Finance Act, 1999

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Interpretation (Chapter 6).

917D.—(1) In this Chapter—

‘the Acts’ means—

(a) the statutes relating to the duties of excise and to the management of those duties,

(b) the Tax Acts,

(c) the Capital Gains Tax Acts,

(d) the Value-Added Tax Act, 1972 , and the enactments amending or extending that Act,

(e) the Capital Acquisitions Tax Act, 1976 , and the enactments amending or extending that Act, and

(f) the Stamp Act, 1891, and the enactments amending or extending that Act,

and any instruments made under any of the statutes and enactments referred to in paragraphs (a) to (f);

‘approved person’ shall be construed in accordance with section 917G;

‘approved transmission’ shall be construed in accordance with section 917H;

‘authorised person’ has the meaning assigned to it by section 917G(3)(b);

‘digital signature’ has the meaning assigned to it by section 917I;

‘hard copy’, in relation to information held electronically, means a printed out version of that information;

‘return’ means any return which is required—

(a) to be made under section 172F, 172K, 172L, 258 or 525,

(b) to be prepared and delivered under section 894, 895, 895 (as modified by section 896) or 951,

(c) by any provision of the Acts (however expressed), to be prepared and delivered under a notice from the Revenue Commissioners or, as the case may be, a revenue officer requiring such a return to be prepared and delivered,

(d) to be sent under Regulation 35 of the Income Tax (Employments) Regulations, 1960 ( S.I. No. 28 of 1960 ),

(e) to be sent under Regulation 21 of the Income Tax (Construction Contracts) Regulations, 1971 ( S.I. No. 7 of 1971 ),

(f) to be furnished under section 19 of the Value-Added Tax Act, 1972 ,

(g) to be delivered under subsection (2) or (9) of section 36 of the Capital Acquisitions Tax Act, 1976 ,

(h) to be delivered under section 36 (8) of the Capital Acquisitions Tax Act, 1976 ,

(i) to be presented under the Stamp Act, 1891, and the enactments amending or extending that Act, and

(j) to be made under any of the statutes relating to the duties of excise and to the management of those duties;

‘revenue officer’ means the Collector-General, an inspector or other officer of the Revenue Commissioners (including an inspector or other officer who is authorised under any provision of the Acts (however expressed) to receive a return or to require a return to be prepared and delivered);

‘tax’ means any income tax, corporation tax, capital gains tax, value-added tax, gift tax, inheritance tax, excise duty or stamp duty.

(2) Any references in this Chapter to a return include references in any provision of the Acts to a statement, particulars, evidence or any other means whereby information is required or given, however expressed.

(3) Any references in this Chapter to the making of a return include references in any provision of the Acts to—

(a) the preparing and delivering of a return;

(b) the sending of a return;

(c) the furnishing of a return or of particulars;

(d) the delivering of a return;

(e) the presentation of a return;

(f) the rendering of a return;

(g) the giving of particulars or of any information specified in any provision; and

(h) any other means whereby a return is forwarded, however expressed.

Application.

917E.—This Chapter shall apply to a return if—

(a) the provision of the Acts under which the return is made is specified for the purpose of this Chapter by order made by the Revenue Commissioners, and

(b) the return is required to be made after the day appointed by such order in relation to returns to be made under the provision so specified.

Electronic transmission of returns.

917F.—(1) Notwithstanding any other provision of the Acts, the obligation of any person to make a return to which this Chapter applies shall be treated as fulfilled by that person if information is transmitted electronically in compliance with that obligation, but only if—

(a) the transmission is made by an approved person or an authorised person,

(b) the transmission is an approved transmission,

(c) the transmission bears the approved person's digital signature or such other means of electronic identification as may be specified or authorised by the Revenue Commissioners, and

(d) the receipt of the transmission is acknowledged in accordance with section 917J.

(2) In subsection (1), the reference to the information which is required to be included in the return includes any requirement on a person to—

(a) make any statement,

(b) include any particulars, or

(c) make or attach any claim.

(3) Where the obligation of any person to make a return to which this Chapter applies is treated as fulfilled in accordance with subsection (1) then, any provision of the Acts which—

(a) requires that the return include or be accompanied by any description of declaration whatever by the person making the return, apart from a declaration of an amount,

(b) requires that the return be signed or accompanied by a certificate,

(c) requires that the return be in writing,

(d) authorises the return to be signed by a person acting under the authority of the person obliged to make the return,

(e) authorises the Revenue Commissioners to prescribe the form of a return or which requires a return to be in or on any prescribed form, or

(f) for the purposes of any claim for exemption or for any allowance, deduction or repayment of tax under the Acts which is required to be made with the return, authorises the Revenue Commissioners to prescribe the form of a claim,

shall not apply.

(4) Where the obligation of any person to make a return to which this Chapter applies is treated as fulfilled in accordance with subsection (1) then, the time at which any requirement under the Acts to make a return is fulfilled shall be the day on which the receipt of the information referred to in that subsection is acknowledged in accordance with section 917J.

(5) Where the obligation of any person to make a return to which this Chapter applies is treated as fulfilled in accordance with subsection (1), then, in a case where the transmission is made by—

(a) an approved person on behalf of another person, or

(b) an authorised person on behalf of another person (not being the person who authorised that authorised person),

a hard copy of the information to be transmitted shall be made and authenticated in accordance with section 917K.

(6) (a) Where the obligation of any person to make a return to which this Chapter applies is treated as fulfilled in accordance with subsection (1) then, any requirement that—

(i) the return or any claim which is to be made with or attached to the return should be accompanied by any document (in this subsection referred to as a ‘supporting document’) other than the return or the claim, and

(ii) the supporting document be delivered with the return or the claim,

shall be treated as fulfilled by the person subject to the requirement if the person or the approved person referred to in subsection (1)(a) retains the document for inspection on request by a revenue officer.

(b) Any person subject to the requirement referred to in paragraph (a) shall produce any supporting documents requested by a revenue officer within 30 days of that request.

(c) The references in this subsection to a document include references to any accounts, certificate, evidence, receipts, reports or statements.

Approved persons.

917G.—(1) A person shall be an approved person for the purposes of this Chapter if the person is approved by the Revenue Commissioners for the purposes of transmitting electronically information which is required to be included in a return to which this Chapter applies (in this section referred to as ‘the transmission’) and complies with the provisions of this section and, in particular, with the conditions specified in subsection (3).

(2) A person seeking to be approved under this section shall make application in that behalf to the Revenue Commissioners in writing or by such other means as may be approved of by the Revenue Commissioners for the purposes of this section.

(3) The conditions referred to in subsection (1) are that—

(a) the applicant for approval under this section signs an undertaking to comply with the requirements referred to in section 917H(2), and

(b) the applicant signs an undertaking to permit, in addition to the applicant, only individuals duly authorised in writing by the applicant (each of whom is referred to in this section as an ‘authorised person’) to make a transmission.

(4) A person seeking to be approved under this section shall be given notice by the Revenue Commissioners of the grant or refusal by them of the approval and, in the case of a refusal, of the reason for the refusal.

(5) An approval under this section may be withdrawn by the Revenue Commissioners by notice in writing or by such other means as the Revenue Commissioners may decide with effect from such date as may be specified in the notice.

(6) (a) A notice withdrawing an approval under the section shall state the grounds for the withdrawal.

(b) No approval under this section may be withdrawn unless an approved person or an authorised person has failed to comply with one or more of the requirements referred to in section 917H(2).

(7) A person who is refused approval under this section or whose approval under this section is withdrawn may appeal to the Appeal Commissioners against the refusal or withdrawal.

(8) The appeal under subsection (7) shall be made by notice to the Revenue Commissioners before the end of the period of 30 days beginning with the day on which notice of the refusal or withdrawal was given to the person.

(9) The Appeal Commissioners shall hear and determine an appeal made to them under subsection (7) as if it were an appeal against an assessment to income tax, and the provisions of the Tax Acts relating to appeals shall apply accordingly.

Approved transmissions.

917H.—(1) Where an approved person transmits electronically information which is required to be included in a return to which this Chapter applies the transmission shall not be an approved transmission unless it complies with the requirements of this section.

(2) The Revenue Commissioners shall notify an approved person of any requirements for the time being determined by them as being applicable to that person with respect to the manner in which information which is required to be included in a return to which this Chapter applies is to be transmitted electronically.

(3) The requirements referred to in subsection (2) include, in particular, requirements as to the software or type of software to be used to make a transmission.

Digital signatures.

917I.—(1) In this section—

‘asymmetric cryptosystem’ means an algorithm or series of algorithms which provide a secure key pair;

‘digital signature’ means the transformation of a message by an approved person or an authorised person using an approved asymmetric cryptosystem such that the Revenue Commissioners having possession of the message and the public key in respect of that approved person can accurately determine—

(a) whether the transformation was created using the private key which corresponds to that public key, and

(b) whether the message has been altered since the transformation was made;

‘key pair’ means a private key and its corresponding public key in an asymmetric cryptosystem such that the public key verifies a digital signature that the private key creates;

‘private key’ means the key of a key pair used by an approved person to create a digital signature;

‘public key’ means the key of a key pair used by the Revenue Commissioners to verify a digital signature;

‘message’ means the information referred to in section 917F(1).

(2) This section shall apply solely for the purposes of affixing an electronic signature to an electronic transmission of information which is required to be included in a return to which this Chapter applies and for no other purpose.

(3) The Revenue Commissioners, or a person or persons appointed in that behalf by the Revenue Commissioners, (in this section referred to as the ‘certification authority’) shall assign to each approved person a unique key pair.

(4) The certification authority shall ensure that it uses an accurate and reliable system to create a key pair.

(5) The certification authority shall ensure that an approved person is issued with the private key component of that person's key pair in a secure manner and subject to such conditions as it considers necessary to ensure that the key is not misused.

(6) A private key shall be used by an approved person or an authorised person solely for the purposes of affixing the digital signature referred to in section 917F(1)(c).

Acknowledgement of electronic transmissions.

917J.— For the purposes of this Chapter, where an electronic transmission of information which is required to be included in a return to which this Chapter applies is received by the Revenue Commissioners, the Revenue Commissioners shall send an electronic acknowledgement of receipt of that transmission to the person from whom it was received.

Hard copies.

917K.—(1) A hard copy shall be made in accordance with this subsection only if—

(a) the hard copy is made under processes and procedures which are designed to ensure that the information contained in the hard copy shall only be the information to be transmitted in accordance with section 917F(1),

(b) the hard copy is in a form approved by the Revenue Commissioners which is appropriate to the information so transmitted, and

(c) the hard copy is authenticated in accordance with subsection (2).

(2) For the purposes of this Chapter, a hard copy made in accordance with subsection (1) shall be authenticated only if the hard copy is signed by the person who would have been required to make the declaration, sign the return or furnish the certificate, as the case may be, but for paragraph (a), (b) or (d) of section 917F(3).

Exercise of powers.

917L.—(1) This section shall apply where the obligation of any person to make a return to which this Chapter applies is treated as fulfilled in accordance with section 917F(1).

(2) Where this section applies the Revenue Commissioners and a revenue officer shall have all the powers and duties in relation to the information contained in the transmission as they or that officer would have had if the information had been contained in a return made by post.

(3) Where this section applies the person whose obligation to make a return to which this Chapter applies is treated as fulfilled in accordance with section 917F(1) shall have all the rights and duties in relation to the information contained in the transmission as the person would have had if that information had been contained in a return made by post.

Proceedings.

917M.—(1) This section shall apply where the obligation of any person to make a return to which this Chapter applies is treated as fulfilled in accordance with section 917F(1).

(2) In this section, ‘proceedings’ means civil and criminal proceedings, and includes proceedings before the Appeal Commissioners or any other tribunal having jurisdiction by virtue of any provision of the Acts.

(3) Where this section applies a hard copy certified by a revenue officer to be a true copy of the information transmitted electronically in accordance with section 917F(1) shall be treated for the purposes of any proceedings in relation to which the certificate is given as if the hard copy—

(a) were a return or, as the case may be, a claim made by post, and

(b) contained any declaration, certificate or signature required by the Acts on such a return or, as the case may be, such a claim.

(4) For the purposes of any proceedings under the Acts, unless a Judge or any other person before whom proceedings are taken determines at the time of the proceedings that it is unjust in the circumstances to apply this provision, any rule of law restricting the admissibility or use of hearsay evidence shall not apply to a representation contained in a document recording information which has been transmitted in accordance with section 917F(1) in so far as the representation is a representation as to—

(a) the information so transmitted,

(b) the date on which, or the time at which, the information was so transmitted, or

(c) the identity of the person by whom or on whose behalf the information was so transmitted.

Miscellaneous.

917N.— The Revenue Commissioners may nominate any of their officers to perform any acts and discharge any functions authorised by this Chapter to be performed or discharged by the Revenue Commissioners.”.