Social Welfare (Amendment) Act, 1978

Regulations relating to contributions and consequential repeals.

6.—(1) The following section is hereby substituted for section 8 of the Act of 1952:

“8.—(1) Regulations may provide for—

(a) the time and manner of payment of employment contributions,

(b) the collection and the recovery of, and the furnishing of returns by employers in relation to, employment contributions,

(c) the charging of interest on arrears of employment contributions,

(d) the estimation of amounts due in respect of employment contributions and appeals in relation to such estimates.

(e) the furnishing of returns by employers in relation to periods of insurable employment,

(f) the deduction by an employer from the reckonable earnings of an employed contributor of any employment contribution reasonably believed by the employer to be due by the contributor, and adjustment in any case of over-deduction,

(g) any matter ancillary or incidental to any of the matters referred to in any of the preceding paragraphs of this subsection.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1) of this section, regulations under that subsection may provide for—

(a) the assignment of any function relating to any matter referred to in that subsection to the Collector-General,

(b) the assignment to the Collector-General of any function conferred on the Minister by section 53 of this Act and the modification for that purpose of any provision of that section,

(c) the inspection by or on behalf of the Revenue Commissioners of records prescribed under section 12 of the Social Welfare (Amendment) Act, 1978,

(d) treating, for the purpose of any right to benefit, contributions paid after the due dates as paid on those dates or on such later dates as may be prescribed, or as not having been paid, and

(e) treating as paid, for the purpose of any right to benefit, employment contributions payable by an employer in respect of an insured person which have not been paid, where the failure to pay such contributions is shown not to have been with the consent or connivance of the insured person or attributable to any negligence on the part of the insured person.

(3) Nothing in any regulations under this section shall affect the liability of the employer under subsection (5) of section 6 of this Act to pay employment contributions.

(4) (a) The provisions of any enactment, regulation or rule of court relating to the inspection of records, the estimation, collection and recovery of, or the furnishing of returns by employers in relation to, income tax, or relating to appeals in relation to income tax, shall, with any necessary modifications, apply in relation to employment contributions which the Collector-General is obliged to collect as they apply in relation to income tax.

(b) In proceedings instituted under this subsection, a certificate purporting to be signed by the Collector-General which certifies that a stated amount is due and payable by the defendant shall be evidence until the contrary is proved that that amount is so due and payable, and when tendered in evidence shall be deemed until the contrary is proved to have been signed by him.

(c) For the purposes of this subsection, the rules of the court concerned for the time being applicable to civil proceedings shall apply to proceedings by virtue of this subsection.

(5) In this section ‘the Collector-General’ means the Collector-General appointed under section 162 of the Income Tax Act, 1967 .”.

(2) Section 3 (4) (b) (which relates to certain fees) and section 10 (which provides for the issue of insurance stamps) of the Act of 1952 are hereby repealed.