For several years now it has been the practice to publish in instalments the measures which are ultimately passed into law in the annual Finance Act.

The first instalment appears on Budget Day. Next there is usually a pre-Finance Bill announcement (issued on January 21st this year) of additional provisions not covered by the Budget. Then there comes the publication of the Finance Bill itself.

Finally, and this has been a particular feature of recent years, quite substantial reams of legislation are first promulgated at the committee stage or even the report stage of the Bill's journey through the Dail.

The publication of this year's Finance Bill has been anticipated with perhaps unusual interest. In part this was due to the relatively controversial Budget Statement and its implications for personal allowances and rate bands.

In addition, there was curiosity about how the Bill might deal with recommendations of the Dail Committee of Public Accounts (PAC) on DIRT and it transpires that the most newsworthy new items in the Bill are tax management or administrative provisions, whose introduction might be ascribed to the general influence of that report.

Most directly, the Office of the Revenue Commissioners will be permitted to delegate DIRT audit work to external auditors.

The Revenue is to report to the PAC before November 1st on the results of its "look back" DIRT audit of financial institutions and to publish the findings.

Interestingly, no specific provision has been made to extend the period within which Revenue may normally make assessments, which currently stands at 10 years.

The revised rules for publication of the names and details of tax defaulters have also been influenced by recommendations from the PAC report. It is now proposed that a brief description of the circumstances relating to the default which gave rise to the penalty may be published, in addition to the monetary amount.

Quite interesting too is the proposal that details of future settlements may be published even where the full amount of the legally due penalties has been paid. Previously there was no provision for publication where the statutory penalty had been paid in full and there was no mitigation by Revenue and it is believed that this particular rule was being increasingly availed of in concluding settlements of back year liabilities in order to avoid publication.

Other measures of note, which might be categorised under the general heading of the tightening up of tax management provisions, include the proposal enabling the Minister for Finance to revoke an IFSC certificate (which gives the possessor access to a special low tax rate) where the Central Bank has notified the Minister that the holder has failed to comply with a financial supervision requirement imposed under the Central Bank Act. There is also a proposal which will permit the Revenue authorities, for the first time, to offset an overpayment arising under one tax heading (say PAYE) against an outstanding liability under another heading (for instance VAT). This is said to be the forerunner of an initiative which will enable Revenue to issue taxpayers with a consolidated statement of account. Apart from these broad tax management provisions, the Bill sets out for the first time the usual mixture of detailed technical measures, some relieving and some designed to close loopholes.

Of interest among the former are measures designed to encourage public/private partnership projects by liberalising the circumstances in which consortium relief for tax losses may be made available.

There are also proposals, which will make the implementation of Save As You Earn schemes somewhat more user-friendly although there are no additional proposals for encouraging profit-sharing.

On the restrictive side it is proposed to tighten up the circumstances in which capital allowances deriving from rented property may be surrendered in a group situation.

All in all this has not been one of the more bulky or perhaps more controversial Finance Bills but there are another six weeks or so to go before it is likely to be enacted into law.

Enda Faughnan is head of tax and legal services at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Ireland