Transcript General Tax & Legal Update” PPT - Conor Kennedy

Conor Kennedy
Law Library
Dealings with Revenue
 Kinsella v The Revenue Commissioners
 Legitimate Expectations
 Glencar Exploration
 Representation
 Identifiable person actually affected
 Expected to abide
 Keogh v Criminal Assets Bureau
Public Accounts Committee
 Comptroller & Auditor General Report
 Extending Tax Information Exchanges
 Mutual Assistance
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Information exchanged
 Automatic
 Spontaneous
 Capital gains risks
 Correlation with stamp duty information
 Substitution effect
 Stamp duty clawback
 Miscellaneous
Revenue Audit Findings
 Large Cases Division
 Residency of Companies
 Film investments
 Property based investments
 Property owned companies
 Liquidations
 S.806 & EU Treaty
General Audit Issues
 Pubs
 Irish Independent article
 Compliance issues in 50% of Dublin pubs
 New methodology
 Unfounded Allegations
 Licence agreements
 Finance Act 2007
 S.4(5) VATA 1972
 S.10(3) VATA 1972
Licence Agreements
Example
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Build cost €275 per sq ft
Apartment 1,000 sq ft
Cost €275,000
Sale Price €475,000
Land Price €175,000
VAT liability €20,815 per apartment
Unforeseen cost to the landowner
Constituents of a Business
 Definition ?
 Trade or Business
 American Leaf
 Korean
 Noddy Subsidiary Rights
 Relevance
 S.600 TCA 1997
 S.97 CATA 2003
 Reconstructions
 Trade
 Badges
 12.5% CT Rate
 Substitution Effect
Finance Act 2007
 CGT – Sale of business assets/ shares in family trading
companies
 BES Improvements
 VAT – Waiver of exemption
 Offshore funds
 Revenue Powers
Appeal Commissioners
 Types of Case
 C2 Issues
 Record keeping
 Entitlement to allowances
 Large Case
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Tara Mines
 Ultra Vires
Appeal Commissioners
 Law Reform Commission
 2004 Report
 Increase resources of Appeal Commissioners
 Increase jurisdiction
 Convention on Human Rights
 Consider application of penalties & other breaches
 Publish decisions
Internal Review
 What is it?
 Jurisdiction
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“Revenue’s handling of his or her tax or customs affairs or
decisions made by a Revenue official …”
 Publication
 Discrimination
 Proportionality
 Appeal Commissioners
 Human Rights issues
Professional Negligence
 Duty of care
 Breach of duty
 Plaintiff suffered loss
 Damage caused by that breach
Professional Negligence
 Letters of engagement
 Hurlingham Estates v Wilde & Partners
 Letters of engagement
 Competency of the practitioner
 Sample Letter 1 – Tax Advisor
 Sample Letter 2 – Accountant
 Sample Letter 3 – Solicitor
 Information omitted
Agent Mistake
 Rowland v HM Revenue & Customs
 Reasonable Excuse
 Relied on agent
 Vicarious liability
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Employer main beneficiary
Better position
 Implement safer practices
 Absorb losses
Offers better protection to claimant
Revenue Penalties
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The ‘Code of Practice for Revenue Auditors’
9.1 provides that:
A tax return prepared and delivered on behalf of a taxpayer
by some other person acting on his or her behalf is treated
in all respects as if it had been made by the taxpayer. The
taxpayer’s statutory responsibility to complete and file a
correct return cannot be devolved to his or her agent.
9.5 provides
… the taxpayer cannot devolve the responsibility of
making the correct return to an agent. If all relevant
matters have not been brought to the attention of the
agent, the taxpayer has not taken due care.
Practical Realities
 Workload of Agents
 Complexities of statutory obligations
 Industry standard
 Cars serviced
 Diagnosing ailments
 Non delegable
 Disproportionate
 ECJ jurisprudence