353 clients linked to Irish accounts, so now PAC has written to Revenue to say it is ‘concerned at the high levels of deposits held by individuals who gave Ireland as an address, and is anxious to follow up with Revenue on the extent and outcome
‘Taxes recouped would seem to be small’
of its investigations into HSBC offshore accounts’.
It emerged this week that only €4.55m had been recouped for taxpayers here despite there being €3.1bn in Irish-linked deposits at the bank’s Swiss operation.
Last night PAC chairman John McGuinness said the committee would be seeking an explanation as to why more tax was not recouped. He said: ‘The taxes recouped would seem to be small in comparison to the principal sum. We would be concerned at this.’
The letter from PAC, seen by the Irish Mail on Sunday, requests a detailed brief to be handed down before February 26, including details of ‘the number of those who had deposits and who were deemed not to have a tax liability in the State, and the reasons why a liability did not arise’.
PAC wants Revenue to deal with eleven issues including: the number of account holders with an Irish address; the level of deposits they held; the number investigated by Revenue on suspicion of tax evasion; the number who had an account and who availed of Revenue amnesties.
They also want to know if and how information obtained from the French authorities on the scandal fed into other investigations of offshore accounts. However, PAC will not try to get Revenue to reveal names in public.
Revenue insists it fully evaluated the information it received about the HSBC accounts from the French authorities in June 2010.
It has also defended its decision not to try and prosecute HSBC for allegedly facilitating tax evasion, arguing that the evidence was not strong enough. It said the money recouped to date related to 20 cases out of 33 investigations it initiated after receiving information on the accounts.
It also secured three prosecutions, although it has not provided details of these.
A Revenue spokeswoman said the existence of a foreign bank account was not evidence of tax evasion and no liability arises where relevant tax is paid on funds in the account and on any interest accruing.