Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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Question 120: To ask the Minister for Finance if a person (details supplied) is liable for interest and penalties; and the rate at which this liability will be calculated. [14816/04]

Charlie McCreevy (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Details of the interest rates and the range of penalties relating to the current Revenue Commissioners offshore project are set out in the Revenue booklet, Making a Qualifying Disclosure of an Offshore Related Tax Default to Revenue, which is available on the Revenue website or from any tax office. The rate of interest will depend on when the tax liability first arose. This rate has varied over the years. For practical reasons Revenue are allowing taxpayers to treat income arising in earlier years as referring to 1987-88, which means that interest owing to Revenue in relation to those earlier years can be calculated from the due date for 1987-88.

It is difficult to be precise about the level of penalties to be levied in any particular case without seeing the full circumstances. In general for anybody who gave notice of an intention to make a qualifying disclosure by the deadline date of 29 March 2004 and does so within 60 days, the normal fine or penalty will be reduced from 100% to 10% provided there is full co-operation. However, to the extent that a tax default arose for a period before April 1991, Revenue has no discretion to mitigate the penalty. This is because mitigation for pre-amnesty years was prohibited in the 1993 amnesty legislation.