Results 42,101-42,120 of 46,260 for speaker:Simon Harris

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance (Tax Appeals) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Harris: I doubt we are going to reach agreement on this. I would like to make the point that this system is in place since 1853, which is an awfully long time. That is probably why we need to reform it. When it was put in place, before Irish sovereignty, there were special commissioners, which were an arm of the Revenue Commissioners rather than the independent appeal tribunal which now exists....

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance (Tax Appeals) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Harris: We have fundamentally different perspectives on this. If we are serious as an Oireachtas, I do not see the point of putting in place new and robust structures to ensure an expert, specialist, independent administrative appeal tribunals, if we then refer cases back to a body which I and Deputy Doherty both acknowledge does not possess the same level of expertise. I cannot second-guess why...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance (Tax Appeals) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Harris: I do not want to get into specific cases before the Circuit Court. I certainly would not second-guess Revenue's reasons for not appealing further. It is not for me to ask questions at this committee, but I would like to know if any member is of the view that the decisions of all bodies - An Bord Pleanála, the Financial Services Ombudsman, the Information Commissioner, the refugee...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance (Tax Appeals) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Harris: Deputy Doherty is on a roll.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance (Tax Appeals) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Harris: Should one appeal the judgment of an expert to a non-expert? That is the issue.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance (Tax Appeals) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Harris: I do not accept that it is the rationale behind this. It is about the expert independent appeal tribunal and, as I have said, it follows in the line of a number of reforms and long-standing practices in some cases with other expert administrative tribunals.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance (Tax Appeals) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy. One of the key reforms being introduced, as the Deputy knows, is that the appeal commissioners will be required to publish on the Internet a report of all their determinations. A report will have to state whether an appellant has requested that a statement of the case be prepared by the appeal commissioners in regard to the making of an appeal to the High Court against...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance (Tax Appeals) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Harris: I move amendment No. 29:In page 41, to delete lines 30 to 33 and substitute the following:"(ii) an outline of the arguments made by the parties, (iii) the case law relied on by the parties, (iv) the Appeal Commissioners’ determination and the reason for the determination, and (v) the point of law as set out in the notice referred to in section 949AP(2) on which the opinion of the...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance (Tax Appeals) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Harris: I move amendment No. 30:In page 42, line 8, to delete "14 days" and substitute "21 days".

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance (Tax Appeals) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Harris: I move amendment No. 31:In page 42, between lines 25 and 26, to insert the following:"(8) The High Court shall not decline to hear and determine any question of law arising in a case stated by reason of the fact that a thing referred to in subsection (6) or (7) has not been done within the period specified by subsection (6) or (7), as the case may be, if it determines that, in all the...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance (Tax Appeals) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Harris: I move amendment No. 32:In page 43, to delete lines 4 to 11 and substitute the following:“Revenue Commissioners to give effect to decisions of High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court 949AT.(1) Section 949AM shall apply to a determination made by the Appeal Commissioners that has been reversed, affirmed or amended by the High Court or the Court of Appeal as it applies to a...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance (Tax Appeals) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Harris: I move amendment No. 35:In page 43, between lines 33 and 34, to insert the following:“(4) Where—(a) in the absence of an agreement between a person and the Appeal Commissioners that the person is liable to a penalty under this section, or (b) following the failure by a person to pay a penalty under this section that the person has agreed a liability to, the Appeal Commissioners...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance (Tax Appeals) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Harris: Yes.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance (Tax Appeals) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Harris: No because this does not have anything to do with the actual substance of the hearing or the tax matter before it. It is merely to ask the District Court, which is the court that deals with such penalties, whether it wishes to impose a monetary penalty of €3,000. If we are serious about this being an expert administrative tribunal, it is important that people take it seriously and...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance (Tax Appeals) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Harris: Yes, my understanding is that it would.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance (Tax Appeals) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Harris: I do not believe so. They just have to be clear on the law as to whether somebody should or should not have turned up at the appeals commissioner, as opposed to the detail. As the Deputy will know, it is the monetary sum of €3,000 and those limits that merit the matter being dealt with in the District Court. One would hardly want to take that to the High Court.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance (Tax Appeals) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Harris: One would not want to take that to the High Court. Given that the monetary penalty is €3,000 it would be dealt with at the level of the District Court. It is not the same, though, as dealing with the substance of the actual case to decide whether or not to impose a penalty for not turning up.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance (Tax Appeals) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Harris: The Deputy was trying to make a nice little link there.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance (Tax Appeals) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Harris: No.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance (Tax Appeals) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Harris: We are not asking them to do that at all. We are merely asking them to enforce a penalty for somebody not co-operating with an administrative tribunal. We are not asking them in any way, shape or form for their view on the substance of the matter in terms of the tax issue being appealed. It is merely whether or not somebody should have turned up and complied with an expert administrative...