Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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235. To ask the Minister for Finance further to recent reporting that the Revenue Commissioners has recovered €45.5m from 328 individuals relating to trusts in Channel Islands, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Isle of Man, Cayman Islands and the Seychelles, if he will outline the way the Revenue Commissioners will document these recoveries in its quarterly reporting of tax defaulters. [18757/13]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the yield recovered under the Trusts and Offshore Structures investigation to the end of 2012 is €46.66m from 351 persons. The investigation commenced on 1 September 2009 and a qualifying disclosure initiative was launched within the parameters of the Code of Practice for Revenue Audit. This initiative required persons with undeclared tax liabilities, in respect of settlements on trusts and other structures, to make a disclosure and pay the related tax, interest and penalty liabilities by 31 October 2009. Under the Code of Practice details of persons who made such a qualifying disclosure and paid the liabilities are not publishable in Revenue’s quarterly list of tax defaulters. Details of persons who did not make a qualifying disclosure but who were subsequently found, following investigations by Revenue, to have a liability, are publishable in the normal way in the list of tax defaulters, subject to the case meeting the criteria applying to publication as a tax defaulter. One of the publication requirements is that the settlement is €33,000 or higher (€30,000 in respect of liabilities arising between 1 January 2005 and 1 January 2010).

In total 94 people availed of the qualifying disclosure initiative and paid €17.58m in tax interest and penalties. These 94 people were not listed in the tax defaulters list. A substantial number of the cases are still under investigation and have made a payment on account to Revenue. These cases are therefore not yet settled. Of the cases settled, 35 were over the publication threshold and were published in Revenue’s quarterly list of tax defaulters. The following table sets out an analysis of the yield recovered under the Trust & Offshore structures investigations.