Ex-junior minister Ivor Callely makes €173,000 tax settlement
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Former junior minister Ivor Callely has found himself on the latest tax defaulters list having made a settlement with the Revenue Commissioners at a cost of close to €173,000 for an under-declaration of Vat relating to his car dealership.
In this latest tax defaulters list, which covers the period between July 1 and September 30, Revenue detailed 36 case settlements worth a combined €15m. Mr Callely was included in a list of tax defaulters whose case Revenue has accepted a settlement offer instead of initiating court proceedings.
He served as a Fianna Fáil TD between 1989 before being ousted in 2007. In that time, he served as junior minister in the Department of Health and subsequently the Department of Transport.
After losing his seat, he was nominated to the Seanad but was later caught in an expenses scandal. In 2014, he was sentenced for five months in prison for fraudulently claiming mobile phone expenses during his time as a senator.
In 2018, he was given an eight-month suspended sentence for harassing a doctor and ransacking a waiting room.
In recent weeks, he has been back before the courts as financial firm Everyday Finance seeks a €2.9m judgement against him relating to €2.4m in loans advanced to them by AIB to purchase investment properties. The loans were sold to Everyday Finance in 2018.
Mr Callely’s settlement with Revenue amounted to €172,937 after interest and penalties were added to an initial tax bill of €111,478.
According to Revenue, only one case in this most recent list was worth more than €1m. This involved property developer Vieira Ltd which is now in liquidation and owes just over €6.7m.
The vast majority of cases were valued between €101,000 and €500,000. Among these include a number of company directors, a solicitor and an accountant. There were three cases valued under €100,000.
As of the end of September, six cases were not fully paid with €7.4m outstanding — most of this is due from the settlement with Vieira Ltd as €6.1m remains outstanding.
Revenue also published another list of those who have been taken to court over unpaid tax and the court has determined a penalty relating to a settlement, or has imposed a fine, imprisonment or other penalty in respect of a tax or duty offence.
There were 29 cases published of court-imposed fines which totalled just under €80,000.
Of those cases, 11 were in relation to smuggling tobacco or the possession of untaxed tobacco for sale, 10 were in relation to the misuse of marked mineral oil, while seven cases related to the failure to lodge income tax and claiming income tax relief to which there was no entitlement.
In addition, there was one case of a person failing to hold a current liquor licence.
According to Revenue, these lists were only a portion of all their compliance interventions. In the three months to the end of September, a total of 15,261 Revenue Compliance Interventions were settled resulting in a total yield of €172,425,048.
Settlements are not published in this manner if the taxpayer has voluntarily furnished complete information relating to undisclosed tax liabilities and paid the tax and interest due.
Under legislation, Revenue is obliged to identify settlements where the person has failed to pay within the relevant period.