Finance Act, 1971

Penalties.

42.—(1) A person who fails to comply with subsection (3), (4), (5) or (14) of section 8 of the Finance Act, 1894 , shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding £500.

(2) (a) Where a person fraudulently or negligently, for the purposes of the enactments relating to estate duty, delivers, produces, furnishes, gives or sends to the Revenue Commissioners or otherwise makes use of any incorrect account, return, estimate, statement, information, book, document, record or declaration, he shall be liable to a penalty of—

(i) a sum not exceeding £500, and

(ii) the amount of, or in the case of fraud, double the amount of, the additional duty payable if the said account, return, estimate, statement, information, book, document, record or declaration had been correct.

Provided that the person shall be deemed not to have acted negligently if he had a reasonable excuse for his action and the incorrect account, return, estimate, statement, information, book, document, record or declaration, as the case may be, was corrected by him without unreasonable delay after the excuse had ceased.

(b) For the purposes of this subsection, any account, return, estimate, statement, information, book, document or declaration submitted on behalf of any person accountable for estate duty shall be deemed to have been submittedby that person unless he proves that it was submitted without his consent or knowledge.

(3) Any person who assists in or induces the making or delivery for any purpose of estate duty of an account, return, estimate, statement or declaration which he knows to be incorrect shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding £500.

(4) Where a person liable to pay any estate duty or any instalment thereof fails to pay the duty or the instalment within a period of one year after the date on which the duty or the instalment was payable or within such further period as the Revenue Commissioners may determine, he shall be liable to a penalty of the amount of the duty.

(5) A banker (within the meaning of section 33 of the Finance Act, 1935 ) who pays money in contravention of the said section 33 shall be guilty of an offence under that section and shall be liable, on conviction on indictment, to a penalty of £1,000.

(6) (a) Proceedings for the recovery of any penalty under this section may be commenced at any time within six years next after the date on which it was incurred.

(b) Where the person who has incurred any penalty under this section has died, any proceedings which have been or could have been commenced against him may be continued or commenced against his executor or administrator, as the case may be, and any penalty awarded in proceedings so continued or commenced shall be a debt due from and payable out of his estate.

(7) (a) In this section, a reference to estate duty includes a reference to the interest payable upon such duty.

(b) A penalty under this section may—

(i) if it is payable by an unincorporated body of persons, be recovered from all or any one or more of the members of the body, and

(ii) if it is payable by a body corporate, be recovered from all or any one or more of the directors or members of any committee of management or other controlling authority of such body or from the secretary or other officer of the body who is nominated by the body to deliver to the Revenue Commissioners any affidavit, account, statement or information relating to estate duty,unless, in the case of any person from whom it is sought to recover the penalty, it is proved that the act or omission to which the penalty relates took place without his knowledge or consent.

(8) The Revenue Commissioners may, in their discretion, mitigate any penalty under this section, or stay or compound any proceedings for the recovery thereof, and may also, after judgment, further mitigate or entirely remit the penalty.