Garda HQ settles €7m tax bill after audit on travel expenses, Corruption rampant in the Gardai in still in 2024
CORRUPTION, FRAUD, COVER UP
Garda HQ settles €7m tax bill after audit on travel expenses
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/garda-hq-settles-7m-tax-bill-after-audit-on-travel-expenses-v5k5f36b3
Garda Headquarters has reached a voluntary tax settlement of approximately €7 million with Revenue after an internal audit of its travel and subsistence scheme.
The audit revealed a discrepancy concerning allowances paid to officers seconded to work at big events that are far away from their stations.
Revenue insisted that food, travel and accommodation provided by the force to gardai working in such circumstances be treated as a benefit-in-kind, according to security sources.
Force management had argued this was unjustified, highlighting the impracticality for those who had completed long tours at big events to travel long distances home. Negotiations between the force and Revenue spanned a year, culminating in a process that led to the self-declaration. It is unclear if the outstanding monies will be deducted from garda salaries or paid by the force.
Drew Harris, the garda commissioner, has briefed Helen McEntee, the justice minister, on the matter in anticipation of its inclusion in forthcoming budgetary reports.
A spokesman for McEntee confirmed she had been advised of the corrective measures taken and the commitment to apply correct procedures going forward.
“The garda commissioner is the accounting officer for the garda vote,” the spokesman added.
On Saturday Catherine Murphy, the justice spokeswoman for the Social Democrats, urged the government to adopt new rules to remove such allowances from the tax net.
“These are allowances paid to gardai where particular circumstances warrant it. There is no benefit to the individual gardai,” she said.
“If gardai are asked to work far away from their home for long hours, I think it’s reasonable they be given accommodation and food. Allowances paid in such circumstances should not be treated the same as those of commercial travellers. Frankly, I am surprised that Revenue adopted this approach,” Murphy said.
The issue was discovered during an internal audit and was reported to Revenue and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General in 2022. The position adopted by Revenue is said to reflect a hardening stance in its approach to expenses, which could fall into the benefit-in-kind category.
Tax officials are understood to have begun a series of audits of the expenditure by private businesses on staff outings to determine whether the workers involved owe benefit-in-kind taxes.
The treatment of allowances and subsidies to gardai has led to previous self-declarations. In 2019, the Garda Representative Association (GRA), which represents 10,500 rank-and-file gardai, reached a settlement of about €300,000 with Revenue after admitting it had not properly accounted for allowances paid to representatives. The GRA launched an internal inquiry to establish whether its system for paying allowances was tax-compliant after an anonymous whistleblower wrote to politicians raising concerns about its finances.
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, the Labour justice spokesman, urged the Department of Finance to intervene. “I fully understand the position adopted by Garda Headquarters. I think there is a legitimate expectation on the part of the gardai that they wouldn’t be liable. It doesn’t help the overall view of the gardai and their work. I think there should be leeway. The gardai are already over-regulated, over-disciplined and now over-scrutinised by Revenue,” he said.
A garda spokesman stated that the force was continuing to engage with Revenue on the matter. The spokesman said the force had alerted the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General to the issue through its 2022 appropriation accounts.
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