In his Budget speech on 11 October 2016, the Minister for
Finance announced a comprehensive programme of targeted
intervention against offshore tax evasion.
The announcement comes as increased data relating to offshore
accounts is set to become available to the Irish Revenue
Commissioners ("Revenue") as a result of
the implementation, as an early adopter, of the OECD's Common
Reporting Standard ("CRS"). The
first exchange of reported information under CRS, which will see
details of offshore accounts held by Irish resident customers being
passed to Revenue, is scheduled to commence in September
2017.
Budget Announcements
The measures announced include:
- The denial of the opportunity, from 1 May 2017, to make a
"qualifying disclosure" in relation to offshore
accounts and assets. The benefits of making a qualifying
disclosure include mitigation of penalties, non-publication as a
tax defaulter, and protection from criminal prosecution in relation
to the tax
