Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 16 November 2022

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Business of Select Committee

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will begin by explaining to the Deputy what a mutual agreement procedure is because it is relevant to explaining the role of the Revenue officer referenced in this section. A mutual agreement procedure, MAP, is a dispute resolution mechanism that allows the competent authorities or countries concerned, in our case, Revenue, and its equivalent in other jurisdictions, to resolve international tax disputes. Such disputes are related to double taxation and taxation that is not in accordance with a double taxation treaty.

Section 959AA(2A), which was introduced in the Finance Act 2018, allowed a Revenue officer to make or amend an assessment, at any time, to give effect to a MAP reached between Revenue and another competent authority, and to make any additional tax due or refund of tax due payable or repayable. For example, a claim for group relief, loss relief or similar relief, must be made by a taxpayer within two years from the end of the accounting period to which the claim relates. A transfer pricing audit and the subsequent MAP case can take a number of years to conclude resulting in the expiration of the domestic time limits for claiming these reliefs.

As noted, the Taxes Consolidation Act allows a Revenue officer to make or amend an assessment to give effect to a MAP. This provision specifically states that this will be the case, notwithstanding the four-year time limit on the making of assessments or repayments. However, the section does not specifically provide that, on foot of a MAP settlement, a Revenue officer is to allow claims for a group relief, loss relief, or other similar reliefs that are made outside the time limits that would otherwise apply to the claiming of these reliefs. This section of the Bill amends the Taxes Consolidation Act to specifically give the Revenue officer the power to make or amend an assessment to give effect to a MAP, notwithstanding any time limits that may be in place for taxpayers for making claims for loss relief, group relief or a similar relief. This is just about ensuring that the Revenue officer has the power to make decisions regardless of time that has passed since the MAP was conducted.

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