The Revenue commissioners have extended their voluntary disclosure initiative for undisclosed income or funds held in banks and building societies to credit unions.
Taxpayers who had €100,000 or more in aggregate in credit union accounts (which included funds not previously declared for tax) at any time between 1st January 2005 and 31st December 2008 have until 31st March 2010 to make a voluntary disclosure. This announcement was recently made by the Revenue Commissioners.
The focus is on money that was undeclared for tax purposes.
Persons who have underpaid tax on these deposits, and who avail of the voluntary disclosure, will benefit as follows:
- The penalty for underpaid tax will be substantially mitigated;
- Their name will not be published in the quarterly list of defaulters; and
- They will not face prosecution by Revenue.
Taxpayers will lower sums deposited, on which tax is owed, may wish to make a voluntary disclosure now, as it is likely that such sums will be targetted in future Revenue “initiatives”. doing so now will reduce the amount of interest, which accrues on a daily basis.