Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 153: To ask the Minister for Finance the number of letters that have been sent by the Revenue Commissioners to Irish investors seeking information about their overseas property; the number of such letters expected to be sent in total; the number of these letters that have received a response; the number of those letters to which a response has been received and are expected to be the subject of further investigation; his views on introducing a robust compulsory disclosure mechanism whereby Irish tax-payers must declare overseas properties which they own; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21953/08]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that a dedicated unit within their organisation, the Offshore Assets Group, is tasked with identifying Irish residents who have assets located abroad, including overseas property. This area is considered to be of considerable tax risk because of the possibility that some individuals may fund such acquisitions with untaxed income or gains, and it is also recognised by the Commissioners that many purchasers of foreign properties have no tax issues.

To date, the work of this unit had identified around 2,000 Irish residents holding offshore properties who, on the basis of an initial examination appear to have tax issues. This information is being matched to individual returns and enquiry letters are issuing where discrepancies are discovered or clarification is required. As these enquiries are part of the overall audit programme, no separate statistics are currently available within Revenue to quantify the number of enquiry or audit letters relating to offshore properties.

Details of the acquisition of a property, whether domestic or offshore, are required to be returned to Revenue by taxpayers when completing their annual return of income (Form 11).