Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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82. To ask the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 214 of 22 June 2021, the number of occasions on which the Revenue Commissioners has successfully applied Ireland's general anti-avoidance rule; the quantum of additional tax revenue that has been clawed back through its application by year in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35073/21]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by Revenue that the general anti-avoidance rule is contained in section 811 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997. Section 811 applied for transactions commenced up to 23 October 2014 and section 811C applies to transactions commenced after 23 October 2014. The general principles as to what constitutes a tax avoidance transaction are broadly the same under both sets of provisions. Section 811 required Revenue to issue a Notice of Opinion for transactions considered to represent tax avoidance. Section 811C does not require Revenue to issue a Notice of Opinion, instead a Notice of Assessment is issued.

I am further advised by Revenue that it is not possible in the time available to provide the full details sought.

In total 517 Notices of Opinion were issued under section 811 in respect of transactions considered by Revenue to be tax avoidance. I understand it has been possible for Revenue to challenge tax avoidance transactions identified that took place after 23 October 2014 using specific legislative provisions, therefore to-date it has not been necessary for Revenue to issue assessments under section 811C.

Revenue have dedicated Anti-Avoidance branches in their Large Cases – High Wealth Individuals Division. These branches have responsibility for challenging tax avoidance nationally under both general and specific anti-avoidance legislation. In January 2021 Revenue were managing 498 cases involving potential tax avoidance, relating to 27 transactions.

The settlements reached in the years 2014 to 2020 in relation to tax avoidance challenged by Revenue are set out in Table 1.

Table 1 – Tax Avoidance Settlements

*Of the 1,352 avoidance cases settled in 2017, 1,332 were closed following the Supreme Court’s decision in the Hans Droog case in which it was successfully argued by the appellant that time limits set out in legislation relating to the self-assessment system apply to anti-avoidance legislation. As a result of the Supreme Court decision and acting on legal advice, Revenue closed similar cases involving time limit issues which it was no longer possible to pursue as a result of the application of the time limit.

Finance Act 2014 introduced section 811D and provided taxpayers with the opportunity to file a Qualifying Avoidance Disclosure (QAD). This provided for the disclosure of any tax avoidance transaction entered into on or before 23 October 2014. The final date to avail of the QAD was 30 June 2015. In general, the type of transactions that qualified for the disclosure initiative were transactions that could come within the definition of avoidance in section 811, also VAT avoidance transactions that could be challenged under the “Abuse of Rights” principle. In total 137 cases applied under the QAD provisions with settlements of €43.7 million (including tax and interest).