The Revenue Commissioners first identified Fianna Fáil TD Mr Michael Collins as a bogus non-resident account-holder in late 2002, months after the general election. The Limerick West TD was not included in the first batch of letters sent out last October, since his liability was too small.
"Revenue would have gone for the bigger ones first. His case would not have been large enough to be included," a reliable source told The Irish Times.
Instead, Mr Collins did not receive his letter until January 20th this year - one of 40,000 issued by the Revenue concerning 21,500 such accounts.
The development creates further difficulties for Mr Collins, who has repeatedly asserted that he complied honestly with Standards in Public Office Commission rules. Under State ethics, TDs must swear a declaration within one month of the election that they are up to date with all tax payments.
In addition, successful candidates must furnish the standards commission with a tax-clearance certificate from the Revenue within nine months.
The Revenue gave all such account-holders the chance to own up before November 2001, when they could pay back taxes and a 100 per cent penalty without being publicly shamed as well.
Once that deadline passed, the Revenue went to the High Court to force financial institutions under section 908 of the tax laws to release their files on the illegal accounts. Eighteen such court challenges were launched, affecting 26 financial institutions.
The Revenue's underlying tax project office in O'Connell Street, Dublin, issued 30,000 letters last October to people tied to 13,500 bogus accounts. In each letter, the Revenue said it knew the recipient held or had held a non-resident account and gave the individual little more than two weeks to explain.
Mr Collins's presence on the list of bogus account-holders would not have been known to the Revenue when it provided him with a tax-clearance certificate. Under Section 21 of the Standards in Public Office Act, 2001, all general election candidates knew they would have to provide a tax certificate within nine months of polling day, if elected.
In addition, a successful candidate had to swear an oath within a month of the election that their "tax affairs are in order and that nothing prevents the issue of a tax-clearance certificate".
It is not known when Mr Collins received his tax certificate from the Revenue, it is possible that may not have happened until February this year. The Revenue could have given the TD an application statement instead of a tax certificate if it had not made a final ruling on any appeal by him against the size of a tax judgment. However, there is no indication that this is what happened.
Last night, the Patrickswell TD once more insisted that he had honoured all obligations laid down by the Standards in Public Office Commission. In any event, Mr Collins would have had to swear a statutory declaration that his tax affairs were in order regardless of whether he was providing a tax-clearance certificate or an application statement.
The Revenue Commissioners would not discuss the details of Mr Collins's tax affairs yesterday, but rejected criticism from some Opposition TDs that tax-clearance certificates had been shown to effectively worthless.
Staff in the Collector General's office would have had no way of knowing if an individual was suspected of being a bogus non-resident account-holder when preparing a tax-clearance certificate.
"Under our charter we operate under a presumption of honesty," said a spokesman. "If that were not the case we would have to audit every single publican in the country before they would get their licence renewed under the current rules."
