On Tuesday the Revenue Commissioners secured a High Court injunction preventing landlord Paul Howard from disposing of his assets to below €2.3 million, which it says he owes in tax and statutory interest. An affidavit opened in the High Court by Joseph Howley of the Revenue Commissioners reveals Howard’s property empire in Ireland, his investments in cryptocurrencies, his use of a launderette as a collection point for rents in cash, his various interests in Turkey and the alleged steps he has taken to “dissipate” assets in extraordinary detail.

Howley’s 31-page affidavit shows how Howard, despite his extensive interests in Ireland and Turkey, said he lived a “boring life” when questioned by the Revenue. Despite his significant portfolio of assets, Howley said Howard could only provide “minimal evidence of regular day-to-day living expenses…such as payments for food, medical, fuel, clothes, shoes and school uniforms, entertainment, childcare, household, leisure, communions, Christmas etc.”

In addition, Revenue said it found “limited evidence” of any business costs/expenses being debited from his bank accounts. The affidavit by the Revenue official gives an extraordinary insight into one landlord’s wealth, how he claims to live his life, and why the Revenue felt forced to move against him.

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In his affidavit, Joseph Howley said that the Revenue had “serious concerns” that Howard was “in the process of dissipating assets, in his own name and assets owned jointly with his partner Una McClean, in an attempt to avoid any enforcement against his assets”.

Revenue said Howard and McClean were registered as tax partners in 2021 with a backdate to 2003. It said its investigations into Howard’s affairs was “inextricably” linked to the business affairs and income of his partner. Howley said Howard had proposed a phased payment arrangement to Revenue of €25,233 per month for 36 months. Howley said Howard had claimed such monthly payments would be “easy” for him, and that his current business activity was “cleaning services”.

But Revenue said it was “unaware” of this interest, and that Howard had made no reference to having substantial rental income in his proposal. Revenue also said that the bank account referenced by Howard as part of his proposal wasn’t active. It said it simply couldn’t deal with him on this basis.

Anatomy of an investigation

The history between Paul Howard and Revenue goes back over a decade. It began investigating him in May 2009 and was initially focused on the years from 2003 to 2009. But as its investigations went on it extended its probe to 11.5 years from January 2003 to June 2015, before extending it again to June 17, 2021. At one stage in December 2015, Howard described Revenue’s assessment of the amounts he owed as “nonsense,” and without basis in law, despite the taxman saying it could not get him to explain his “profits or gains from unknown sources”.

Revenue said that Howard had “at all stages obstructed” it by refusing to engage in a “meaningful way”. For example, Revenue said that Howard was due before the Tax Appeals Commission in July 2021 but was 40 minutes late along with his partner McClean. They showed up carrying “Starbuck’s coffees” and eventually a cross-examination could begin. Revenue said Howard operated cash businesses, something that made working out what he was up to “challenging”.

Nonetheless, it said its analysis estimated that Howard had a gross income of €2.3 million between 2002 and 2014, versus his declared income of €409,000.

In addition, between 2000 and 2001, there was an undeclared income of €112,000. Revenue said it was unable to identify any evidence of electronic payments of rent from tenants of Howard, and it said Howard had admitted: “Some rental income was paid in cash.”

The Revenue said it was far worse than that, and it believed the “vast majority” of rental income was paid in cash. Howard said when interviewed by Revenue: “As I said, sometimes I collected cash and sometimes when I wasn’t around, they would put it into my account or someone else would collect it for me.”

Later Revenue put it to Howard that tenants left their rent in an envelope in the kitchen of their properties which he would collect, or they would drop it into his business Clean City on Talbot Street. Howard replied “Yes” when asked if this was what happened.

Revenue said it could find no evidence of any costs associated with his properties in Howard’s bank accounts. Howard also claimed he had borrowed €100,000 to do up his family home, but Revenue said it could not find any evidence of this in his bank accounts.

It also said that McClean was unable to say how much various businesses she ran with Howard made every month. These included an internet cafe, a launderette, a creche and a tiling business.

Revenue said it was unable to get till receipts, wage slips etc associated with these businesses and that McClean had admitted a “failure to keep such books and records while under investigation”.

McClean said the launderette owned by Howard was a cash or cheque only business. Howard said he had “four or five” credit cards, but Revenue said it could not identify payments to these credit cards from his bank statements. Revenue also asked Howard about his large property portfolio and how he assembled it. He said: “There was all mortgages taken out on these properties.”

Revenue said it was not able to obtain any mortgage evidence for two apartments he owned on Mountjoy Square, a property at Larkfield Park and various properties on Talbot Street. Revenue said it also had “limited visibility” on Howard’s overseas interests including Turkish bank accounts, credit cards, and property development deals. Revenue also said there was “significant cash payments” to an investment scheme in the United States. There were huge sums of cash flowing around, as Howard created an empire around himself.

Property and deals

In its affidavit, Revenue examines in detail the property portfolio of Paul Howard. It said that it had identified 13 properties in Dublin associated with him and his partner McClean. It said the manner in which he had been selling some of these assets was “suggestive of efforts to avoid any enforcement attempt by Revenue”. It said Howard had accumulated these properties “at a time when he was not paying tax or very little tax to the Revenue”.

Based on financial records Revenue said Howard had historically acquired new properties either by releasing equity in old properties or using cash. In 2018, Revenue said seven rental properties owned by Howard were taken into receivership by Promontoria Oyster DAC after they had acquired their loans as part of a larger loan book. Revenue then quoted from an Irish Times article describing the difficulties receiver Ken Fennell had faced taking control of some of these properties. Revenue said it believed four of these properties were later sold by the receiver to parties “who all have a connection to each other”. 

Revenue said that according to its records one of the properties was sold to Garry Wynne, two were sold to his sisters, and the final property was sold to a sister and brother-in-law of Garry Wynne. Garry Wynne, according to Revenue, is the operations manager of an estate agent called HWP. It said HWP was currently selling other properties owned by Howard and/or McClean.

A twist in Turkey

Revenue said it had established that Paul Howard had substantial overseas assets but that he had repeatedly refused to provide them with certain details about them. It said that Howard had claimed to be resident in Turkey from 2002 to 2014 but it said this claim was “not established on the evidence”. Revenue said Howard had not included his Turkish assets in his statement of affairs, but under cross-examination at his tax appeal hearing, he admitted he had invested in a group of 43 villas called Golden Sunset in Kusadasi. When asked why he had not declared this interest Howard said this was a “mistake”.

The Revenue said it had made a mutual assistance request to the Turkish Tax Authorities which established that Howard had a Turkish bank account. Asked about this account by the Revenue on May 20, 2013, Howard denied “all knowledge of any transfers” between Turkey and Ireland relating to property. Howard in his evidence at the TAC appeal said he had remitted €700,000 to Ireland from Turkey up to 2013 in “cash personally and through friends and family”. Under cross-examination, Howard admitted: “We done some rentals as well. We built 32 villas, 31 villas plus a caretaker’s house. We bought and sold properties out there too.”

Revenue said it had also received evidence of an application to buy property in Bulgaria by Howard in 2005, but that he had said he did not currently own property there. Howard, according to Revenue, said he owned a mobile home in France between 2018 and 2021, but he later gave evidence he had sold this in 2019. For a man who claimed to have a “boring life” he certainly had accumulated some array of interests.

Hunting assets

Concluding its affidavit Revenue said that based on all of the evidence it had collected it had “real and grave concerns as to the behaviour” of Howard. It said it required the court to prevent him “seeking to move his assets beyond the reach” of the courts and Revenue.

It said it believed that Howard had been “dissipating” assets to avoid enforcement and that he had already sold some properties and was planning to sell more. 

It said Howard had “substantial ties to foreign countries,” and shown an ability to move assets outside Ireland, as well as having various “suspicious banking transactions” including large sums being lodged, before a succession of smaller withdrawals from his various banking accounts.

It said Howard was making lodgements to Coinbase and Celtic Gold, which it presumed was to buy cryptocurrencies and gold. It said he had “obstructed” the appeal hearing process, and had a “long history” of “deliberately concealing and falsifying information” to avoid the Revenue. It said he had “repeatedly” failed to declare all income and not prepared income tax returns for 2002, 2013 and 2014 despite being told to do so.

Revenue said Howard had admitted an “under declaration” of tax to try and force a settlement with Revenue. It said he had provided an “incorrectly sworn statement of affairs to Revenue,” and did not provide tax returns for any income earned in Turkey. Howley said that the reason all of the allegations against Howard had not been made to him previously was that the tax collector feared he would dissipate his assets further. In granting interim relief freezing these assets until November 16th or further order, Mr Justice Senan Allen said he was satisfied Revenue had presented a “strong case” alleging that Paul Howard may continue to sell his properties and dissipate the sale proceeds unless restrained by order of the court.