Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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109. To ask the Minister for Finance if there has been a change in the rules regarding the Revenue Commissioners' correspondence with the TAIN-registered agent or representative of a customer; the reasons the Revenue Commissioners may cite to refuse to correspond with such an agent or representative in respect of a person's tax affairs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3033/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the procedures around corresponding with TAIN registered agents/representatives have not changed.

However, the Deputy will appreciate that the process of authorising an agent to act on behalf of a taxpayer, and to receive confidential, personal information on their behalf, has to be extremely robust, so as to ensure that there is no inadvertent release of confidential information.

The authorisation process works as follows. Either the taxpayer authorises the agent to act on their behalf or the agent advises Revenue that they are now the taxpayer s representative. Where the taxpayer authorises the agent, they submit a letter to their Revenue office providing details of the agent and the taxes the agent will deal with. Links are then established on Revenue's systems to grant the agent access and to copy the agent on all relevant correspondence.

Where an agent advises Revenue that they have started acting for a particular taxpayer they must request the link electronically via ROS, Revenue's Online Service, and the eRegistration system, Revenue's online registration facility and attach the authorisation provided by the taxpayer. Again the necessary links are established but in these instances the taxpayer is advised that the agent has requested access and the taxpayer then has an opportunity to ask that these links are removed, if the client/agent relationship is not valid. This additional step acts as a safeguard in instances where a request may have been made in error or without the taxpayer s permission.

The taxpayer can at all times request to have the agent links removed or new agent links created.

I am advised that there are very precise operating protocols in respect of access to customer information and they are strictly adhered to by Revenue staff. I am also advised that Revenue officials will not provide taxpayer details to any person who does not satisfy the relevant security protocols and, in agent/representative cases, details are only provided where the agent is actually linked to the taxpayer for the specific tax type. Where an agent is so linked, they have direct access, via Revenue's Online Service, to the records of any taxpayers that they represent. In those instances, Revenue will not provide copies of taxpayer records to the agent as the information is directly available to the agent to view for themselves in ROS.

The Revenue website is regularly updated with changes in operating procedures and all agent related changes are advised by means of Revenue eBriefs. These information bulletins are all available on the Revenue website in the Tax Practitioner section of the website.