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6 1967

INCOME TAX ACT, 1967

PART VII

Administration

Revenue Commissioners.

155. —(1) All duties of income tax shall be under the care and management of the Revenue Commissioners.

(2) The Commissioners may do all such acts as may be deemed necessary and expedient for raising, collecting, receiving, and accounting for the tax in the like and as full and ample a manner as they are authorised to do with relation to any other duties under their care and management, and, unless the Minister for Finance otherwise directs, shall appoint such officers and other persons for collecting, receiving, managing, and accounting for any duties of income tax as are not required to be appointed by some other authority.

(3) All such appointments shall continue in force, notwithstanding the death, or ceasing to hold office, of any Revenue Commissioner, and the holders shall have power to execute the duties of their respective offices, and to enforce, in the execution thereof, all laws and regulations relating to the tax in every part of the State.

(4) The Commissioners may suspend, reduce, discharge, or restore, as they see cause, any such officer or person.

(5) Any act or thing required or permitted by this or any other statute to be done by the Revenue Commissioners in relation to the tax may be done by any one Revenue Commissioner.

Special Commissioners.

156. —(1) The Revenue Commissioners, together with such other persons as the Minister for Finance by warrant may from time to time appoint, shall be commissioners for the special purposes of the Income Tax Acts (in this Act referred to as “Special Commissioners”), and shall, by virtue of their office and appointment, respectively, and without other qualification, have authority to execute such powers, and to perform such duties, as are assigned to them by this Act.

(2) Special Commissioners shall be allowed such sums in respect of salary and incidental expenses as the Minister for Finance directs.

(3) The Minister for Finance shall cause an account of all appointments of Special Commissioners and their salaries to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas within twenty days of their appointment or, in the case of a House not then sitting, within twenty days after the next sitting of that House.

(4) Anything required under this Act to be done by the Special Commissioners or any other commissioners may, save as otherwise expressly provided by this Act, be done by any two or more commissioners.

Governor and directors of Bank of Ireland.

157. —For the purpose of assessing and charging income tax in the cases mentioned in this section the Governor and directors of the Bank of Ireland shall be commissioners, and shall have all the necessary powers for that purpose, and shall make assessments under and subject to the provisions and rules of this Act, that is to say in respect of—

(a) interest, annuities, dividends and shares of annuities, and the profits attached to the same, payable to the Bank out of the public revenue of the State;

(b) interest, annuities, dividends, and shares of annuities, entrusted to the Bank for payment;

(c) all other interest, annuities, and dividends, and salaries and pensions payable by the Bank; and

(d) all other profits chargeable with tax arising within any office or department under the management or control of the Bank.

Assessment of public offices.

158. —If the Minister for Finance determines that, by reason of special circumstances existing in any particular public office, it is not expedient that the powers and duties of assessing and charging income tax in relation to that office or any one or more of such powers and duties should be exercised and performed in relation to that office by the inspector or other officer appointed in that behalf, the Revenue Commissioners shall appoint such officers or persons as may be approved of by the Minister for Finance to exercise such powers and duties in relation to that office.

Declarations to be made by commissioners.

159. —The respective commissioners for executing this Act in relation to offices and employments of profit and pensions and stipends shall, as soon as practicable after their appointment, meet and make and subscribe the declaration contained in Part II of Schedule 17, and may respectively elect a clerk and assessors, and if the tax cannot be deducted at the department of office of the commissioners or at the office for which they act, they may, from among the officers in their respective departments, appoint separate assessors and collectors for each such department.

Disqualification of commissioners in cases of personal interest.

160. —(1) Every commissioner acting in the execution of this Act shall be chargeable with tax in the same manner as any other person, but shall take no part in the proceedings, and shall not be present, when any assessment, statement or schedule is under consideration, or any controversy or appeal is being determined, with reference to any case in which he is interested, either in his own right or in the right of any other person as his agent, except during the hearing of an appeal for the purpose of being examined orally by the commissioners, and he shall withdraw during the consideration and determination of the controversy or appeal.

(2) A commissioner who, in any such case, takes any part in the determination of any such controversy or appeal, or fails to withdraw, shall incur a penalty of £50.

Inspectors of taxes.

161. —(1) The Minister for Finance may appoint inspectors of taxes, and all such inspectors and all other officers or persons employed in the execution of this Act shall observe and follow the orders, instructions and directions of the Revenue Commissioners.

(2) The Minister for Finance may fix such salaries and allowances for the remuneration of inspectors, and all other officers or persons employed in the execution of this Act as the Minister for Finance thinks fit, and may discharge such incidental charges and expenses in connection therewith as the Minister for Finance may think reasonable.

(3) An inspector who—

(a) knowingly or wilfully, through favour, undercharges or omits to charge any person; or

(b) is guilty of any fraudulent, corrupt, or illegal practices in the execution of his office,

shall, for any such offence, incur a penalty of £100, and on conviction shall be discharged from his office.

Collector-General.

162. —(1) There shall be a Collector-General, who shall be appointed by the Revenue Commissioners from their officers and shall hold such office at their will and pleasure.

(2) The Collector-General shall collect and levy the tax from time to time charged in all assessments to income tax and sur-tax of which particulars have been transmitted to him under section 187.

(3) (a) The Revenue Commissioners may nominate persons to exercise on behalf of the Collector-General and at his direction the powers contained in sections 480 and 481.

(b) Those powers, as well as being exercisable by the Collector-General, shall also be exercisable on his behalf and at his direction by persons nominated under this subsection.

(c) A person shall not be nominated under this subsection unless he is an officer or employee of the Revenue Commissioners.

(4) If and so long as the office of Collector-General is vacant or the holder of that office is unable through illness, absence or other cause to fulfil his duties, a person nominated in that behalf by the Revenue Commissioners from their officers shall act as the Collector-General, and any reference in this or any other Act to the Collector-General shall be construed as including, where appropriate, a reference to a person nominated under this subsection.

(5) The Revenue Commissioners may revoke a nomination under this section.

Declaration on taking office.

163. —(1) Every person appointed to one of the offices named in Part I of Schedule 17 shall, before he begins to act in the executtion of this Act so far as relates to the tax under Schedule D, make and subscribe the declaration therein contained, in respect of his office.

(2) The declaration may be made before any Special Commissioner.

(3) A person who acts in the execution of his office in relation to the tax under Schedule D (otherwise than in respect of any such declaration made before him) before he has made the prescribed declaration shall forfeit the sum of £100.

Administration of oaths.

164. —(1) A Peace Commissioner may administer an oath to be taken before a commissioner by any officer or person in any matter touching the execution of this Act.

(2) A Special Commissioner may administer an oath to be taken before the Special Commissioners under this Act by any officer or person in any matter touching the execution of this Act.

Forms.

165. —Every assessment, duplicate, charge, bond, warrant, notice of assessment or of demand, or other document required to be used in assessing, charging, collecting and levying tax shall be in accordance with the forms prescribed from time to time in that behalf by the Revenue Commissioners, and a document in the form prescribed and supplied or approved by them shall be valid and effectual.

Exercise of powers, etc., under this Act.

166. —(1) The Revenue Commissioners shall have all the jurisdictions, powers and duties in relation to tax under this Act which they had before the passing of this Act.

(2) Anything required under this Act to be done by the Minister for Finance may be signified under the hand of the Secretary, a Deputy Secretary or an assistant secretary of the Department of Finance.