Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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95. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide details of the Revenue Commissioners' current compliance activity in relation to offshore transactions; the number of solicitor firms identified to date as being associated with offshore transactions; the number of enquiry letters in respect of such transactions issued by the Revenue Commissioners to solicitor firms for each year since 2010; the number of cases involving offshore transactions for which enforcement action has been taken since 2010 and the tax yield in respect of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12652/17]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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96. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of persons or entities that have made a voluntary disclosure to the Revenue Commissioners since budget day in October 2016 concerning the ending of the opportunity to make a qualifying disclosure in respect of offshore assets and accounts; the yield from these voluntary disclosures; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12653/17]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 95 and 96 together.

I am advised by Revenue that, since my Financial Statement to the House on 11 October 2016, 20 qualifying disclosures relating to offshore matters have been received, resulting in settlements amounting to €205,012 in tax, interest and penalties. The intention to make a disclosure has been indicated to Revenue in two other cases, and a payment on account of €47,000 has been made in one of them.

The work of Revenue s offshore assets project has been undertaken primarily by way of enquiry letters issued on the basis of information relating to offshore transactions that Revenue obtained from financial institutions on foot of High Court orders. In the period from 2010 to 2016, 8,942 enquiry letters were issued, and most of these enquiries were resolved through explanations provided about the offshore transactions in question. During those years, settlements amounting to some €71 million in tax, interest and penalties were made in 525 cases, including a number of cases involving voluntary disclosures.

The data received by Revenue on foot of High Court Orders included information showing movements of funds in and out of solicitors accounts. Some 730 cases of this kind have been identified and, after conclusion of legal issues arising from earlier enquiries, Revenue issued 47 enquiry letters to solicitors in 2015 and 67 in 2016. This work is ongoing.

The international environment is changing with closer co-operation and information sharing between tax authorities worldwide aimed at identifying those who hide their profits or gains offshore. Ireland has been an early adopter of such initiatives including FATCA the Inter-Governmental Agreement to share financial account information with the United States and the OECD Common Reporting Standard. In this context I introduced specific measures in the Finance Act 2016 to ensure that from 1 May 2017, tax defaulters whose default relates directly or indirectly to offshore matters will be unable to avail of the benefits of the current disclosure regime. It makes no sense to provide an incentive, in the form of a disclosure regime for defaulters, in respect of information which Revenue will have, as a result of these exchange of information initiatives.

If a taxpayer has tax compliance issues relating to offshore matters there is however still an opportunity, if they come forward before 1 May 2017, to avail of the current qualifying disclosure benefits. These are set out in the Code of Practice for Revenue Audit and other Compliance Interventions (the Code) and include reduced penalties, avoiding publication in the list of tax defaulters and not being investigated by Revenue with a view to prosecution. Full details of the Code and the disclosure scheme, including Frequently Asked Questions, are available on the Revenue website.