Revenue took in almost €700m in unpublished tax settlements last year
Gordon Deegan
The top 10 individual unpublished tax settlements last year yielded €240.47 million for the Exchequer.
That is according to new figures provided by the Minister for Finance, Simon Harris, which show that Revenue last year received €692.38 million from unpublished tax settlements - an increase of €134.34 million or 24 per cent on the €558 million yielded from unpublished tax settlements in 2024.
In a written Dáil reply to Aidan Farrelly (Soc Dem), Harris confirmed that the €240.47 million from the top 10 individual settlements was a 43 per cent increase on the €168.39 million from the top 10 individual settlements for 2024.
The average unpublished settlement for 2025 from the top 10 was €24 million.
Harris told Farrelly that due to Revenue's obligation to protect taxpayer confidentiality, it is not possible to provide the value of each of the 10 individual settlements and the sector in which the taxpayers operated, “as such disclosure may lead to the disclosure of taxpayer information”.
In an indicator of Revenue increasing, enforcement action in 2025, the number of cases last year totalled 72,881, which compared to 62,793 cases in 2024 - a rise of 10,088 or 16 per cent.
In the information, Harris discloses that last year the largest amount in unpublished settlements came from ‘scientific research and development’ at €139.72 million from 194 cases compared to the modest €1.2m in unpublished settlements from 225 cases in that sector in 2024.
The second-highest sectoral contribution came from ‘financial and insurance activities’ at €107.82 million - the sector provided the largest amount from unpublished settlements in 2024 when Revenue yielded €85.26 million.
Last year, 'IT and other information activities' contributed €74.19 million - almost a tripling of the €26.9m recovered in settlements from the sector in 2024.
Other large contributors in 2025 include ‘public administration and defence, compulsory social security’ at €55.48 million while the value of unpublished settlements from the ‘wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles' reduced from €63.08 million in 2024 to €50.36 million last year.
That sector accounted for the highest number of cases in 2025 at 14,267, and it was also the sector ranked first for the highest number of cases at 12,832 in 2024.
In 2024, the ‘transportation and storage’ sector provided €37.13m in unpublished settlements, and this was reduced by 69 per cent to €11.5 million last year.
The figures also show that ‘legal, accounting, management, architecture, engineering, technical testing and analysis’ produced €19.57 million in unpublished settlements compared to €22.37 million in unpublished settlements from the same sector in 2024.
The total yield from accommodation and food service activities last year totalled €15.37 million compared to €10.3 million for 2024.
Entities operating in the construction sector last year made €35.39 million in unpublished tax settlements arising from 10,678 cases compared to €22.9 million from 6,613 cases in 2024.
The ‘arts, entertain and recreation’ sector last year yielded €12.12 million in unpublished settlements from 959 cases compared to €42.9 million from 1,020 cases in 2024.
Those entities which do make voluntary disclosures to Revenue may benefit by experiencing the minimum level of penalty and generally not risk either publication or prosecution.
