asked the Minister for Finance if he will state by what statutory or other authority taxpayers who have paid income tax under Schedule D, upon the profits of their trade or business, for periods prior to 5th April, 1922, upon assessment made by the Special Commissioners of Income Tax upon appeal, are now being asked to obtain and furnish full accounts properly audited as from 1914, and including the years for which they had previously been assessed by the Special Commissioners of Income Tax on appeal, and in respect of the income from the trade or business upon which they have already been assessed and paid income tax for the same years.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Trade Profit Tax Assessments.
The answers which I have already given to Questions 3 and 4 on to-day's Order Paper furnish to a great extent the information which the Deputy desires. As I have indicated, where a taxpayer has made incorrect income tax returns in recent years, and has thereby laid himself open to proceedings for penalties, the Revenue Commissioners cannot determine the extent to which such penalties should be mitigated without having before them satisfactory evidence as to the extent to which the taxpayer has profited by his fraud or neglect. If the taxpayer does not wish to furnish such evidence, it is open to him to refuse to provide the material for settling the matter out of court and to allow the Revenue Commissioners to take proceedings for the full penalties incurred. If appeals have been heard by the Special Commissioners and the Revenue Commissioners have reason to suppose that incorrect evidence was given or material evidence withheld in connection with such appeals, they would be failing in their duty if they agreed to mitigate penalties without clearing up this question. In this connection I may quote the following remarks made by the Minister in the course of the debate on the Revenue Estimates last year:—
"I mentioned that I had lately a case brought to my notice where a man was giving a good deal of trouble over the production of information in regard to sums on deposit in the banks. Here is what happened. He was in a comparatively small town where there were a number of banks, and he produced a certificate from a bank manager that he had no deposit account, but after further investigation it transpired he had withdrawn money that was on deposit in that particular bank a few days before the appeal meeting of the Special Commissioners, that he had held the cash until after the hearing of the appeal. and then re-lodged it. Further investigations disclosed that he had both a deposit account and a current account in every other bank in the town, and that he had deposits in the names of his wife and daughter. There were, in fact, eight deposit accounts in all. No doubt, that is the type of gentleman who could go to the Deputy and tell him about the dreadful iniquities of the income tax officials."