Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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66. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide for a Revenue Commissioners investigation into offshore pension transfers; the amount of pension savings the Revenue Commissioners believe has been shielded from tax; if he will list the countries the Revenue Commissioners believe have been used for such transfers; the number of cases involved, amount of tax levied, fines imposed, and settlements agreed, as part of the investigation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8644/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that they have been engaged since 2014 in an on-going compliance program that involves visits to pension providers, pension administrators and pension trustees in relation to the transfer of pension funds off-shore. The objective of the compliance program is to ensure that the purpose of any transfer of pension funds off shore is for bona fide reasons and do not contravene tax legislation or undermine pension tax policy. At this point, the question of settlements does not arise as the priority to date has been to verify the bona fides of the transfers and to establish the scale of the issues involved.

For taxpayer confidentiality reasons it is not possible to give precise details of the enquiries underway. However, I am advised that from 2012 to date a total of 456 notifications to transfer pension arrangements off-shore have been received by the Revenue Commissioners and the value of the funds to be transferred amount to €54,707,326. It is important to bear in mind that not all of these transfer notifications may actually have proceeded to an actual transfer. Also many would have been made for bona fide purposes and fully compliant with tax legislation and pension tax policy.  While there is a range of countries involved, 348 of the transfers were to Australia, Cyprus, Malta and the United Kingdom.

I am further informed by the Revenue Commissioners that moving pension funds off-shore in an effort to circumvent the requirements of Irish pension tax legislation may fall foul of the conditions under which a pension scheme was approved by the Revenue Commissioners as an exempt approved scheme or the conditions under which a Personal Retirement Savings Account (PRSA) product received Revenue approval.  This could result in the withdrawal of the approval of an occupational pension scheme in accordance with the provisions of section 772(5) of the Taxes Consolidation Act (TCA) 1997 or the withdrawal of the approval of the PRSA product under section 787K (3) and (4) TCA 1997. Any such withdrawal of approval could trigger significant tax liabilities on the sums moved off shore and the withdrawal or claw back of tax reliefs. Moreover, in such cases and depending on the circumstances and the motivation of the individual concerned the possibility also arises that such transactions may also fall foul of the legislation designed to counter tax avoidance transactions.

In addition to Revenue s compliance program, the Department of Finance has initiated a review of the whole area of pension transfers abroad in conjunction with Revenue, the Department of Social Protection and the Pensions Authority.  Revenue s findings from the on-going compliance programme will feed into and inform that review.