Revenue Note for Guidance
This power enables Revenue to audit the deposit interest retention tax (DIRT) returns of financial institutions.
(1) For the purposes of this section the definitions of “amount on account of appropriate tax”; “appropriate tax”; “deposit”; “interest”; “relevant deposit taker”; “relevant interest”; and “return” are imported from section 256. Definitions are also provided for “authorised officer”; “books, records or other documents”; “liability” in relation to a person; and “tax”.
(2) An authorised officer may at all reasonable times enter any premises or place of business of a relevant deposit taker (essentially a financial institution) for the purposes of auditing the DIRT return for a year of assessment.
(3) The audit procedures can include —
(4) Should the audit indicate that an account should not have been treated as being free from DIRT the authorised officer can make such further enquiries as are necessary to establish whether this indicates that someone has a tax liability.
(5) The institution is required to afford reasonable assistance to the authorised officer in carrying out his or her duties under the section.
(6) & (7) An employee of the institution or, as the case may be, the institution itself can be liable to a penalty for failure to afford such assistance.
Relevant Date: Finance Act 2021