State has no record of how many Irish residents are paying levy aimed at tax exiles

Catherine Murphy, co-leader of the Social Democrats, said the low number of people registering to pay the tax is likely a result of the fact that it is a self-declared charge

Catherine Murphy, Social Democrats co-leader, was told by the government it was ‘not possible’ to assess whether those paying the domicile levy were non-Irish residents for tax purposes. Picture: RollingNews.ie

The government has admitted it has no record of how many of those paying the domicile levy – a charge targeted at wealthy tax exiles – are resident outside of Ireland.

The finding, contained in answer to a parliamentary question from Catherine Murphy, the co-leader of the Social Democrats, means it’s unclear how many of those paying the levy are actually full-time Irish residents rather than the overseas residents it is aimed at.

Fewer than ...