About €112.8 million of settlement sums remained unpaid at the end of March, after the Revenue Commissioners recorded 21 tax settlements totalling about €117 million for the quarter January 1 to March 31, 2026. The figures were published by Revenue in the Tax Defaulters list, released on 16 June 2026 in Iris Oifigiúil. The unpaid balance is concentrated in a handful of large cases, with the single largest settlement alone exceeding €106 million. Revenue says unpaid settlement amounts remain subject to its normal debt collection and enforcement procedures, though recovery can be limited where firms are in liquidation.

Nearly all of the quarter's unpaid settlement total is tied to a single Galway plant and machinery group, after it agreed a settlement in excess of €106 million arising from an under-declaration of VAT, with the great majority of that sum still outstanding at 31 March. A second company at the same address and in the same line of business recorded a further settlement in excess of €4 million, also largely unpaid. Those two entries dominate the Part 2 register for the period.

Revenue's Part 2 data show that 21 settlements were registered for the quarter, together worth about €117 million and leaving roughly €112.8 million unpaid at the reporting date. Part 2 of the Tax Defaulters list records settlements that Revenue accepted in lieu of court proceedings and, where relevant, states the amount of any settlement that remained unpaid at 31 March 2026. The publication was carried in Iris Oifigiúil on 16 June 2026.

Outside the Galway cases, the list includes a landlord and a solicitor in County Wexford who agreed a settlement of about €1.7 million for under-declared income tax, and that balance was also outstanding at the quarter end. Revenue notes that unpaid settlement amounts continue to be pursued through its usual debt collection and enforcement channels, while adding that practical recovery may be constrained where companies are undergoing or have entered liquidation.

Court fines and sentences

Revenue's Part 1 court list recorded 84 published court fines imposed during the quarter, with the total of court fines set at €147,927.50. The publication also records two cases in which the court determined penalties that met the higher disclosure threshold, together totalling €219,402.

Mastheads

Those entries reflect prosecutions that proceeded to court rather than settlement negotiations.

The Part 1 breakdown shows enforcement activity across several offence types. There were 25 cases for failure to lodge income tax or VAT returns, generating court fines of €52,500 and including one suspended custodial sentence of two years. Fifteen cases for misuse of marked mineral oil were published, with aggregate fines of €36,300 and one sentence of 80 hours community service imposed in lieu of four months imprisonment.

Thirty excise-related cases for tobacco smuggling, illegal sales or possession of untaxed tobacco for sale produced €43,450 in fines and six custodial or community-service sentences. The list records several fully suspended prison terms and one sentence of 15 months with six months suspended for production of illicit tobacco. There were also seven fines relating to failure to hold a current liquor licence and a small number of fines for possession of untaxed alcohol and unregistered vehicles.

Compliance interventions and recovery

Across the State, Revenue recorded 17,891 Revenue Compliance Interventions settled in January to March 2026, yielding €175,584,659, according to figures appended to the defaulters publication and related regional reports. Revenue makes clear that settlements and court penalties represent the outcomes of audits, inspections and prosecutions carried out during the period.

Revenue emphasises that unpaid settlement balances will continue to be pursued by the authority through its standard enforcement procedures. Those procedures include usual debt collection steps and, where appropriate, court enforcement. The publication also notes the practical limitation that recovery may be restricted where companies are in liquidation, a state of affairs that helps explain why large settlement sums can remain outstanding on the register.

The heavy concentration of unpaid sums in a small number of very large settlements draws the quarter's headline figure away from the many routine collections beneath it. The 17,891 settled interventions yielded a large total figure, but the outstanding €112.8 million is driven by the handful of high-value corporate cases listed in Part 2.

Revenue's Tax Defaulters list, as published in Iris Oifigiúil on 16 June 2026, therefore combines two lenses: court-determined penalties that reached the public register, and negotiated settlements where Revenue accepted payment in lieu of prosecution but where a substantial balance can remain unpaid at the reporting cut-off date. In practical terms, the register is both an enforcement summary and a snapshot of what remains to be collected at quarter end.

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One Galway plant and machinery group's settlement in excess of €106 million is the concrete detail that dominates this quarter's tax defaulters register. Originally reported by revenue.ie.

This article was created with AI assistance.