DUBLIN: Irish Tax and Customs confirmed to International Adviser that high net-worth individuals, with net assets of over €50m, paid a total of €504m (£432m, $530m) to the tax office during 2016. The haul is a substantial compared to 2015 when the Revenue took just €169m from the super wealthy and represents an increase of 200%.
Ireland’s finance minister Michael Noonan originally disclosed the figures in parliament earlier this week, noting that the 2016 amount includes “a number of particularly large tax payments by a small number of taxpayers”. Noonan said these individuals are overseen by the Irish Revenue’s Large Cases Division (LCD), a 250-strong team tasked with investigating the tax affairs of the super wealthy. He added that the rise in tax revenues collected in 2016 was also down to settlements made following a clampdown on tax avoidance schemes used by businesses and individuals.
Noonan revealed that 22,024 individual taxpayers declared themselves to be non-resident for tax purposes in 2015. This allows individuals to avoid paying tax on worldwide income in Ireland and liable to pay tax only on their earnings inside the country.
