McCreevy says Revenue will respect powers

The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, has said that new powers given to the Revenue Commissioners in the Finance Bill will be adopted responsibly and will not be misused to engage in trawling exercises.

"The focus will be tax evasion. There will have to be prima facie information in the possession of Revenue of suspected evasion before the Revenue Commissioners would seek access," Mr McCreevy said in a speech introducing the Bill to the Seanad.

In a direct response to recent financial scandals, the Bill provides extensive powers to the Office of the Revenue Commissioners, including the freedom to check anybody's bank accounts when they are suspected of tax evasion.

The powers, said to be among the toughest in the world, have raised fears in some quarters that the Revenue could use them to go on trawling exercises while there is also concern that sufficient protection has not been afforded the innocent taxpayer.

However, Mr McCreevy said the Revenue Commissioners had assured him the powers would be exercised only in cases where it was necessary, that there would be appropriate checks and balances to ensure that only properly authorised and trained personnel would have access to the powers and that they would not be focused on smaller cases.

Mr McCreevy also dismissed calls for the appointment of a special tax ombudsman to ensure that the new powers were not abused.

He said there had been no history of the Revenue abusing powers given to them, that the Ombudsman already had a remit in Revenue matters and that procedures were already in existence for a taxpayer to appeal to the Appeal Commissioners and the Courts. In addition, the Revenue have standing procedures for internal review where a taxpayer is unhappy with the actions of a tax inspector.

An amendment to the Bill also allows taxpayers to be informed when information is requested by the Revenue in good time for the taxpayer to take court action for judicial review of the Revenue request.

In his speech, the Minister also indicated areas that he was considering for his next Budget.

Mr McCreevy said the recommendation in the second Bacon report, published earlier this month, that tax relief for tenants be increased warranted further consideration.

Mr McCreevy has already introduced an amendment to the current Bill extending the 20 per cent capital gains tax rate to the disposal of land, which is zoned residential under a county development plan.

He also said that he would look at the area of capital acquisitions tax (CAT) in some detail for next year's Budget.