Finance Act, 1962

Interest on unpaid income tax, sur-tax and corporation profits tax.

14.—(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, any tax charged by any assessment to income tax, to sur-tax or to corporation profits tax shall carry interest at the rate of one-half per cent. for each month or part of a month from the date when the tax becomes due and payable until payment.

(2) Interest shall not begin to run under this section from any date before the 1st day of January, 1963.

(3) Where any tax is paid not later than three months from the date on which it becomes due and payable, the interest thereon under this section shall be remitted.

(4) Interest shall not be payable under this section on the tax charged by any assessment unless the total amount of the interest is not less than one pound.

(5) The interest payable under this section—

(a) shall be payable without any deduction of income tax and shall not be allowed as a deduction in computing any income, profits or losses for any of the purposes of the Income Tax Acts or of the enactments relating to corporation profits tax, and

(b) shall be deemed to be a debt due to the Minister for Finance for the benefit of the Central Fund and shall be payable to the Revenue Commissioners,

and, subject to subsection (6) of this section, the provisions of every enactment relating to the recovery of any tax charged by an assessment shall apply to the recovery of any amount of interest payable on that tax as if the said amount of interest were a part of that tax.

(6) In proceedings instituted by virtue of subsection (5) of this section—

(a) a certificate by a collector certifying that a stated amount of interest is due and payable by the person against whom the proceedings were instituted shall be evidence until the contrary is proved that that amount is so due and payable, and

(b) a certificate certifying as aforesaid and purporting to be signed by a collector may be tendered in evidence without proof and shall be deemed until the contrary is proved to have been signed by a collector.

In this subsection “collector” means, where the tax concerned is income tax, the person duly authorised to collect the tax or, where the tax concerned is sur-tax or corporation profits tax, the Accountant General of Revenue.

(7) (a) Subject to paragraph (b) of this subsection—

(i) where relief from tax charged by any such assessment as is referred to in subsection (1) of this section is given to any person by a discharge of any of that tax, such adjustment shall be made of the amount payable under this section in relation to the assessment, and such repayment shall be made of any amounts previously paid under this section in relation thereto, as are necessary to secure that the total sum, if any, paid or payable under this section in relation to the assessment is the same as it would have been if the tax discharged had never been charged, and

(ii) where relief from tax paid for any year of assessment or accounting period is given to any person by repayment, he shall be entitled to require that the amount repaid shall be treated for the purposes of this subsection, so far as it will go, as if it were a discharge of the tax charged on him (whether alone or together with other persons) by any assessment for the same year or period, so, however, that it shall not be applied to any assessment made after the relief was given and it shall not be applied to more than one assessment so as to reduce, without extinguishing, the amount of tax charged thereby.

(b) Notwithstanding anything in paragraph (a) of this subsection, no relief, whether by way of discharge or repayment, shall be treated as—

(i) affecting tax charged by any assessment to income tax unless it is a relief from income tax,

(ii) affecting tax charged by any assessment to sur-tax unless it is a relief from sur-tax, or

(iii) affecting tax charged by any assessment to corporation profits tax unless it is a relief from corporation profits tax.

(8) Section 10 of the Finance Act, 1958 , is hereby amended—

(a) by the addition of “with or without interest” at the end of paragraph (a) of subsection (2),

(b) by the addition of “and, where the tax charged by the original assessment carried interest under section 14 of the Finance Act, 1962, such adjustment shall be made of the amount payable under that section in relation to that assessment, and such repayment shall be made of any amounts previously paid under that section in relation thereto, as are necessary to secure that the total sum, if any, paid or payable under that section in relation to that assessment is the same as it would have been if the amount which ceases to be recoverable had never been charged” at the end of subsection (3).

(9) This section extends to assessments notwithstanding that they were made before the passing of this Act or were made for years of assessment or accounting periods which have ended before the passing thereof.