Finance Act 2005
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Amendment of section 1078 (revenue offences) of Taxes Consolidation Act 1997. |
142.—The Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 is amended in section 1078— | |
(a) by inserting after subsection (1) the following subsection: | ||
“(1A) (a) In this subsection— | ||
‘facilitating’ means aiding, abetting, assisting, inciting or inducing; | ||
‘fraudulent evasion of tax by a person’ means the person— | ||
(a) evading or attempting to evade any payment or deduction of tax required under the Acts to be paid by the person or, as the case may be, required under the Acts to be deducted from amounts due to the person, or | ||
(b) claiming or obtaining, or attempting to claim or obtain, relief or exemption from, or payment or repayment of, any tax, being relief, exemption, payment or repayment, to which the person is not entitled under the Acts, | ||
where, for those purposes, the person deceives, omits, conceals or uses any other dishonest means including— | ||
(i) providing false, incomplete or misleading information, or | ||
(ii) failing to furnish information, | ||
to the Revenue Commissioners or to any other person. | ||
(b) For the purposes of this subsection and subsection (5) a person (in this paragraph referred to as the ‘first-mentioned person’) is reckless as to whether or not he or she is concerned in facilitating— | ||
(i) the fraudulent evasion of tax by a person, being another person, or | ||
(ii) the commission of an offence under subsection (2) by a person, being another person, | ||
if the first-mentioned person disregards a substantial risk that he or she is so concerned, and for those purposes ‘substantial risk’ means a risk of such a nature and degree that, having regard to all the circumstances and the extent of the information available to the first-mentioned person, its disregard by that person involves culpability of a high degree. | ||
(c) A person shall, without prejudice to any other penalty to which the person may be liable, be guilty of an offence under this section if the person— | ||
(i) is knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of tax by the person or any other person, | ||
(ii) is knowingly concerned in, or is reckless as to whether or not the person is concerned in, facilitating— | ||
(I) the fraudulent evasion of tax, or | ||
(II) the commission of an offence under subsection (2) (other than an offence under paragraph (b) of that subsection), | ||
by any other person, or | ||
(iii) is knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion or attempted fraudulent evasion of any prohibition or restriction on importation for the time being in force, or the removal of any goods from the State, in contravention of any provision of the Acts.”, | ||
(b) in subsection (2)— | ||
(i) by substituting for paragraph (f) the following paragraph: | ||
“(f) fails to pay to the Collector-General appropriate tax (within the meaning of section 739E) within the time specified in that behalf in section 739F,”, | ||
(ii) in paragraph (i) by substituting “by the Acts,” for “by the Acts, or”, and | ||
(iii) by inserting after paragraph (i) the following paragraph: | ||
“(ii) (i) fails to deduct tax required to be deducted by the person under section 531(1), or | ||
(ii) fails, having made that deduction, to pay the sum deducted to the Collector-General within the time specified in that behalf in section 531(3A), | ||
or”, | ||
and | ||
(c) in subsection (5) by substituting “to have been committed with the consent or connivance of or to be attributable to any recklessness (as provided for by subsection (1A)(b)) on the part of” for “to have been committed with the consent or connivance of”. |