902A Application to High Court: information from third party

This section is similar to section 902 in that it empowers an authorised officer to obtain information from a third party, other than a financial institution. The information sought can apply to a named taxpayer or an unidentified taxpayer or group of taxpayers. However, the authorised officer must apply to a judge of the High Court for an order requiring the third party to supply the information or, as the case may be, to deliver, or make available for inspection, books, records or other documents. Before making an application to the High Court the authorised officer must obtain the consent in writing of a Revenue Commissioner and must be satisfied that —

• there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that the taxpayer(s) has (have) failed to comply with any provisions of the Acts (as defined),
• such failure is likely to lead or have lead to serious prejudice to the proper assessment or collection of tax, and
• information which is likely to be available from the third party is relevant to the proper assessment or collection of tax.

When making an application to the High Court, an authorised officer may make a request to the judge to provide that any order made by the court is subject to a condition that, except for the purposes of complying with the order, the existence of or any of the details of the order, may not be disclosed (directly or indirectly) to any person. An authorised officer may only make such a request to the judge where they have reasonable grounds to suspect that the disclosure of such an order is likely to lead to serious prejudice to the proper assessment or collection of tax. The authorised officer has the right to make this request to the judge but it is entirely at the discretion of the judge as to whether they grant the request.

As with section 902, a person carrying on a profession cannot be obliged to disclose-

• information which is bound by legal privilege,
• confidential medical information, or
• confidential professional advice given to a client (other than advice given as part of a dishonest, fraudulent or criminal purpose).

Relevant Date: Finance Act 2019