Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 20 February 2014

Public Accounts Committee

2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners
Chapter 23 - Revenue Collection
Chapter 24 - Management of Revenue Debt
Chapter 25 - Taxpayer Compliance
Chapter 26 - Corporation Tax Losses
Chapter 27 - Tax Audit Settlements

11:50 am

Ms Josephine Feehily:

The rule used to be that to settle an audit you had to pay in full, and that figure was published. That rule became a stick that was used to beat us because if a business could not pay in full we could not publish, and it was also avoiding the penalty, for want of a better word, of publication. The law was changed in 2009 or 2010 to make it so that we could publish even in situations in which the full amount was not collected. That is the legal background. That was the reason. Up until 2008 or 2009, the figures published were the figures, and then, after that, they were the audit yield but not necessarily the amount that was collected. I am pretty sure we have a figure somewhere but nobody seems to be able to find it for me.