The Gazette 1991

NOVEMBER 1991

GAZETTE

91/92 Money PAYE & Tax Guide Taxation Advice Bureau £5.50 "The 91/92 Money PAYE & Tax Guide" is an excellent guide on tax and money matters for all taxpayers and a useful reference work for those involved in advising on such subjects. The guide deals concisely with the major areas of personal taxation explaining their effect and giving easy to follow advice on reducing tax payments. The guide has few statutory references and no footnotes - omissions which keep the text readable but, as always, the professional advisor will need to consult the legislation. The annual issue of a new updated guide is praiseworthy - in tax matters obsolete information is dangerous. The guide is divided into four parts. The first deals with money and tax planning containing advice on the most tax effective way of saving. It compares the cost and benefits of endowment mortgages with the traditional type of mortgage and provides a table of the mortgage charges levied by building societies and banks. An admirable feature of the entire guide is the comprehensive and fully worked examples given throughout. Part two deals with social welfare and contributory pensions and indicates the tax savings to be achieved through pension contributions. The main personal taxes are covered in part three which serves as an excellent checklist for the practitioner when giving advice. Practical advice on how to reduce your tax bill is given. Completion of an individual's annual tax return is dealt with in the final part. Not only are extensive details given but copies of Revenue Form 11 (self employed) and Form 12 (PAYE) are included along with references to the text dealing with each aspect of the forms. This is of great help to an individual completing his or her own return and certainly the average PAYE earner should be well

able to undertake this task, having studied the guide. Many readers who believe their tax bill is unchangeable should find useful ideas in the guide. The guide explains the tax system in readable form. It shows how tax saving can be achieved. It should be much in demand.

. David G/ynn

Garda Siochana Guide - 6th Edition Advertising, broadcasting, data protection, fishery, gaming and lotteries, merchandise marks and consumer information, national monuments, occupational health and safety, official secrets, poisons and pharmacy, railways, trade unions and trade disputes, video recording, wild life - a wide range of legal topics indeed. All of them and, of course, many more examples of criminal law subjects are covered in the index to the Garda Siochana Guide. Its 1570 pages contain a mine of valuable information on every piece of legislation under which the Gardai have jurisdiction. It is a potted encyclopaedia of the vast range of offences for which clients may be prosecuted. It does not claim to be the last word on any of these topics but for the wise practitioner it should often be the first to be consulted. In the 10 years since the last edition many more statutes imposing criminal liability have been passed. The range of topics listed above should be sufficient to persuade those who might have assumed that because they do not do "criminal" work they had no need of this book. The book is available from the Law Society, price £70.00 plus £3.25 for packing and postage. John Buckley 327

Irish Company Law Indax. Donal McGahon, Gill & MacMillan 256pp. £19.99 Given the usual Irish reluctance to produce consolidating legislation, the practitioner iri mid-1991 was faced with 7 Companies Acts and 2 related Acts (Mergers, Take-Over and Monopolies) Control Act, 1978 and Stock Transfer Act, 1963 when obliged to consider the application of company law to any problem. The publication of this work will come as a great boon particularly to those practitioners who would not claim to be specialists in the field. The index is well set out, clear, legible, well cross-referenced and will undoubtedly be a useful tool for practitioners. Invariably it seems that one's first attempt to identify a topic in most law book indexes comes to naught. As one struggling to come to terms with the implications of Sections 25 to 40 of the Companies Act, 1990, I was somewhat disappointed not to find any entry for "control" a concept which is now of major importance. Neither curiously enough was there an entry under the heading Business for carrying on " in a reckless manner" although there was one for " in a fraudulent manner". No doubt this and other minor blemishes which may be discovered will be dealt with in the later editions of this book which may well become an indispensable tool for the practitioner. John Buckley