Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 June 2015
84. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Finance if he will provide, in tabular form, the number of tax opinions issued by the Revenue Commissioners each year for the past five years and if he will provide a breakdown of the number provided to persons, small and medium enterprises, larger enterprises and to companies based outside the jurisdiction. [24157/15]
View answer85. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Finance the number of tax opinions issued in the past five years, in tabular form, by type of transactions and-or concerns, including the numbers that relate to transfer-pricing arrangements and with cross-Border implications. [24158/15]
View answer86. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Finance the number of requests for tax opinions that have been refused by the Revenue Commissioners in the past five years, on the basis that the seeking of the opinion was suspected to be part of an arrangement designed to avoid tax or a duty. [24159/15]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 84 to 86, inclusive, together.
I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that, in discharging their statutory role in relation to the administration and collection of taxes, the Revenue Commissioners provide a range of information, including tax opinions, to taxpayers to assist them in understanding and complying with their obligations under tax law.
Revenue has published detailed guidelines on the provision of tax opinions which are available on Revenue's website at www.Revenue.ie. While it is open to any taxpayer to seek an opinion from Revenue on the tax treatment of a particular transaction or activity, the circumstances in which a taxpayer should require an opinion from Revenue are relatively limited. This is because Revenue already publishes extensive detailed information on the application of tax legislation in various tax briefings and guidelines which are available on the Revenue website.
An opinion will be provided by Revenue where the issues are complex, information is not readily available or there is genuine uncertainty in relation to the applicable tax rules as set down in the legislation. An opinion will provide Revenue's view of the correct application of tax law to a particular transaction or situation so that the taxpayer can file a correct tax return as required under the legislation.
As statistics are not compiled on the number of tax opinions issued by Revenue each year, data on the number of opinions broken down between those issued to individual persons, small, medium and large enterprises, companies outside the jurisdiction and by type of transaction are not available. However, I can inform the Deputy that, in responding to the European Commission enquiries in relation to tax ruling practice in the various Member States, Revenue identified that in the period 2010-2012 the total number of advance opinions issued to companies on various matters relating to corporation tax was as follows:
Year Total
2010 99
2011 128
2012 108
In regard to transactions that may involve tax avoidance, the Revenue guidelines clearly state that Revenue will not provide an opinion where it is of the view that a proposed transaction is part of a scheme or arrangement the purpose of which or one of the purposes of which is the avoidance of tax. While, in accordance with these guidelines, Revenue refuses to provide opinions whenever it considers transactions would facilitate tax avoidance, it does not record the number of such refusals.
