Revenue have extended the Deposit Interest investigation arrangements to taxpayers with €100,000 or more in aggregate in credit union accounts between 2005 and 2008 which included money not previously declared for tax. This is to reflect the later interest reporting dates which applied to credit unions.

The 31 March deadline is for actual disclosures, as distinct from declarations of intent to make a disclosure. The usual Audit Code of Practice and legislation based incentives apply – penalty mitigation, non-publication and a very reduced risk of prosecution as Revenue will not initiate an investigation with a view to prosecution.

Taxpayers who are already under enquiry or who failed to disclose these accounts in a previous investigation are precluded from making a qualifying disclosure.

It's worth stressing that this disclosure extension is directed at persons who have undeclared tax liabilities in relation to accounts which in aggregate held €100,000 or more. It will not impact at all on the vast majority of credit union members.

Further details on the voluntary disclosure initiative for credit unions and Revenue's FAQs are available at http://www.revenue.ie/en/practitioner/investigations/credit-unions-interest-reporting/index.html.

As with all Revenue special purpose style investigations – Offshore Assets, SPIP, Trusts and Settlements etc, the success of this initiative is entirely contingent on the taxpayer making an unprompted qualifying disclosure. It has been the understanding that accountants who assist taxpayers in making these disclosures did not have an obligation to provide a Suspicious Transaction Report under the Anti-Money Laundering legislation to the Gardaí or for that matter to Revenue themselves.

At the time of writing, new legislation to govern the making of Suspicious Transaction Reports, in the form of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Bill 2009, is making its way through the Oireachtas. It is by no means certain that this new legislation will provide the same protection to qualified professionals when assisting taxpayers in regularising their affairs by making a Qualifying Disclosure.

If every unprompted Qualifying Disclosure is to be preceded by a Suspicious Transaction Report by the accountant handling the case, it is hard to see the rationale for making an unprompted Qualifying Disclosure being sustained. While penalty mitigation might be preserved under section 1077E TCA 1997, there would be a greater risk of the case coming into the public domain. The undertaking offered by Revenue not to investigate with a view to prosecution where acceptable Qualifying Disclosures are made becomes largely irrelevant.

Without unprompted Qualifying Disclosures, Revenue will either have to devise some new mechanism to promote the voluntary resolution of tax default, or investigate it directly themselves.