David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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59. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of cases of bogus employment contracts the Revenue Commissioners have investigated in each of the years 2008 to 2016, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3605/17]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by Revenue that it carries out a range of tax and duty compliance interventions including interventions to ensure the correct operation by employers of the PAYE system.

When carrying out compliance interventions, Revenue is mindful of the possibility of the incorrect classification of a person as self-employed in any engagement between two parties and the non-operation of the PAYE system arising from that.  This is particularly the case during Revenue interventions in certain sectors where the practice of engaging people to work on contract is prevalent, like the construction sector or in professional services like engineering and IT. 

However, in addition to employers erroneously treating employees as self-employed contractors, non-operation of the PAYE system can arise in a number of other scenarios.  For example, it arises in "off the books" arrangements wherein employers pay wages or part of wages in cash without PAYE deductions and it arises where employers erroneously treat wages as tax free expenses.  Where non-operation of the PAYE system is uncovered, Revenue will seek to recover from employers the unpaid PAYE tax, interest on late payment of that tax and will, as appropriate, pursue penalties.  However, non-operation of the PAYE system may be only part of the evasion uncovered in a compliance intervention as, in some instances, a business may also have undeclared its business profits or not operated VAT correctly. It is not unusual to find that a tax settlement with Revenue may, for example, cover outstanding liabilities in respect of corporation tax, VAT and PAYE tax.

I am further informed by Revenue that while they capture the various constituents of yield tax or duty, interest on late payment and penalties their records do not capture each of the separate or specific types of contraventions of law uncovered.  On that basis, the information sought by the Deputy is not available.

The Deputy should also be aware that work is ongoing between officials from my Department, the Department of Social Protection and Revenue following a public consultation last year where submissions were sought from interested parties on the "Use of Intermediary-Type Structures and Self-employment Arrangements" and their impact on tax and PRSI. The consultation document is available at .