Wealthy individuals in Ireland who pay income tax have an effective tax rate of 33%, almost double the rate paid by all other income taxpayers, according to a report by the Comptroller & Auditor General (C&AG).
The Revenue Commissioners categorises people with a net worth of over €20m as "high wealth individuals".
In 2024 some 1,558 wealthy individuals were due to pay income tax of €421m.
Between 2019 and 2025 the Revenue Commissioners carried out investigations in relation to wealthy individuals which resulted in additional interest tax and penalties of €172m.
The percentage of individuals who had to pay more, among those investigated, was between 26% and 42%.
The C&AG said this was higher than the yield on compliance activity across all taxpayers.
The report said there was also compliance activity undertaken by the Revenue Commissioners in relation to the domicile levy, which is a duty applied to wealthy people.
By the end of 2025, there were 55 investigations and of them 15 yielded a combination of €5.5m or an average of €367,000.
The Revenue Commissioners also investigated the misuse of tax reliefs by wealthy individuals to avoid tax and took 52 cases with a yield of almost €11m.
Some wealthy people also appealed decisions and around two thirds of the appeals found in favour of the Revenue Commissioners.
