Revenue to probe Irish overseas property investors

The Sunday Business Post reports that the Irish Revenue Commissioners are to get major new powers to monitor and investigate Irish people who invest in overseas properties.

Under the new laws, the tax authority will be able to compel Irish letting agents to hand over details of clients with overseas properties. The move is designed to ensure that Irish residents are paying tax on letting income generated from their overseas property investments.Revenue officials have become increasingly concerned that Irish individuals are using offshore properties to evade tax, and have asked the government for more powers to gather intelligence.
The new provisions are contained in the summary of measures in last week’s Finance Bill, the legislative instrument that brings legal effect to the budget.

Letting agents have not previously been obliged to hand over the data of their Irish customers with overseas properties. This frustrated the Revenue’s efforts to assess how many Irish individuals had overseas homes and if they were let out to local tenants.

The Revenue petitioned the government for a change in the law to address this issue. Under the new law, letting agents will be forced to hand over all relevant data requested by a Revenue inspector if they are managing a foreign property on behalf of an Irish resident client.