908A Revenue offence: power to obtain information from financial institutions

Summary

This section enables an authorised officer to apply to a judge of the Circuit Court or District Court for an order authorising the officer to inspect and take copies of any entries in the records of a financial institution for the purposes of investigating a revenue offence. It also outlines the procedure to be followed should a copy of an entry in the records of a financial institution be required as evidence in legal proceedings.

Details

Definitions

In this section —

(1) “the Acts” means the Waiver of Certain Tax, Interest and Penalties Act, 1993, as well as the meaning given to it in section 1078(1);

“authorised officer” means an officer of the Revenue Commissioners authorised by them in writing to exercise the powers conferred on him/her by this section;

“books, records or other documents” means any and all records used in the business of a financial institution, whether they are kept in paper, electronic or any other format;

“judge” means a judge of the Circuit or District Court;

“financial institution” means a person who holds or has held a licence granted by the Central Bank, or a person who holds or has held a corresponding licence under the law of another European Community Member State authorising them to carry on banking business in the State. As well as the domestic banks this includes —

• the Post Office Savings Bank,
• a building society,
• an industrial and provident society,
• a friendly society,
• a credit union,
• an investment trust company,
• the manager under a unit trust scheme in respect of the carrying on of the business of the scheme, and
• any European credit institution authorised by the Central Bank to carry on business in the State;

“liability”, in relation to a person, means any tax liability to which the person is, may have been, or may be subject;

“offence” means an offence which falls under any provision of the Acts;

Application for an order by an authorised officer

(2) If a judge, to whom an application is made by an authorised officer, is satisfied that, based on information given on oath by the officer, there are reasonable grounds for suspecting —

• that an offence which would result in serious prejudice to the proper assessment or collection of tax is being, has been or is about to be committed, and
• that there is material in possession of a financial institution specified in the officer’s application which is likely to be of substantial value (whether by itself or together with other material) to the investigation of the offence,

the judge may make an order authorising the officer to inspect and take copies of any entries in the records of the financial institution and of any associated documents, for the purposes of investigation of the offence. Before making an application the officer must have the written consent of a Revenue Commissioner.

Minor offence leading to a more serious offence

(3) If there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that the commission of a particular non-serious offence is part of a course of conduct which is likely to result in serious prejudice to the proper assessment or collection of tax, then the commission of that offence can be regarded as resulting in such serious prejudice.

Admission as evidence in legal proceedings of a copy of an entry in a financial institution’s records

(4) Provided it meets specific criteria, a copy of any entry in the records of the financial institution can be received in all legal proceedings as prima facie evidence of such an entry, and of the matters, transactions and accounts therein recorded.

(5) & (6) The aforementioned criteria which must be met are —

• where a copy of such an entry has been reproduced in a legible form from a non-legible form, that must be proved by some person who has been in charge of the reproduction concerned;
• where the copy sought to be received in evidence is a correctly made copy of a reproduction of such an entry in a legible form from a non-legible form, this must be proved by a person who has been in charge of the reproduction concerned and the copy of that reproduction must be proved by a person who has examined the reproduction and its copy; and
• in the case of any other entry in the records of the financial institution, its copy must be proved by some person who has examined the copy and the original entry and deemed the copy to be correct.

Proof may be given either orally or by way of sworn affidavit.

Relevant Date: Finance Act 2019