Finance Act, 1988

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Amendment of and time limit for assessments.

14.—(1) Subject to subsection (2) and to section 211 of the Income Tax Act, 1967 , an inspector may, at any time, amend an assessment made on a chargeable person for a relevant chargeable period by making such alterations therein or additions thereto as he thinks necessary, notwithstanding that tax may have been paid or repaid in respect of the assessment and notwithstanding that he may have amended the assessment on a previous occasion or on previous occasions and he shall give notice to the chargeable person of the assessment as so amended.

(2) Where a chargeable person has delivered a return for a relevant chargeable period and has made in the return a full and true disclosure of all material facts necessary for the making of an assessment for the relevant chargeable period, an assessment for that period or an amendment of such an assessment shall not be made on the chargeable person after the end of the period of 6 years commencing at the end of the chargeable period in which the return is delivered and no additional tax shall be payable by the chargeable person and no tax shall be repaid to the chargeable person after the end of the period of 6 years by reason of any matter contained in the return:

Provided that nothing in this subsection shall prevent the amendment of an assessment—

(a) where a relevant return does not contain a full and true disclosure of the aforementioned facts,

(b) to give effect to a determination upon any appeal against an assessment,

(c) to take account of any fact or matter arising by reason of an event occurring after the return is delivered,

(d) to correct an error in calculation,

(e) to correct a mistake of fact whereby any matter in the assessment does not properly reflect the facts disclosed by the chargeable person, or

(f) to give effect to the provisions of section 20 (2),

and tax shall be paid or repaid, where appropriate, in accordance with any such amendment and nothing in this section shall affect the operation of section 455 (3) of the Income Tax Act, 1967 , or section 54 (4) (b) of the Finance Act, 1974 .

(3) A chargeable person who is aggrieved by an assessment or the amendment of an assessment on the grounds that he considers that the inspector was precluded from making the assessment or the amendment, as the case may be, by reason of the provisions of subsection (2) may appeal against the assessment or amended assessment on those grounds and if, on the hearing of the appeal, the Appeal Commissioners determine that the inspector was so precluded, all the provisions of the Tax Acts shall apply as if the assessment or the amendment, as the case may be, had not been made and the assessment or the amendment of the assessment, as appropriate, shall be void. If the Appeal Commissioners determine that the inspector was not so precluded, the assessment or the assessment as amended shall stand good, save to the extent that any amount or matter therein is the subject of a valid appeal on any other grounds.

(4) Where the chargeable person is in doubt as to the application of law to or the treatment for tax purposes of any matter to be contained in a return to be delivered by him, he may deliver the return to the best of his belief as to the application of law to or the treatment for tax purposes of that matter but he shall draw the inspector's attention to the matter in question in the return by specifying the doubt and, if he so does, he shall be treated as making a full and true disclosure with regard to that matter:

Provided that this subsection shall not apply where the inspector is or, on appeal, the Appeal Commissioners are, not satisfied that the doubt was genuine and is or are of the opinion that the chargeable person was acting with a view to the evasion or avoidance of tax and in such a case the chargeable person shall be deemed not to have made a full and true disclosure with regard to the matter in question.

(5) Section 186 of the Income Tax Act, 1967 , and section 144 (5) (a) of the Corporation Tax Act, 1976 , shall not apply in the case of a chargeable person for any relevant chargeable period and all matters which would have been included in an additional first assessment under those sections shall be included in an amendment of the first assessment or first assessments made in accordance with this section and, for this purpose, where any amount of income, profits or gains was omitted from the first assessment or first assessments or the tax stated in the first assessment or first assessments was less than the tax payable by the chargeable person for that chargeable period, there shall be made such adjustments or additions (including the addition of a further first assessment) to the first assessment or first assessments as are necessary to rectify the omission or to ensure that the tax so stated is equal to the tax so payable by the chargeable person.