Corporation Tax Act, 1976

Income tax on payments.

151.—(1) In this section “relevant payment” means—

(a) any payment made on or after the 6th day of April, 1976, from which income tax is deductible and to which the provisions of subsections (2) to (5) of section 434 of the Income Tax Act, 1967 (payments not payable out of taxed profits), apply, and

(b) any amount which under section 98 (loans to participators, etc.) is deemed to be an annual payment.

(2) This section shall have effect for the purpose of regulating the time and manner in which companies resident in the State—

(a) are to account for and pay income tax in respect of relevant payments, and

(b) are to be repaid income tax in respect of payments received by them on or after the 6th day of April, 1976.

(3) A company shall for each of its accounting periods make, in accordance with this section, a return to the Collector-General of the relevant payments made by it in that period and of the income tax for which the company is accountable in respect of those payments.

(4) A return for any period for which a return is required to be made under this section shall be made within six months from the end of that period.

(5) Income tax in respect of any payment required to be included in a return under this section shall be due at the time by which the return is to be made, and income tax so due shall be payable by the company without the making of any assessment; but income tax which has become due as aforesaid may be assessed on the company (whether or not it has been paid when the assessment is made) if that tax, or any part of it, is not paid on or before the due date.

(6) If it appears to the inspector that there is a relevant payment which ought to have been and has not been included in a return, or if the inspector is dissatisfied with any return, he may make an assessment on the company to the best of his judgment; and any income tax due under an assessment made by virtue of this subsection shall be treated for the purposes of interest on unpaid tax as having been payable at the time when it would have been payable if a correct return had been made.

(7) Where in any accounting period a company receives any payment on which it bears income tax by deduction the company may claim to have the income tax thereon set against any income tax which it is liable to pay under this section in respect of payments made by it in that period, and any such claim shall be included in the return made under subsection (4) for the accounting period in question and (where necessary) income tax paid by the company under this section for that accounting period and before the claim is allowed shall be repaid accordingly.

(8) (a) Where a claim has been made under subsection (7) no proceedings for collecting tax which would fall to be discharged if the claim were allowed shall be instituted pending the final determination of the claim, but this subsection shall not affect the date when the tax is due and when the claim is finally determined any tax underpaid in consequence of this subsection shall be paid.

(b) Where proceedings are instituted for collecting tax assessed, or interest on tax assessed, under any provision of subsection (5) or (6), effect shall not be given to any claim made after the institution of the proceedings so as to affect or delay the collection or recovery of the tax charged by the assessment or of interest thereon.

(c) References in this subsection to proceedings for the collection of tax include references to proceedings by way of distraint for tax.

(9) Income tax set against other tax under subsection (7) shall be treated as paid or repaid, as the case may be, and the same tax shall not be taken into account both under this subsection and under section 3 (2) (income tax on payments made or received by a company resident in the State).

(10) Where a company makes a relevant payment on a date which does not fall within an accounting period the company shall make a return of that payment within six months from that date, and the income tax for which the company is accountable in respect of that payment shall be due at the time by which the return is to be made.

(11) (a) All the provisions of the Income Tax Acts as to the time within which an assessment may be made, so far as they refer or relate to the year of assessment for which an assessment is made, or the year to which an assessment relates, shall apply in relation to any assessment under this section notwithstanding that, under this section, the assessment may be said to relate to a period which is not a year of assessment, and the provisions of section 186 of the Income Tax Act, 1967 (additional assessments), as to the circumstances in which an assessment may be made at any time shall apply accordingly on the footing that any such assessment relates to the year of assessment in which the period ends.

(b) Income tax assessed on a company under this section shall, notwithstanding the provisions of section 477 of the Income Tax Act, 1967 , be due within one month after the issue of the notice of assessment (unless due earlier under subsection (5) or (10)) subject to any appeal against the assessment, but no such appeal shall affect the date when tax is due under subsection (5) or (10).

(c) On the determination of an appeal against an assessment under this section any tax overpaid shall be repaid.

(d) Any tax assessable under any one or more of the provisions of this section may be included in one assessment if the tax so included is all due on the same date.

(12) Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this section shall be taken to prejudice any powers conferred by the Income Tax Acts for the recovery of income tax by means of an assessment or otherwise; and any assessment in respect of tax payable under subsection (10) shall be treated for the purposes of the provisions mentioned in subsection (11) (a) as relating to the year of assessment in which the payment is made.

(13) (a) The Revenue Commissioners may, by regulations made for the purposes mentioned in subsection (2), modify, supplement or replace any of the provisions of this section; and references in this Act and in any other enactment to this section shall be construed as including references to any such regulations; and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, the regulations may in relation to income tax charged by this section modify any provision of the Income Tax Acts relating to returns, assessments, claims or appeals or may apply any such provision with or without modification.

(b) Regulations under this subsection may—

(i) make different provision for different descriptions of companies, and for different circumstances, and may authorise the Revenue Commissioners, where in their opinion there are special circumstances justifying it, to make special arrangements as respects income tax for which a company is liable to account or the repayment of income tax borne by a company;

(ii) include such transitional and other supplemental provisions as appear to the Revenue Commissioners to be expedient or necessary.

(c) Every regulation made under this subsection shall be laid before Dáil Éireann as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by Dáil Éireann within the next twenty-one days on which Dáil Éireann has sat after the regulation is laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

(14) Section 434 of the Income Tax Act, 1967 , is hereby amended by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (5)—

“(5A) Subsections (2), (3) and (5) have effect subject to the provisions of section 151 of the Corporation Tax Act, 1976, with respect to the time and manner in which companies resident in the State are to account for and pay income tax in respect of

(i) payments from which tax is deductible, and

(ii) any amount which is deemed to be an annual payment.”.