The Finance Act 2013 introduced amendments to Chapter 1 Part 18 of the TCA 1997 which clarifies the treatment of partnerships for the purposes of Professional Services Withholding Tax (PSWT).

The amendments provide that where a professional service is provided by a partnership then the accountable person, which includes authorised insurers, can make the relevant payment to the partnership or to the individual/practitioner who provided the professional service.

Where a relevant payment is made to a partnership the payment and attaching PSWT deducted is to be apportioned between all of the partners. That is, the partners, and not the partnership, are entitled to claim credit for the PSWT deducted. The precedent partner is responsible for providing each partner with a statement setting out the apportionment of the relevant payment and the attaching PSWT deducted between the partners.

Accountable persons can no longer issue forms F45 if they do not have the tax reference number of the specified persons providing the professional service. In the case of payments made to a partnership, the precedent partner is responsible for providing the partnership's tax reference number to the accountable person.

The accountable person can contact Revenue to confirm that the Irish tax reference number provided by the specified person, or precedent partner in the case of a partnership, is correct.

Source: Revenue Commissioners. www.revenue.ie. Copyright Acknowledged.