Revenue audit snares 52 underpaying accountants
A trawl of 86 accountants audited by the taxman last year revealed that 52 (60 per cent) of them were underpaying tax.
The tax authorities raised €3.5m from underpayments by accountants .
Settlements were made in all cases. Offending accountants were charged €1.3m in interest and €.4m in penalties.
As a result of this Revenue trawl, two prosecutions are in the pipeline and others are under discussion for possible pursuit in the courts.
One case was held in Limerick on Friday.
Last night, a spokesman for the Revenue refused to comment on whether they are currently doing an audit of any of the big firms in Ireland (KPMG , PWC, DeLoitte and Touche and Ernst & Young ) and declined to give any details of the 86 accountants in question.
The spokesman confirmed that there was no special investigation of accountants being held at the moment, pointing out that the Revenue Commissioners carried out a total of 13626 audits last year.
A spokesman for the Institute of Chartered Accountants told the Sunday Independent that the Institute "did nothing" if any of its members made a settlement with the taxman as a result of an underpayment of tax, if it fell below the publication threshold. Only in the case of a revenue prosecution would the ICAI take the automatic action of referring the case to their disciplinary committee.
However, if an accountant member of the body appears on the published defaulters list, the ICAI actually writes to him or her to enquire of the reasons.
- Shane Ross
