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Letter of expression of doubt.
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107.—The Principal Act is amended by inserting the following section after section 19A—
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“19B.—(1) (a) Where a taxable person is in doubt as to the correct application of any enactment relating to value-added tax (in this section referred to as ‘the law’) to a transaction which could give rise to a liability to tax by that person or affect that person's liability to tax or entitlement to a deduction or refund of tax, then that taxable person may, at the same time as the taxable person furnishes to the Collector-General the return due in accordance with section 19 for the period in which the transaction occurred, lodge a letter of expression of doubt with the Revenue Commissioners at the office of the Revenue Commissioners which would normally deal with the examination of the records kept by that person in accordance with section 16, but this section shall only apply if that return is furnished within the time limits prescribed in section 19.
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(b) For the purposes of this section ‘letter of expression of doubt’ means a communication received in legible form which—
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(i) sets out full details of the circumstances of the transaction and makes reference to the provisions of the law giving rise to the doubt,
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(ii) identifies the amount of tax in doubt in respect of the taxable period to which the expression of doubt relates,
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(iii) is accompanied by supporting documentation as relevant, and
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(iv) is clearly identified as a letter of expression of doubt for the purposes of this section,
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and reference to an expression of doubt shall be construed accordingly.
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(2) Subject to subsection (3), where a return and a letter of expression of doubt relating to a transaction are furnished by a taxable person to the Revenue Commissioners in accordance with this section, the provisions of section 21 shall not apply to any additional liability arising from a notification to that person by the Revenue Commissioners of the correct application of the law to the said transaction, on condition that such additional liability is accounted for and remitted to the Collector-General by the taxable person as if it were tax due for the taxable period in which the notification is issued.
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(3) Subsection (2) does not apply where the Revenue Commissioners do not accept as genuine an expression of doubt in respect of the application of the law to a transaction, and an expression of doubt shall not be accepted as genuine in particular where the Revenue Commissioners—
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(a) have issued general guidelines concerning the application of the law in similar circumstances,
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(b) are of the opinion that the matter is otherwise sufficiently free from doubt as not to warrant an expression of doubt, or
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(c) are of the opinion that the taxable person was acting with a view to the evasion or avoidance of tax.
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(4) Where the Revenue Commissioners do not accept an expression of doubt as genuine they shall notify the taxable person accordingly, and the taxable person shall account for any tax, which was not correctly accounted for in the return referred to in subsection (1), as tax due for the taxable period in which the transaction occurred, and the provisions of section 21 shall apply accordingly.
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(5) A taxable person who is aggrieved by a decision of the Revenue Commissioners that that person's expression of doubt is not genuine may, by giving notice in writing to the Revenue Commissioners within the period of twenty-one days after the notification of the said decision, require the matter to be referred to the Appeal Commissioners.
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(6) A letter of expression of doubt shall be deemed not to have been made unless its receipt is acknowledged by the Revenue Commissioners and that acknowledgement forms part of the records kept by the taxable person for the purposes of section 16.
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(7) (a) For the purposes of this section ‘taxable person’ includes a person who is not a registered person and is in doubt as to whether he or she is a taxable person in respect of a transaction and in that case references to a return and records are to be construed as referring to a return that would be due under section 19 and records that would be kept for the purposes of section 16, if that person were in fact a taxable person.
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(b) A person whose expression of doubt concerns whether he or she is a taxable person shall lodge that expression of doubt for the purposes of applying subsection (2) not later than the nineteenth day of the month following the taxable period in which the transaction giving rise to the expression of doubt occurred.”.
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