Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The Revenue Commissioners have been very successful in inculcating a compliance in this country, as tax collection has improved greatly and tax liability is being met responsibly by those who should bear it. The investigations undertaken by the Revenue Commissioners have also been very successful, but if they require further resources then they can put that case to me.

The risk based approach adopted by the Revenue Commissioners to audit and compliance interventions is now focusing on tax-payers that pose the highest risk. They have adopted a targeted sector wide approach to audit investigations and are conducting audits on higher risk cases. They have rebalanced their compliance measures by giving intense scrutiny to certain sectors where there are perceived risks, such as the construction industry. They have written to some tax-payers in the construction industry outlining their past experience of audit settlements in this sector and pointing out areas that give rise to underpayments of taxes, as well as inviting tax-payers to make corrections in advance of audits in that sector. They are not just looking at relevant construction tax issues in isolation, but are looking at cases as a whole, as there are other tax issues involved. This is part of the whole case management approach which they are developing to compliance interventions.

The strategy to maximise identification of tax-payers has been through the setting up of the special compliance districts in the revenue regions, where the Revenue Commissioners have a focused approach to the gathering of intelligence and information on tax-payers at sectoral level. I have full confidence in them. If the Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners wishes to speak to me about any further deployment of resources he is free to do so, and I am sure he will do so.

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