Almost €560m paid in unpublished tax settlements to Revenue last year

Ken Foxe

Almost €560 million was paid last year in unpublished tax settlements to Revenue, with the top 20 cases yielding more than a third of the total.

Revenue said there had been 62,810 cases settled last year, with the average back-payment working out at around €9,000.

The top 20 cases, however, accounted for €205 million in payments to Revenue, around €10.3 million for each of them.

Figures show that the finance and insurance industry was the largest offender with just over €85 million worth of “unpublished compliance interventions”.

It was followed by the motor industry at €62.8 million and the area of public administration and defence where €53.5 million worth of settlements were made.

Other sizable payments included €43 million from businesses in the arts, entertainment, and recreation sector and €48 million from manufacturers of computers and other electronic products.

There was €38 million in settlements from the transport and storage sector, €32 million from the real estate business, €27 million from “IT and other information services”, and €22.9 million paid out by the construction sector.

The Revenue Commissioners said just over 70 per cent of the settlements – worth €397 million in total – were made by almost 39,000 companies.

There was a further €153 million of back-paid tax from 21,685 individuals, according to records covering 2024.

Around €1.5 million was paid by partnerships, €721,000 by trusts, and €7 million by unincorporated bodies.

A spokeswoman said Revenue’s mission was to collect taxes in a fair and efficient way which included supporting voluntary compliance.

She said: “Where appropriate, a risk intervention may be conducted to confront cases displaying non-compliance indicators and/or challenge aggressive tax planning.”

The spokeswoman said Revenue used a three-phase compliance framework which offered people the chance to correct errors or make disclosures of unpaid tax.

“Taxpayers who avail of opportunities to review their tax compliance position and voluntarily address or disclose any issues identified may benefit by experiencing the minimum level of penalty and generally not risk either publication or prosecution,” she said.