The Gazette 1973

Irish Tax Case Reports The Council raised with the Revenue Commissioners the question of the publications of decisions of the Appeal Commissioners and the Circuit Court on appeal from the Appeal Commissioners of decisions in income tax cases. It is recognised that the hearing of the cases by the Appeals Commissioners and by the Circuit Court on appeal for them are confidential and it was suggested that the reports of such cases should be restricted to the legal questions involved without dis- closing the names of the parties or any material infor- mation regarding the facts which could lead to identi- fication of the parties. It is generally recognised that as the taxpayer is presumed to know the law it is inequit- able that there should be a body of secret law consisting of decisions of the Appeals Commissioners and of the Circuit Court which are known only to the Revenue Commissioners and are not available to the taxpayer. It was, therefore, suggested that subject to appropriate safeguards the relevant facts and the legal decisions on the facts should be made available in the form of authorised reports. Tax should be made available in the form of authorised reports. Tax cases heard in the High Court and the Supreme Court are, of course, included in the authorised reports and are available as published. The attitude of the Revenue Commissioners is that decisions in the Circuit Court on the rehearing of income tax appeals are not available. The Income Tax Acts direct that rehearings of appeals by the Circuit Court must be heard in camera and there is no auth- ority in law for full publication of decisions of these hearings. Income tax appeals are first heard by the Appeal Commissioners but the acts provide that an appellant aggrieved by the Appeal Commissioners' determination may require that his appeal may be re- heard by a Judge of the Circuit Court. On the question of publishing edited reports (to conceal the identity of the taxpayer) of Circuit Court Judges' decisions the

Revenue Commissioners would feel constrained to accept the view expressed in the seventh report of the Commission on Income Taxation (Pr. 6581) in relation to the publication of decisions by the Appeal (then Special) Commissioners. In paragraph 780 of that re- port the commission regarded "it as undesirable to publish even on a limited scale any decisions of the Special Commissioners on tax appeals". In relation to tax cases heard in the High Court and the Supreme Court the Commissioners arrange for the publication of tax leaflets of reported decisions. Leaflets are issued to subscribers only on payment of an annual subscription (35p) to the Controller, Stationery Office, Beggar's Bush, Dublin 4. While no leaflets have been published in recent years a number are at present being prepared for printing. Leaflets issued for cases decided up to 1948 are available in bound volumes of "Reports of Income Tax Cases", volumes I and II. These were published by the Stationery Office and may be purchased from the Government Publications Sales Office, GPO Arcade, Dublin 1. A third volume of issued leaflets is being prepared for the printers. With respect to the views expressed in the seventh report of the Commission on Income Taxation the Council cannot regard this position as satisfactory. There seems to be no valid reason in principle why the decisions of the Appeals Commissioners and of the Circuit Court on further appeals should not be pub- lished. These are part of the law of the land which the taxpayer is deemed to know. The result of these decisions is known to the Revenue Commissioners but not to the taxpayer which creates an inequitable im- balance where a taxpayer's rights are involved. The position regarding the delay in publication of the tax leaflets is also unsatisfactory. Further representations are being made to the Revenue Commissioners on this matter. been assessed will be perfectly entitled to claim a refund just as the Estate Duty Office would be entitled in a proper case to increase the amount of duty assessed after the grant is extracted. In order to keep the system of provisional pre-grant assessments running smoothly solicitors are requested to accept the provisional nature of the assessment as to do otherwise would mean upsetting the routine now estab- lished in the Estate Duty Office. It is to be hoped that the Estate Duty Office will improve as time goes on by securing a properly-trained staff.

Provisional assessments of Estate Duty —The Estate Duty Office has requested the Society to inform its members that the new provisional pre-grant assessment of estate duties scheme which is in operation since August is working reasonably smoothly. Owing to a lack of trained staff the Estate Duty Office are com- pletely unable to come to a prompt final assessment of duty in any case. Where solicitors attempt to get a final assessment before taking out a grant they are finding themselves delayed considerably because of the shortage of staff. Solicitors should bear in mind that the provi- sional assessment of estate duty is provisional on both sides and that any solicitor who feels too much duty has

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