The OECD has published an overview of approaches and methods used by tax administrations in managing large taxpayers’ compliance including Ireland and the UK. The guidance note gives a view of the various organizational structures and features of large business units and highlights common compliance issues associated with large taxpayers.

The Large Taxpayer Classification Criteria for Ireland can be summarised as follows:

The Irish Large Cases Division (LCD), which was established in 2003, identifies large business as corporate groups with a turnover greater than €162m or total tax payments greater than €16m. LCD is also responsible for other taxpayers:

• The financial services sector (banking, insurance, and pensions);
• Certain sectors, which had relatively few large-scale enterprises regardless of case size;
• High net worth individuals (HNWIs) with net assets over €50m / income over €1.3m and non-residents with substantial economic interests in Ireland; and
• LCD would not deal with public sector organisations other than the commercial semi-states.

The Large Taxpayer Classification Criteria for the United Kingdom can be summarised as follows:

HMRC have adopted the EU definition as the departmental definition with some adaptations. HMRC looks at the tax affairs of large businesses in two parts of the organisation, the Large Business Service (LBS) and Local Compliance (LC) in the “Large and Complex” customer group. The criteria to qualify as a “Large” business are:

• UK enterprises with more than 250 employees;
• UK enterprises with fewer than 250 employees, and more than €50 million turnover and more than €43 million assets;
• UK companies owned by foreign multi-nationals and more than 100 UK employees;
• UK companies and enterprises with high risk scores for Corporation Tax or Value Added Tax, and VAT avoidance and partial exemption cases;
• Large and complex partnerships;
• Businesses liable to Income Tax with a turnover of more than £5 million; or
• Employers who fall within any of the preceding categories.

LBS deal with the very largest of the businesses determined by Turnover and Assets with LC taking responsibility for the balance.

Full details of the report can be accessed at http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/36/32/43241144.pdf