Tax amnesty bid 'starts slowly'

By Julian Knight
Personal finance reporter, BBC News

The Revenue has obtained details on offshore accounts

Only a small proportion of people who owe tax on their offshore savings have responded to an official tax amnesty, the BBC has learned.

A leading accountant said that a "few hundred" people have taken advantage of the Revenue's amnesty.

Tens of thousands of people have until 22 June to either tell the Revenue they owe tax or face substantial fines and possible criminal prosecution.

The Revenue said it had received a "steady" response to its amnesty.

Revenue warning

Under the terms of the amnesty, announced in April, people who own up to having had money in offshore savings will have to repay any tax and interest owed, along with as a 10% fine.

The numbers of people responding [to the amnesty] is much less than anticipated Chris Oates, Ernst & Young

The Revenue has warned that failure to respond to the amnesty will lead to people with offshore accounts having their finances investigated, the imposition of fines and possible criminal prosecution.

However, it seems that to date few people have heeded the Revenue's call.

"The numbers of people responding is much less than anticipated," Chris Oates, partner in tax risk management, at Ernst & Young told BBC News.

"The contacts I have across the major accountancy firms indicate that just a few hundred people have actually notified the Revenue that there is tax to pay," Mr Oates added.

Several accountants at other tax firms, who did not wish to be named, confirmed Mr Oates's observation.

A Revenue spokesman refused to reveal how many people had taken advantage of the amnesty to date.

"We are not doing any counting exercises but we have a steady response," the spokesman said.

"Our web page has received more than 20,000 hits.

"People have another full month and we are expecting a deluge in the final few days."

The spokesman added that Revenue investigators were poised to take action against people who missed the deadline.

The Revenue has details on thousands of accounts held with the offshore branches of major EU and UK banks.

But according to Mr Oates, the terms of the amnesty are far from generous.

"For many, there is not much of an incentive here to come forwards," he said.

"If I was dealing with a client who owned up to unpaid tax - outside of this amnesty - I would hope they would not get much of a worse deal than this.

"However, I expect more people to come forward as the deadline nears," Mr Oates added.