Finance Act 2008

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Assessment of duty charged on statements.

124.— The Principal Act is amended by inserting the following section after section 126A:

“126B.— (1) In this section—

‘ relevant person ’ means—

(a) a bank or building society within the meaning of section 123, 123A or 123B,

(b) an accountable person within the meaning of section 123C (inserted by the Finance Act 2008) or 124A (inserted by the Finance Act 2008),

(c) a bank or promoter within the meaning of section 124, or

(d) an insurer within the meaning of section 125;

‘ Appeal Commissioners ’ has the meaning assigned to it by section 850 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 ;

‘ specified section ’ means section 123, 123A, 123B, 123C, 124, 124A or 125.

(2) Where, at any time, it appears to the Commissioners, that a relevant person—

(a) has failed to deliver a statement, or

(b) has not delivered a full and proper statement,

required to be delivered under a specified section, the Commissioners may make an assessment on the relevant person of the amount which, to the best of their judgment, is the amount of stamp duty which would have been charged on the statement if it had been delivered and if it were full and proper.

(3) The Commissioners may serve notice in writing of the assessment of stamp duty on any relevant person.

(4) Subject to subsection (5), where an assessment is made on a relevant person under subsection (2), the relevant person shall be liable—

(a) where the relevant person has failed to deliver a statement, for the payment of the stamp duty assessed, and any penalty in relation to the duty as if the duty was charged on the statement, unless on delivery of the statement to them, the Commissioners make another assessment to be substituted for such assessment, or

(b) where the relevant person has not delivered a full and proper statement, for payment of the stamp duty assessed, and any penalty relating to the duty as if the duty was charged on the statement,

and such duty and penalty shall be deemed to be a debt due by the relevant person to the Minister for the benefit of the Central Fund and shall be payable to the Commissioners and may be sued for and recovered by action as if it were a debt due by virtue of section 2(4).

(5) A relevant person who is dissatisfied with an assessment of the Commissioners made on the person under subsection (2) may, on payment of the duty in conformity with the assessment, appeal to the Appeal Commissioners against the assessment by giving notice in writing to the Commissioners within 30 days of the date of the assessment, and the appeal shall be heard and determined by the Appeal Commissioners whose determination shall be final and conclusive unless the appeal is required to be reheard by a judge of the Circuit Court or a case is required to be stated in relation to it for the opinion of the High Court on a point of law.

(6) Subject to this section, Chapter 1 of Part 40 (Appeals) of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 , shall, with any necessary modifications, apply as it applies for the purpose of income tax.

(7) If at any time it appears that for any reason an assessment is incorrect the Commissioners shall make such other assessment as they consider appropriate, which assessment shall be substituted for the first-mentioned assessment.

(8) If at any time it appears that for any reason the assessment was an underassessment the Commissioners shall make such additional assessment as they consider appropriate.

(9) Where an assessment referred to in this section becomes final and conclusive, the assessment shall have the same force and effect as if it were an assessment in respect of which no notice of appeal had been given, and subsection (4) shall apply accordingly.

(10) Where a statement required to be delivered under a specified section has been delivered to the Commissioners, the stamp duty charged on the statement, and any penalty in relation to the duty shall be recoverable in the same manner as the duty on an instrument referred to in section 2(4), is recoverable.”.