Naming Tax Defaulters to End Shortly?

L

Leper

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Listening to the 9.00am News on RTE Radio 1 today I hear the naming of tax defaulters may come to and end because of EU Law. Revenue (the report said) is looking at this and it appears the practice will come to an end and likely shortly.
 
Right Winger said:
I think this is good news. There is a prurience and a nastiness to the coverage this gets which is totally disproportionate to the offence, and oblivious to whatever context may exist.
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I agree. It can usually be made right via interest and penalties.

TBH I’d prefer if they made use of prosecution more like in other countries for the really bad cases.

In 2021 there were only eight convictions for tax evasion. That’s tiny in the context of over three million taxpayers (individuals and firms).
 
The ECHR ruling in the Hungarian case may not have direct implications for Ireland:

“The government (of Hungary) pointed to a survey carried out by the Intra‑European Organisation of Tax Administrations in 2014, which showed that a number of countries published tax debtors’ data as a dissuasive measure (including, besides Hungary, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the United Kingdom). The measure had not given rise to much controversy at national level,” the judgment said.

One of the judges in the case, while agreeing with his colleagues’ decision, pointed out that the reasoning for the finding appeared to be based on the deliberations of the Hungarian parliament in respect of the relevant Hungarian law.
In the course of its decision, the judge pointed out, the court had said “the choice of such a general scheme is not in itself problematic, nor is the publication of taxpayer data as such”. https://www.irishtimes.com/politics...-publishing-quarterly-list-of-tax-defaulters/


Or, perhaps, the Norwegian system would be better?
 
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T McGibney said:
A substantial percentage of defaults are inadvertent. Most of these never get published, although some do.
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Yes. It is only determined defaulters that are published.

These are the details for the period from 1 October 2022 to 31 December 2022.

"
Part 1: Court Determinations

Court Determination of Penalty

Subject to certain criteria, in settlement cases where there is no agreement to a penalty, or a person fails to pay an agreed penalty, the Court determines the penalty. Details are published when the Court determined penalty exceeds 15% of the total tax (where the total amount of tax only exceeds €50,000) and a qualifying disclosure has not been made:

There were 3 such cases in the 3-month period to 31 December 2022, with fines totalling €1,417,218.

Court imposed fine, imprisonment or other penalty

Details are published when a fine or other Court penalty is imposed in respect of tax or duty offences. Court penalties may include imprisonment, partly suspended or suspended sentences, community service in lieu of imprisonment, and closure orders:

86 such cases are published and €202,100 is the total of court fines imposed.

These include:
  • 29 cases relating to failing to lodge tax returns, failing to produce proper books and records, and delivery of incorrect returns. Court fines totalling €71,250 were imposed
  • 31 cases of misuse of marked mineral oil, in respect of which Court fines totalling €85,500 were imposed
  • 25 cases of excise offences for tobacco smuggling, illegal selling of tobacco and possession of untaxed tobacco for sale. Court fines totalling €42,850, two 4-year sentences (fully suspended), two 2 years and 6 months sentences, one 20-day sentence, and 840 hours of community service, in lieu of imprisonment, were imposed
  • 1 case of possession of untaxed alcohol for sale, in respect of which a Court fine of €2,500 was imposed.
Part 2: Settlements

Settlements are published when the extensive voluntary disclosure options are not availed of and the default arises because of careless or deliberate behaviour:
  • 6 cases are published today and €1.1 million is the total settlement amount in these cases.
  • Of which, 5 cases exceeded €100,000.
  • 4 are cases in which the settlement was not fully paid as at 31 December 2022.
  • €528,874 was the amount unpaid as at 31 December 2022. Revenue vigorously pursues collection and, or enforcement of unpaid settlements. In some cases, collection and, or recovery of the full unpaid amount will not be possible (for example, company liquidation).
Revenue Compliance Yield

These published settlements reflect only a portion of all Revenue Compliance Interventions. In the 3-month period to 31 December 2022 a total of 14,225 Revenue Compliance Interventions were settled resulting in a total yield of €127.36 million."
 
I did a stint in Dept of SW and found it surprising how many prosecutions were taken for smallish amounts.It will be fodder for opposition etc if large tax defaulters cannot be named publicly but relatively small welfare cases are hauled through courts and covered in local/national media.
 
theo67 said:
I did a stint in Dept of SW and found it surprising how many prosecutions were taken for smallish amounts.It will be fodder for opposition etc if large tax defaulters cannot be named publicly but relatively small welfare cases are hauled through courts and covered in local/national media.
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False equivalence. Tax evaders are publicly prosecuted too.

Do the DSP publish online lists of welfare settlements?
 
T McGibney said:
False equivalence. Tax evaders are publicly prosecuted too.
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It's not a false equivalence at all. The Revenue website lists about ten prosecutions a year.

DSP annual report refers to:

The department considered 274 cases for prosecution in 2021. At the end of 2021, the Chief State Solicitors Office had 417 departmental cases in the court system
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There is a massive cultural difference in the use of prosecution. Please don't tell me that welfare recipients are 25x more crooked than taxpayers.
 
theo67 said:
I did a stint in Dept of SW and found it surprising how many prosecutions were taken for smallish amounts.It will be fodder for opposition etc if large tax defaulters cannot be named publicly but relatively small welfare cases are hauled through courts and covered in local/national media.
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But that's apples and oranges. All criminal court proceedings (except the obvious exceptions for sexual offences and such) are open to the public and can be, and are, reported in the media. This includes equally both tax offences and social welfare offences, as well as drunk driving, misuse of drugs and many other things that can be quite embarrassing.

Where cases are settled between the authorities and the individual, and appropriate payment made or agreed, there is no need to publish names and details.
 
It also strikes me that there may be a constitutional issue here apart altogether from the privacy rights deriving from the EHRC.

The administration of justice, which includes imposing punishment (fine, community service, imprisonment, probation etc) is a function reserved to the Courts. Furthermore, the decision as to whether to apply the punishment or not, or to what degree, is also a reserved function in which the Courts have absolute descretion that can't be fettered by Government or Oireachtas. That's the way separation of powers works in our constitution. Looked at rationally, publication of the defaulters list is the very essence of state-imposed punishment and there's a very sound argument that it should only be imposed at the discretion of the Courts, and not as an automatic administrative act by Revenue.
 
NoRegretsCoyote said:
It's not a false equivalence at all. The Revenue website lists about ten prosecutions a year.

DSP annual report refers to:



There is a massive cultural difference in the use of prosecution. Please don't tell me that welfare recipients are 25x more crooked than taxpayers.
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So your argument is about the numbers?

The relative disparity is easy to explain though. Welfare theft cases are usually cut and dried in that they tend to involve the taking of money by making a patently false declaration. Only most egregious tax default cases tend to be as easy to prosecute beyond all reasonable doubt in relation to intent.
 
Right Winger said:
apart altogether from the privacy rights deriving from the EHRC
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The EHRC judgement related specifically to the Hungarian scheme, and did not rule that such publication is always prohibited :

In the course of its decision, the judge pointed out, the court had said “the choice of such a general scheme is not in itself problematic, nor is the publication of taxpayer data as such”.
www.irishtimes.com

European ruling could prevent Revenue publishing quarterly list of tax defaulters

Tánaiste says judgment is being examined following complaint over ‘shaming’ by Hungarian businessman who made €1.2 million settlement
www.irishtimes.com www.irishtimes.com
 
Right Winger said:
It also strikes me that there may be a constitutional issue here apart altogether from the privacy rights deriving from the EHRC.

The administration of justice, which includes imposing punishment (fine, community service, imprisonment, probation etc) is a function reserved to the Courts. Furthermore, the decision as to whether to apply the punishment or not, or to what degree, is also a reserved function in which the Courts have absolute descretion that can't be fettered by Government or Oireachtas. That's the way separation of powers works in our constitution. Looked at rationally, publication of the defaulters list is the very essence of state-imposed punishment and there's a very sound argument that it should only be imposed at the discretion of the Courts, and not as an automatic administrative act by Revenue.
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The Irish legal system has different sources of law - Constitutional, Statute, Common and EU.

Tax law comes under statutory law (laws introduced by the Oireachtas) and is consolidated into the Taxes Acts.

Income Tax Acts have the power to impose measures for Revenue Offences – TCA 1997, Part 47.
 
Right Winger said:
I think this is good news. There is a prurience and a nastiness to the coverage this gets which is totally disproportionate to the offence, and oblivious to whatever context may exist.
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It doesn't take into account what circumstances occurred - its a product of the times when people really believed that people who were behind in their taxes were simply refusing to pay and not actually in financial difficulty, which is the main reason why people default on their tax
 
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