Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I do not have the details on inheritance tax or credit card issues in this regard as that information is not available to me. I will find out whether the information is available. These issues arise as a result of non-compliance by taxpayers, whether PAYE or non-PAYE taxpayers, in respect of undeclared income that may have been moved offshore, used in single premium policies, resulted from bogus non-resident accounts, the result of deposit interest retention tax audits or arise from other issues that come up in tribunals or as a result of NIB or Ansbacher issues. These cases are being pursued on the basis of non-compliance. Some 31,950 taxpayers are involved out of a total of 2 million taxpayers. Of course, even one is one too many.

The recent annual report of the Revenue Commissioners stated that the level of tax arrears is about 2%, which in international taxation terms is a good indication of a far more compliant culture being in place than may have been the case in the past on account of non-compliance by individual taxpayers or the failure of the system to be sufficiently efficient or timely in ensuring it dealt with issues as they arose.

On the question of the process of obtaining High Court orders to access financial information to support investigations, I am advised that in the case of the bogus non-resident account investigation 18 High Court orders were granted and no further applications for High Court orders are anticipated as the investigation is almost finished. In the case of the offshore accounts investigation and the single premium insurance products, 21 High Court orders were sought and granted. It is expected a further eight applications may be required.

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