Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that to the end of February 2007 they have recovered €2.297 billion from 31,950 taxpayers as a result of their programme of special investigations. The three major legacy investigations relating to bogus non-resident accounts, offshore accounts and single premium insurance products, account for the bulk of the amount recovered. The balance is accounted for by recoveries related to the Ansbacher investigation, the NIB-CMI scheme and tribunal related enquiries.

All Revenue's special investigations are now at an advanced stage and some are nearing an end. The follow-up phase of the bogus non-resident investigation is almost complete and the follow-up phases of the offshore and single premium insurance products investigations are well under way. The inquiry letter phase of the offshore investigation, which follows up those who did not make voluntary disclosures, started in 2006 and is expected to continue into 2008. The inquiry letter phase of the single premium investigation, which similarly follows up those who did not make voluntary disclosures, is scheduled to start at the end of this month and will involve the issue of approximately 5,000 inquiry letters initially.

Tax, interest and penalties continue to be collected as the investigations progress and this will be the position for some time to come.

The Revenue Commissioners inform me that these investigations have been very successful, not just in recovering outstanding taxes but in improving tax compliance in general in this country. The overall approach has been very effective and in some cases is being adopted by other revenue administrations. The powers of access, through the High Court, to financial information and, in particular, the powers provided in the Finance Act 1999 have proved to be of vital importance enabling Revenue to identify taxpayers with undeclared liabilities who did not come forward during the voluntary phases of the investigations.

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