15 Ms O’Sullivan asked the Minister for Finance the progress made to date by the offshore assets group of the Revenue Commission in its investigations into the use, for the purposes of tax evasion, of offshore bank accounts and trusts by Irish residents; and the total amount of such funds identified so far; the total amount of tax collected in respect of these accounts. [18601/04]

52 Mr. O’Shea asked the Minister for Finance the response received to date by the Revenue Commissioners to the letters sent by ten top banks to around 120,000 customers warning them to regularise their tax affairs by the end of March; the number of responses received; and the amount collected to date. [18599/04]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 15 and 52 together.

Revenue initiated its investigations into the use of offshore accounts and other financial investments during 2003. The initial phase involved the customers of two institutions. Last December the chairman of the Revenue Commissioners initiated a series of meetings with the chief executives of ten financial institutions with offshore subsidiaries or branches, seeking their co-operation on a wider investigation of offshore related tax evasion. It resulted in the institutions concerned writing to their customers advising them of Revenue's proposed investigation and of the opportunity to make a disclosure before the formal investigation began. A deadline of 29 March was set for individuals to give a notice of intention to make a disclosure and a further 60 days to make the actual disclosure and the payment. The 60 day deadline was later extended to 10 June.

I am advised by Revenue that precise figures are not available on the number of letters that were issued from the financial institutions. It is understood that it was in excess of 100,000. It is not known how many accounts or individuals this actually represents because some individuals had accounts in different banks or in different branches of the same bank. In other instances there was more than one name on the account. At this stage of the investigation it is also clear that some accounts will not give rise to any liabilities.

By 29 March as many as 15,000 taxpayers had notified Revenue of their intent to make a qualifying disclosure. As of 16 June Revenue had received payments of approximately €500 million in respect of about 11,000 of those taxpayers. Others have indicated that their calculations resulted in no additional liability being due. Revenue expects further payments in the coming weeks.

So far €650 million has been collected as a result of this initiative, the earlier investigations involving the customers of two institutions and investigations by the offshore assets group.