Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 1 June 2017

Public Accounts Committee

2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriations Account
Chapter 13 - Revenue's Review of Medical Consultants' Tax Affairs
Chapter 14 - Research and Development Tax Credit
Chapter 16 - Deferral of Tobacco Stamp Liability

9:00 am

Mr. Niall Cody:

The comparison between 2015 and 2016 is distorted by two issues. In 2015 there was a settlement opportunity for tax avoidance, in June I think, which yielded €42 million. That was a once-off opportunity such as we offer every so often. In 2015 there was also one serious, back-duty legacy case. It went back to the special investigations and was hanging over us for many years. It involved significant legal action outside the State. The settlement actually figured in the estimates for a number of years but was settled in 2015. The impact of those two events is essentially €90 million. Taking that sum out, the 2016 figures are on par with those for 2015. There are always events and outliers that distort the figures. This year we have just finalised the offshore disclosure, which has brought in about €75 million, so this year's average figures will show a spike which will not be repeated next year.