Income Tax Act , 1967

PART I Interpretation and Preliminary

Chapter I Interpretation

1 Interpretation generally.

1.—(1) In this Act, except so far as is otherwise provided or the context otherwise requires—

“annuity fund” means, where an annuity fund is not kept separately from the life assurance fund of an assurance company, such part of the life assurance fund as represents the liability of the company under its annuity contracts, as stated in its periodical returns under the Assurance Companies Act, 1909;

“assessable income” in the case of any income other than earned income means the amount of that income as estimated in accordance with the provisions of this Act;

“assurance company” means any persons or bodies of persons to which the Assurance Companies Act, 1909, applies;

“body of persons” means any body politic, corporate, or collegiate, and any company, fraternity, fellowship and society of persons, whether corporate or not corporate;

“Clerk to the Special Commissioners” means the person for the time being authorised by the Special Commissioners to act as such;

“Collector” means the Collector-General appointed under section 162;

“commencement of this Act” means the 6th day of April, 1967: being the date on which, subject to and in accordance with section 554, this Act comes into force;

“county rate” has the meaning assigned to it by section 12 of the Local Government Act, 1946;

“foreign life assurance fund” means any fund representing the amount of the liability of an assurance company in respect of its life assurance business with policy-holders and annuitants residing outside the State whose proposals were made to, or whose annuity contracts were granted by, the company at or through a branch or agency outside the State, and, where such a fund is not kept separately from the life assurance fund of the company, means such part of the life assurance fund as represents the liability of the company under such policies and annuity contracts; such liability being estimated in the same manner as it is estimated for the purposes of the periodical returns of the company under the Assurance Companies Act, 1909;

“incapacitated person” means any infant or person of unsound mind;

“inspector” means an inspector of taxes appointed under section 161;

“life assurance business” includes the business of granting annuities;

“local authority” means—

(a) the corporation of a county or other borough,

(b) the council of a county, or

(c) the council of an urban district;

“municipal rate” has the meaning assigned to it by section 46;

“the National Debt Commissioners” has the meaning assigned to it by section 31 of the Finance Act, 1940;

“profession” includes vocation;

“rating authority” means—

(a) the corporation of a county or other borough,

(b) the council of a county, or

(c) the council of an urban district;

“relative” includes any person of whom the person claiming a deduction had the custody and whom he maintained at his own expense while that person was under the age of sixteen years;

“repealed enactments” has the meaning assigned to it by section 554 (1);

“Special Commissioners” has the meaning assigned to it by section 156;

“standard rate of tax” means the full rate of income tax charged for the year;

“statute” has the meaning assigned to it by section 3 of the Interpretation Act, 1937;

“tax” means income tax or sur-tax;

“taxable income” has the meaning assigned to it by section 137 (1);

“trade” includes every trade, manufacture, adventure or concern in the nature of trade;

“year of assessment” means, with reference to any tax, the year for which such tax was imposed by any Act imposing duties of income tax.

“the year 1967-68” means the year of assessment beginning on the 6th day of April, 1967, and any corresponding expression in which two years are similarly mentioned means the year of assessment beginning on the 6th day of April in the first mentioned of those two years.

(2) References in this Act to any enactment shall, unless the context otherwise requires, be construed as references to that enactment as amended or extended by any subsequent enactment.

(3) In this Act, a reference to a Part, section or schedule is to a Part or section of, or schedule to, this Act, unless it is indicated that reference to some other enactment is intended.

(4) In this Act, a reference to a subsection, paragraph or subparagraph is to the subsection, paragraph or subparagraph of the provision (including a schedule) in which the reference occurs, unless it is indicated that reference to some other provision is intended.

(5) So much of this Act as relates to corporation profits tax shall be construed together with Part V of the Finance Act, 1920, and the enactments amending or extending that Part.

2 Earned income.

2.—(1) Subject to subsection (2), in this Act “earned income” means, in relation to any individual—

(a) any income arising in respect of any remuneration from any office or employment of profit held by the individual, or in respect of any pension, superannuation, or other allowance, deferred pay, or compensation for loss of office, given in respect of the past services of the individual or of the husband or parent of the individual in any office or employment of profit, or given to the individual in respect of the past services of any deceased person, whether the individual or husband or parent of the individual shall have contributed to such pension, superannuation allowance, or deferred pay, or not; and

(b) any income from any property which is attached to or forms part of the emoluments of any office or employment of profit held by the individual; and

(c) any income which is charged under Schedule B or Schedule D, and is immediately derived by the individual from the carrying on or exercise by him of his trade or profession, either as an individual, or, in the case of a partnership, as a partner personally acting therein.

In cases where the profits of a wife are deemed to be profits of the husband, any reference in this subsection to the individual includes either the husband or the wife.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), in this Act, save so far as otherwise expressly provided, “earned income” includes—

(a) any income arising in respect of Civil List pensions granted under the Civil List Act, 1837, as amended by any subsequent enactment;

(b) any payments of benefits which, by virtue of section 224 (4), are deemed to be emoluments to which Chapter IV of Part V applies;

(c) in considering whether any, and if so what, relief is to be granted to an individual under section 134 or under section 138 (3), any income from patent rights (as defined in section 284) arising to an individual where the patent was granted for an invention actually devised by him, whether alone or jointly with any other person;

(d) in the case of a clergyman or minister of any religious denomination who has made such an election as respects the annual value of the house occupied by him as is provided for by section 548, any sum which falls to be treated as earned income of his by virtue of that election;

(e) any annuity made payable to an individual by the terms of an annuity contract or trust scheme for the time being approved by the Revenue Commissioners for the purposes of Chapter III of Part XII, to the extent to which such annuity is payable in return for any amount on which relief is given under section 236; and

(f) any payment which is chargeable to tax under Schedule E by virtue of section 114;

Provided that in the case of income from any such patent rights as are mentioned in paragraph (c), where any part of the rights in question or of any rights out of which they were granted has at any time belonged to any other person, so much only of the said income shall be deemed to be earned income as is not properly attributable to the rights which have belonged to that other person.

3 “Income Tax Acts”.

3.—In any enactment passed after this Act “the Income Tax Acts” shall mean this Act and every other enactment relating to income tax or sur-tax.

Chapter II Preliminary

4 Charge; Schedules.

4.—Where any Act enacts that income tax shall be charged for any year at any rate, the tax at that rate shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, be charged for that year in respect of all property, profits, or gains respectively described or comprised in the Schedules contained in the sections of this Act enumerated below, that is to say—

Schedule A — Section 9;

Schedule B — Section 30;

Schedule C — Section 47;

Schedule D — Section 52; and

Schedule E — Section 109,

and in accordance with the provisions of this Act respectively applicable to those Schedules.

5 Yearly assessments.

5.—Every assessment and charge to tax shall be made for a year commencing on the 6th day of April and ending on the following 5th day of April.

6 Fractions of twenty shillings.

6.—The due proportion of tax shall be charged for every fractional part of twenty shillings but no tax shall be charged of a lower denomination than one penny.

7 Enactments in force for any year to apply to tax for succeeding year.

7.—In order to ensure the collection in due time of tax which may be imposed for any year commencing on the 6th day of April, all such provisions contained in this Act, or in any other Act relating to tax, as were in force on the preceding day, shall have full force and effect with respect to tax which may be so imposed, in the same manner as if the said tax had been actually imposed by Act of the Oireachtas and the said provisions had been applied thereto by the Act.

8 Charge and deduction of tax not charged or deducted before passing of annual Act.

8.—(1) Where in any year of assessment any half-yearly or quarterly payments have been made on account of any interest, dividends or other annual profits or gains, previously to the passing of the Act imposing the tax for that year, and tax has not been charged thereon or deducted therefrom, or has not been charged thereon or deducted therefrom at the rate ultimately imposed for the said year, the amount not so charged or deducted shall be charged under Case IV of Schedule D in respect of those payments, as profits or gains not charged by virtue of any other Schedule, and the agents entrusted with the payment of the interest, dividends or other annual profits or gains shall furnish to the Revenue Commissioners a list containing the names and addresses of the persons to whom payments have been made and the amount of those payments, upon a requisition made by the Commissioners in that behalf.

(2) Any person liable to pay any rent, interest or annuity, or to make any other annual payment, shall be authorised to make any deduction on account of tax for any year of assessment which he has failed to make previously to the passing of the Act imposing the tax for that year, or to make up any deficiency in any such deduction which has been so made, on the occasion of the next payment of the rent, interest or annuity, or making of the other annual payment after the passing of the Act so imposing the tax, in addition to any other deduction which he may be by law authorised to make, and shall also be entitled, if there is no future payment from which the deduction may be made, to recover the sum which might have been deducted as if it were a debt due from the person as against whom the deduction could originally have been made if the Act imposing tax for the year had been in force.

PART II Schedules A and B

Chapter I Schedule A

9 Schedule A.

9.—The Schedule referred to in this Act as Schedule A is as follows—

Estimation of Annual Value

10 Annual value for Schedule A.

10.—(1) This section applies, save as otherwise provided in this Part, to the annual value of all property with reference to which tax under Schedule A is to be charged.

(2) The annual value of all property shall, except in the cases mentioned in the subsequent provisions of this section, be five-fourths of the rateable valuation of the property for the time being.

(3) The annual value of lands and of farmhouses and farm buildings occupied with lands for the purpose of farming such lands shall be the rateable valuation thereof for the time being.

(4) The annual value of all property situate in the County Borough of Waterford shall be the rateable valuation of the property for the time being.

(5) Where the annual value with reference to which tax is to be charged on any property in pursuance of subsection (2) includes (when computed in accordance with that subsection) a fraction of one pound which is not five shillings or a multiple of five shillings, such fraction of one pound may—

(a) where it exceeds ten shillings, be reduced, for the purpose of such computation of such annual value, to the next lower multiple of five shillings, or

(b) where it exceeds five shillings but is less than ten shillings, be reduced, for the purpose aforesaid, to five shillings, or

(c) where it is less than five shillings, be disregarded for the purpose aforesaid.

(6) Where, in pursuance of subsection (2), tax has been charged for any year of assessment on property with reference to an annual value computed in accordance with that subsection, and the valuation of the property in force in that year of assessment for the purposes of the county rate or the municipal rate is subsequently reduced, and the reduction becomes operative for the purposes of the county rate or the municipal rate not more than three years after the end of that year of assessment, the Revenue Commissioners, if they are of opinion that relief in respect of the said tax so charged for that year of assessment should be granted with reference to an annual value computed at five-fourths of the said valuation as so reduced, may grant such relief by repayment or otherwise.

11 Owner-occupied private residence.

11.—(1) Where an individual claims in the manner prescribed by this Act and proves that he is the owner of any property to which, but for this section, section 10 (2) would apply and that he occupies it exclusively for the purposes of his own residence, then—

(a) section 10 (2) shall not apply in relation to the property,

(b) the annual value of the property under Schedule A shall, subject to the provisions of this Part, be its rateable valuation for the time being, and

(c) if tax has been charged in respect of the relevant property otherwise than in accordance with this section, any tax overpaid shall be repaid.

(2) Property shall be deemed to be occupied exclusively for the purposes of his own residence by an individual referred to in subsection (1) where it is mainly occupied by him for such purposes and no part thereof is occupied for the purposes of a trade but a part thereof is occupied for the purposes of a profession.

12 Newly-built houses.

12.—For the purpose of ascertaining, in the case of a house or building rated for the first time, the annual value with reference to which tax is, in pursuance of this Part, to be charged under Schedule A, the valuation with reference to which the house or building is so rated shall be deemed to have been in force for the year of assessment during which the house or building first becomes occupied, but subject to any relief which may be necessary in respect of that part (if any) of the said year during which the house or building was not occupied.

13 Assessment by reference to annual rent.

13.—(1) In the event of an appeal by a person who considers himself aggrieved by any assessment under Schedule A, if it is proved to the satisfaction of the Special Commissioners by whom the appeal is heard, or the Judge by whom the appeal is reheard, that the annual value on which the assessment is based exceeds the annual rent at which the property in respect of which the assessment is made is worth to be let from year to year, relief shall be given by reducing the assessment and charging the tax on the amount on which it would have been charged if that rent had been adopted as the basis of the assessment instead of such annual value.

(2) If such annual rent at which the property is worth to be let from year to year exceeds the actual rent payable yearly by the tenant or occupier, the landlord or immediate lessor shall be assessed and charged, under Schedule A, on the amount of such actual rent only, and the tenant or occupier shall be assessed and charged under Schedule A on the difference.

(3) Where an inspector or such other officer as the Revenue Commissioners may appoint in that behalf is of opinion that the annual value with reference to which an assessment of tax is made on any property in pursuance of section 10 (2) exceeds the annual rent at which the property is worth to be let from year to year, he may, notwithstanding that there has been no appeal against the assessment and notwithstanding section 416 (6), at any time before the end of the year of assessment grant relief by reducing the assessment and charging the tax on the amount on which it would, in his opinion, have been charged if it had been assessed with reference to the said annual rent instead of the said annual value, and the assessment as so reduced shall be final and conclusive for all purposes.

(4) Where a person who receives rent in respect of any property which is exempt from being rated to the county rate, or which is assessable to the municipal rate on a proportion only of the rateable valuation, is liable to be rated in respect of that rent to the extent of one-half the poundage of any county rate or is liable to be assessed in respect of that rent to the municipal rate on a proportion only of the rateable valuation, the tax under Schedule A shall be assessed and charged upon him upon the full amount of that rent.

Persons Chargeable

14 Persons chargeable.

14.—Tax under Schedule A shall be charged upon the landlord or immediate lessor of the property, but may, if it appears to the inspector to be necessary or proper, be charged upon the person rated to the county rate or the municipal rate in respect of the property.

15 Separate assessments under Schedule A or Schedule B in certain cases.

15.—(1) Where a person—