Officials from the Revenue Commissioners will be present at the Bloom in the Park gardening event in Phoenix Park to ensure exhibitors and traders are compliant with tax law.

It is understood Revenue wrote to all exhibitors informing them officials would be carrying out inspections from as early as 8am today.

While Revenue would not confirm directly it would have a presence at Bloom, saying it did not disclose the markets and fairs it intended to visit “for operational reasons”, it said it carried out a programme of visiting such events as part of its “normal, ongoing compliance operations”.

Such endeavours were an important part of managing the risks inherent in the “shadow economy” and they played a vital role in the promotion of tax compliance through public visibility.

“Tackling shadow economy activity is a key corporate priority for Revenue,” it said. “We focus on sectors that are susceptible to shadow economy activity, particularly those in the cash economy.

Compliance

“Part of our normal, ongoing compliance operations include ‘streetscapes’ – a programme of visiting all businesses on a street or in a small town, ‘pop-up’ shops, markets, business parks, industrial shows, racecourses, liquidation sales, Christmas markets, furniture sales, festivals and sporting events.”

It said such “streetscapes” applied throughout the year.

“The primary focus of these types of visits is to ensure that businesses are registered for all appropriate taxes and appropriately licensed (where required), have proper record-keeping systems in place – particularly compliance with the cash register regulations, and that all employees are registered.”

Such checks were also to ensure businesses were compliant, not under-recording sales (both from an income tax/corporation tax and a VAT perspective) and that all employees were on the books.