Tens of thousands of Irish residents with bank accounts abroad have five weeks to regularise their affairs or face heavy financial penalties if they are found to have evaded tax.
The account holders are receiving letters this week which are being sent by the ten top Irish financial institutions. The letters are advising them that they face a Revenue inquiry, although as the banks are posting the letters from offshore and British branches, Revenue cannot seize the lists of customer addresses.
The 10 institutions sending out letters are: Bank of Ireland, AIB, Ulster Bank, NIB, Irish Permanent, ACC, EBS, Irish Nationwide, Anglo-Irish, and First Active.
Revenue has also taken out advertisments in today's newspapers that warns those with accounts or investments outside the State that they have until March 29th to come forward if they want to make a voluntary disclosure.
People who do not come forward and have a tax liability will have their names published if caught and also risk incurring maximum penalties and prosecution.
The Revenue has been using new powers introduced in 1999 to search accounts here for traces of money going to accounts in the Britain and offshore destinations such as the Isle of Man and Jersey.
Revenue believes that sending similar letters to customers of the Bank of Ireland Trust Company, Jersey, led to about 80 per cent of the settlers of trusts there coming forward.