You could be forgiven for wondering how it is possible for the Revenue Commissioners to announce that they have netted €125 million in unpaid tax from the construction industry and then in the same breath, almost, talk of turning the corner in terms of fostering a culture of tax compliance.
The first point to be made in this regard, and the one emphasised by the Construction Industry Federation, is that although €125 million is a big number, it represents less than 1 per cent of the tax paid each year by the construction sector. Indeed it has to be seen in the context of the €45.5 billion collected by the Revenue Commissioners last year.
The second point is that tax evasion - no more than most other antisocial or criminal behaviour - can never be completely eradicated. There will always be individuals and groups of individuals who take the view they have more to gain than lose by not paying their tax. The job of the Revenue Commissioners is to keep this number to a minimum. But the real driver of compliance is tax policy, and the steady reduction of personal, corporate and other tax rates over the last two decades has done much to foster compliance.
What is interesting about the comment this week by Revenue Commissioners chairman Frank Daly to the effect that a milestone has been passed is that it takes us into the controversial territory of asking what level of tax evasion is tolerable. Below what point does the cost outweigh the gain to the State of pursuing evaders? Few can honestly believe that we have reached a point where an argument can be made for any let-up in the pace or range of investigations mounted by the Revenue Commissioners. And in fairness, this is not being advocated by the Revenue Commissioners.
A reduction in the level of evasion does not necessarily equate to the fostering of a deeper culture of compliance. One figure alone in the Revenue Commissioners annual report highlights this fact. The various special investigations that followed on from the scandal over non-collection of Deposit Income Retention Tax in the mid 1990s have netted more than €2.3 billion to date.
To that end it is comforting to see that the Revenue Commissioners are continuing their programme of targeted sectoral investigations. The focus this year is on barristers and jewellers. While this may well place an unwelcome burden on the compliant tax payers who make up the overwhelming majority in these sectors, it is a price worth paying to ensure no return to the systematic and economically debilitating culture of tax evasion that was rife a few decades ago.