Finance (No. 2) Act 2008

Amendment of section 20 (refund of tax) of Principal Act.

74.— Section 20 of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) in subsection (5)(a) by substituting “unless they determine that the refund of that overpaid amount or part thereof would result in the unjust enrichment of the claimant” for “unless that refund would result in the unjust enrichment of the claimant”, and

(b) by substituting the following for paragraphs (b), (c) and (d) of subsection (5):

“(b) A person who claims a refund of an overpaid amount under this subsection shall make that claim in writing setting out full details of the circumstances of the case and identifying the overpaid amount in respect of each taxable period to which the claim relates. The claimant shall furnish such relevant documentation to support the claim as the Revenue Commissioners may request.

(c) (i) For the purposes of determining whether a refund of an overpaid amount or part thereof would result in the unjust enrichment of a claimant, the Revenue Commissioners shall have regard to—

(I) the extent to which the cost of the overpaid amount was, for practical purposes, passed on by the claimant to other persons in the price charged by that claimant for goods or services supplied by that claimant,

(II) any net loss of profits which they have reason to believe, based on their own analysis and on any information that may be provided to them by the claimant, was borne by the claimant due to the mistaken assumption made in the operation of the tax, and

(III) any other factors that the claimant brings to their attention in this context.

(ii) The Revenue Commissioners may request from the claimant all reasonable information relating to the circumstances giving rise to the claim as may assist them in reaching a determination for the purposes of subparagraph (i).

(d) Where, in accordance with paragraph (c), the Revenue Commissioners determine that a refund of an overpaid amount or part thereof would result in the unjust enrichment of a claimant, they shall refund only so much of the overpaid amount as would not result in the unjust enrichment of that claimant.”.