Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Section 59 contains technical amendments intended to facilitate improvements to the tax appeal process. This recommendation seeks to retain one of the provisions that is being removed from the Taxes Consolidation Act, namely, section 949AG. Section 949AG was intended as a replacement for a small number of tax provisions identified as part of a reformed tax appeal system. However, it has since been identified that section 949AG has had unintended consequences and can impose an unintended and inappropriate administrative burden on the Tax Appeals Commission and Revenue.

There are a small number of provisions in the tax Act that require the Appeal Commissioners to have regard to all matters to which Revenue was required to have regard in making the decision that is the subject of the appeal. This type of provision would typically deal with a situation where, for example, specified conditions had to be met, or procedures followed, by a taxpayer or by Revenue and, in determining an appeal, the Appeal Commissioners are therefore also required to have regard to the same conditions or processes. In the legislation establishing the new Tax Appeals Commission in 2015, section 949AG was introduced with the intention of mirroring this requirement in the part of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 that deals with appeal proceedings.However, it has been interpreted by a minority of appellants as applying in all situations and as conferring the right on appellants to require the Tax Appeals Commission to require disclosure of all Revenue's documentation on a particular taxpayer or matter, regardless of whether the commissioners consider that this is necessary to determine the particular appeal.

The removal of section 949AG precludes any assertion that it should apply in all situations, even those where there is no statutory requirement for the appeal commissioners to have regard to the same matters to which Revenue was required to have regard. Its removal will restore thestatus quo which existed before the enactment of the Finance (Tax Appeals) Act 2015. It should be noted that that legislation provides the Tax Appeals Commission with a wide range of other powers to require appellants and Revenue to supply information to assist the appeal commissioners in their adjudication and determination of an appeal. It is considered that these powers are sufficiently extensive to allow for the effective operation of the appeals process. However, officials of the Department of Finance will keep the matter under review over the coming year and further amendments will be considered if the need for such is identified. For those reasons, I do not accept the recommendation.