Revenue Note for Guidance

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Revenue Note for Guidance

959AA Chargeable persons: time limit on assessment made or amended by Revenue officer

Summary

This section provides for a 4-year time limit on the making and amending of assessments on chargeable persons. This limit is linked to the chargeable period in which the return is delivered. Certain exceptions are provided for in the section (for example, to give effect to a determination of an appeal). There are also other exclusions to the 4-year time limit in sections 959AC and 959AD. The section provides that nothing in the section affects the operation of sections 804(3), 811, 811A, 811C, 811D or 1048.

Details

(1) A Revenue officer cannot make or amend an assessment for a chargeable period more than 4 years after the end of the chargeable period in which the return for that period has been filed where that return contained a full and true disclosure of all material facts necessary for the making of an assessment and no additional tax will be payable or repayable after this time.

(2) At any time, Revenue can amend an assessment:

  1. where the return did not contain a full and true disclosure,
  2. to give effect to the determination of an appeal or an agreement reached in settlement of an appeal,
  3. to reflect an event which happened after the return was filed,
  4. to correct a calculation error in the assessment, or
  5. to correct any mistake of fact where the assessment doesn’t accord to the facts disclosed by the taxpayer.

(2A) At any time, a Revenue officer may make or amend an assessment for a chargeable period to give effect to a bilateral Mutual Agreement Procedure (MAP) reached between Revenue and a competent authority in another jurisdiction with which Ireland has a Double Taxation Agreement (DTA) and any tax due or repayable (notwithstanding the time limits in section 865) shall be paid or repaid. Section 90 of Finance Act 2022 amended section 959AA TCA to provide that a Revenue officer may make or amend an assessment to give effect to a MAP, notwithstanding any domestic time limits in the TCA on taxpayers making claims for loss relief, group relief or similar reliefs.

(3) Nothing in this section affects the operation of section 804 (administration of an estate), 811, 811A, 811C, 811D (the general Anti-Avoidance provisions) or 1048 (assessments on executers and administrators).

Relevant Date: Finance Act 2024