I believe that the tax take would go up if there were more people telling their mates about how they’d been caught out by the Revenue. That would require more investigations (risk based and random) so as to catch out more people who have tried it on. I’m afraid that human nature being what it is there are probably plenty of people sailing close to the wind and also a goodly number who consciously underdeclare their self employed income.

As things stand I'd bet that lots of people 'down the pub', 'at the golf club' and elsewhere swap stories about what they've 'got away with' than about how they've been caught out.

Until and unless that situation changes the headline figures of tax collected through investigations will have no impact on the chancers who do not pay the 'right' amount of tax.

As far as they're concerned, none of their mates have been caught so those big numbers must relate to the big boys. After all, the Revenue are no longer interested in 'small fry'. At least that's my view of the general perception.

So my take on this is that, whilst the smallest of settlements probably weren't worth the effort, there need to be far more enquiries (which should be settled on a fair and equitable basis) to ensure that we have a more compliant population and less under reporting and evasion.

In summary: Over the last ten years there has been a systemic failure by the Revenue to ensure that cheating tax payers are discouraged and honest taxpayers encouraged to fully declare their income.