Finance Act, 1961

Deduction of sur-tax from emoluments.

11.—(1) In this section—

“the Act” of means the Finance (No. 2) Act, 1959 ;

“emoluments”, “employee” and “employer” have the same meanings as in Part II of the Act;

“preceding year” means, in relation to a year of assessment, the year of assessment immediately preceding that year.

(2) An employee, on giving notice in writing to the inspector of taxes not later than three months before the beginning of a year of assessment that, under any Rule of the Rules applicable to Schedule E or under section 5 of the Act, income tax will be deductible from emoluments paid to him in the year of assessment, may elect that the sur-tax estimated to be payable by him for the preceding year shall be recovered by deduction from the emoluments paid to him in the year of assessment in addition to the income tax deductible therefrom as aforesaid.

(3) Where an election is made under this section for recovery of sur-tax by deduction from the emoluments paid in a year of assessment, the following provisions shall, subject to subsection (4) of this section, apply:

(a) unless the Revenue Commissioners otherwise direct, an assessment to sur-tax for the preceding year shall not be made before the end of the year of assessment,

(b) the provisions of the Income Tax Acts under which income tax falls to be deducted from the emoluments and accounted for to the Revenue Commissioners shall, save as may be otherwise provided by any regulations under this section, have effect as if the sur-tax were income tax deductible from the emoluments,

(c) where—

(i) the inspector of taxes and the employee have come to an agreement in writing as to the amount of sur-tax payable by the employee for the preceding year, and

(ii) that amount has been recovered by deduction from emoluments,

no assessment to sur-tax need be made for the preceding year and subsection (1) of section 13 of the Act shall, in relation to the preceding year, have effect as if paragraph (c) of that subsection were omitted.

(4) An election under this section shall have no effect if the inspector of taxes gives notice to the employee that it is not practicable to give effect to it.

(5) The Revenue Commissioners may make regulations for giving effect to this section and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, may by such regulations—

(a) prescribe the form in which an election is to be made and the information to be given in connection with it;

(b) prescribe the time limit for the giving by the inspector of taxes of the notice referred to in subsection (4) of this section;

(c) provide for the estimation by the inspector of taxes of the amount of sur-tax payable and for the review of such an estimation where the employee is dissatisfied with it;

(d) provide for the determination of the proportions in which the total amount of tax paid to the Revenue Commissioners by an employer, being tax deducted from emoluments paid to an employee in any year of assessment, is to be allocated to income tax and sur-tax respectively and for the recovery, by deduction from emoluments paid in a later year or otherwise, of any balance of income tax or sur-tax due from the employee on the basis of such allocation;

(e) apply for the purposes of this section or the regulations any provisions of or made under the Income Tax Acts (with or without modification).

(6) Every regulation made under this section shall be laid before Dáil Éireann as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by Dáil Éireann within the next twenty-one days on which Dáil Éireann has sat after the regulation is laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.