Individuals and companies appealing a tax assessment should continue to have the right to have their hearings held in private, an Oireachtas committee has recommended.
Proposed amendments in the General Scheme of the Finance (Tax Appeals and Fiscal Responsibility) Bill 2025 give the tax appeal commissioners (TAC), who hear such appeals, discretion to decide whether a tax appeal hearing should be held in camera, not the taxpayer.
They also set down that taxpayers should be identified in published decisions on appeals unless there are “special and limited circumstances”.
The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance conducted meetings in December and March as part of its pre-legislative scrutiny on the legislation.
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In its report, the committee “strongly recommends that the Minister for Finance make no change to the existing provisions in respect of public or private TAC hearings”.
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That recommendation has been welcomed by the Irish Tax Institute.
“We are very pleased the committee has agreed with our position and recommended the status quo be maintained,” institute president Shane Wallace said.
“From the outset, the institute has noted that these changes would undermine the appeals process, reduce access to justice and leave Ireland as an outlier among EU member states.
“It is clear that the joint Oireachtas committee members also have serious concerns regarding the proposed changes, and we would again urge the Minister and the Department of Finance not to proceed with these amendments.”
At present, the default is for such appeals to be heard in public. However, a taxpayer who requests a private hearing must be granted one, with published determinations anonymised to protect their identity.
The institute, which represents tax professionals, had said the proposed change would have a “chilling effect” on taxpayers, fundamentally altering the tax appeal process.
“Tax disputes heard at the Tax Appeals Commission often arise from differing interpretations of complex legislation, genuine errors or legitimate disagreements about tax treatment,” it said in a submission to the committee during the hearings. It said about one in five cases was found in favour of the taxpayer.
In a submission to the committee in March, Chartered Accountants Ireland noted that publication of tax taxpayers’ names and information was introduced in certain tax default situations as a form of penalty.
“Even then the level of information published is limited. The removal of a right to have a tax appeal hearing before the TAC held in camera, and the decision published in redacted form, would involve the imposition of a more significant penalty on compliant taxpayers who have a technical disagreement with the position of the Revenue Commissioners,” it said.
In its report, the committee said that even if the Minister rejected its call to retain private hearings of tax appeals, there should be “further assessment of whether Commissioners publishing appellants’ details will constitute ‘proportionate interference’ with their privacy rights”.
