Irish Tax Advisers May Take Legal Action Over New Revenue Powers

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

08 February 2005

Following delivery of the Irish Finance Bill last week, the Irish Taxation Institute revealed that it has sought legal advice regarding the extension of the Revenue Commission's powers, and is hoping to consult with the government in order to amend the Bill before it comes into force.

Speaking on Thursday, Mark Redmond, Chief Executive of the Irish Taxation Institute (ITI) explained that the Institute was very concerned that new powers to enable Revenue to criminally prosecute taxpayers for assisting tax evasion do not require the tax authority to prove intention.

He suggested that this proposal is at odds with findings contained in the Report of the Law Reform Commission (LRC), which stated that tax crime should not be treated differently to other crimes, and that legislation should not be introduced which shifts the burden of evidence on to the citizen.

The ITI chief also suggested that once the Revenue begins to exercise its new powers, tax consultants may be reluctant to become involved in any situation where they run the risk of being falsely accused of assisting tax evasion under the proposed new power.

"The legislation is broad and outside the scope of what the Revenue requires. We support anything that tackles tax evasion but we feel the proposed legislation is simply too broad," he stated.

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