Raking up the Dirt

Charlie McCreevy, the Irish Minister of Finance, has warned that the Revenue Commissioners will examine the tax affairs of up to 150,000 or one in ten Irish taxpayers after the “Dirt” (deposit interest retention tax) scandal. If the Revenue believes that an individual holds a non-resident account illegally it will interrogate the matter, he said. The minister’s assurance came after a Public Accounts Committee inquiry discovered that banks had failed to deduct the tax. The review process could take up to a decade to complete. Currently officials are studying more than 300,000 accounts ostensibly owned by depositors outside Eire. Initial inspection by the comptroller and auditor general has suggested that the status of nearly fifty per cent of the accounts may be in question. Evidently piqued at the prolonged deception, the Revenue Commissioners are subjecting each case to minute scrutiny. Any minor irregularity in the paperwork could render an account bogus, irrespective of whether or not the holder is genuinely offshore. Individuals face the prospect of extra tax bills and fines while the banks could suffer penalties for each case of inaccurate documentation as well as having to deal with claims from bona fide offshore depositors whose paperwork was not in order.