2 Interpretation of Tax Acts

Summary

This section gives the meaning of certain terms and sets out rules for the construction of certain references used in the Tax Acts. The various definitions and rules of construction apply unless the context requires otherwise.

Details

Definitions

(1) Many of the terms mentioned in the section are, in fact, defined elsewhere in either the Income Tax Acts or the Corporation Tax Acts and are listed in this section so as to give them general application throughout the Tax Acts. The provisions where these definitions are found are —

• section 850 – Appeal Commissioners;
• section 851 – Collector-General;
• Part 34 – the construction of the terms resident and ordinarily resident.

Terms such as “Clerk to the Appeal Commissioners”, “ordinary share capital”, “profession”, “year of assessment” and “the year 1997–98” are self-explanatory.

“appropriate inspector” is defined in relation to a person to include the inspector or Revenue officer who usually deals with the person’s tax affairs or who is the inspector or Revenue officer in charge of the Revenue district or branch dealing with the tax affairs of persons located in the city or county in which the person is located;

“body of persons” is defined widely to encompass most types of entities, both corporate and non-corporate;

“capital allowances” are capital allowances granted for capital expenditure on —

• industrial buildings or structures, machinery or plant, and dredging under Part 9,
• farm buildings and other farm works and milk quota under Part 23,
• mining under Chapter 1 of Part 24,
• purchase of patent rights and transmission capacity rights under Chapters 1 and 4, respectively, of Part 29,
• scientific research under section 765, and
• certain training under section 769.

“child of the civil partner”, in relation to a individual means a child of the individual’s civil partner who was born before the registration of their civil partnership;

“inspector” includes an inspector of taxes appointed under section 852, other Revenue officers who carry out similar duties as an inspector of taxes, and Revenue officers who are employed or act in the execution of the Tax Acts or Capital Gains Tax Acts;

“inspector of returns” means an inspector appointed under subsection (1A);

“statute” is given the same meaning as in section 3 of the Interpretation Act, 1937, which defines the term as including Acts of the Oireachtas, Acts of the Oireachtas of Saorstát Éireann, Acts of the Parliament of the former United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and Acts of a Parliament sitting in Ireland at any time before the coming into force of the Union with Ireland Act, 1800.

“surviving civil partner”, in relation to 2 individuals who were civil partners of each other until the death of one of them, means the civil partner other than the civil partner who died;

In regard to the definition of “local authority”, it should be noted that, by virtue of section 3(2) of, and Schedule 2 to, the Local Government Act 2001, references in any other enactment to “county borough corporation”, “borough corporation” (not being a county borough corporation), “council of a county” and “council of an urban district”, and to similar or analogous expressions, are now to be construed as references to “City council”, “Borough council of a borough mentioned in Chapter 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 6 to the Local Government Act 2001”, “County council” and “Town council of a town mentioned in Chapter 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 6 to the Local Government Act 2001”, respectively.

Construction

(1) The section also provides for the construction of the terms “a source of income is within the charge to income tax or corporation tax”, “a person being within the charge to tax” and “income being within the charge to tax”. Where these terms occur in the Tax Acts they are to be taken as meaning that income tax or corporation tax, as appropriate, is chargeable on the income arising from the source, or is chargeable on the person, or is chargeable on the income.

(1A) The Revenue Commissioners may nominate an inspector to be the inspector of returns. Such inspector shall take delivery of returns and other material that is required to be delivered to him or her under the Tax Acts or Capital Gains Tax Acts and his or her name is to be published in Iris Oifigúil.

(2) & (3) In the Tax Acts and in any Act to be construed with the Tax Acts, the term “tax”, where neither income tax nor corporation tax is specified, can mean either of those taxes. However, the use of “income tax” in any provision rather than “tax” is not to be taken as conclusive proof of the fact that the provision is not also to be applied for the purposes of corporation tax by virtue of section 76. Section 76 applies income tax law and principles for the purposes of the computation and assessment of corporation tax. In the TCA 1997 those provisions which apply to income tax but which also apply to corporation tax by virtue of section 76 generally refer to just “tax” and the reference is to be interpreted as referring to either “income tax” or “corporation tax”. Where the provision refers to just “income tax” it will generally just apply for income tax purposes, but the reader should not ignore the possibility of it also applying for corporation tax purposes.

(3A) A reference to a tax credit attaching to a distribution is a reference to a credit as computed under the Tax Acts as they applied when the distribution was made (even though tax credits were abolished from 6 April, 1999 this provision is necessary as some provisions relating to tax credits are still applicable).

(3B) In the Tax Acts —

• references to a man, married man or husband is to be taken as references to a woman, married woman or a wife, as the case may be, and vice versa, and
• provisions relating to the tax treatment of a husband or wife are to be taken in such a way as to give effect to this section.

Relevant Date: Finance Act 2021