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Ireland's Law Reform Commission Rejects Creation Of Tax Court

by Jason Gorringe, for LawAndTax-News.com, London

02 February 2005

Following a request in 2002 by the then Attorney General Michael McDowell, Ireland's Law Reform Commission has compiled a report considering the establishment of a Fiscal Prosecutor and a Revenue Court.

The Commission was asked to consider whether the establishment of either a Fiscal Prosecutor or a Revenue Court would assist in dealing with tax evasion.

Regarding the former proposition the report, released on Monday, did not recommend the establishment of a separate office of a Director of Fiscal Prosecutions.

The Commission noted the change of policy by the Revenue Commissioners concerning criminal prosecutions, in particular the greater emphasis on enforcement. This more stringent approach to exposing and prosecuting tax evasion led the Commission to conclude that a specialist fiscal prosecutor is inadvisable.

The Law Reform Commission went on to suggest that the prosecution of revenue offences should continue to be part of the normal criminal process, and that revenue offences should not be treated any differently from other crimes.

With regard to the creation of a separate Revenue Court, the report announced that:

"The Commission does not recommend the establishment of a separate Revenue Court. The Commission considered that, as a matter of principle, it is important that revenue offences, like other “white collar” crimes, be seen as what they are, namely ordinary criminal offences."

"Therefore the Commission concluded that they should be dealt with in the ordinary criminal justice system rather than in a separate revenue court where a conviction may be perceived as having a lower stigma value. Similarly the Commission concluded that a discrete civil revenue court should not be set up."

In addition to addressing these key topics, the Law Reform Commission's report recommended a number of changes to the appointments procedure and tenure of the Appeal Commissioners, and suggested that the threshold for publication by the Revenue Commissioners of the names of persons subject to a court imposed fine should be index linked, in order to ensure that the list continues to consist of serious tax defaulters.

The full text of the Irish Law Reform Commission's report on the establishment of a revenue court can be found in the Tax-News Resources section.

 

 






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