Revenue Over the Years 1923 - 1931
When the 1923 Nobel Prize for literature was awarded to W.B. Yeats, the foundations were set for Irish achievement in world spheres. In the same year, Revenue Commissioner Flynn attended Geneva for the League of Nations Conference on Customs formalities. Future Revenue Commissioners would attend many such international gatherings, chair some and, in time, host several in this country.
Meanwhile at home, matters were closer to the waters and the wild. The Revenue Commissioners faced immediate difficulties in:
- The manufacture and sale of illegal spirits which had reached new levels;
- Tax arrears that had arisen prior to the Treaty; and
- Double taxation of persons with liabilities in the State and the UK.
Revenue controls, now placed on sales of glucose and other ingredients used in making poitán, were reinforced two years later when all of Counties Donegal, Monaghan and Sligo became prohibition areas as did parts of several other counties. This was under the Illicit Distillation Act, 1925, which also provided for the forfeiture of the licence of a publican convicted of dealing in illegal spirits.
The thorny problem of tax arrears accrued prior to the Treaty continued. While the inducement of penalties being waived for full disclosures made before November 20th, 1923 had some success, the arrears issue was subject to much Dáil debate over the next nine years. There were many unfounded allegations of Revenue harassment during these years. The matter was to be finally laid to rest with the provisions of the 1932 Budget. This allowed for acceptance of 75% of underpaid taxes from 1914, with interest or penalties being waived on receipt of the necessary information before the end of that year. This Budget also proposed tightening the law to deal effectively with those refusing to comply.
The double taxation issue was the subject of much discussion between the UK and the State. While a war had been waged with bullet and gun, conflict continued around mahogany tables of both jurisdictions. The subject was finance. The Treaty included financial settlements to the UK, under different headings. By far the largest of these were the land annuities totalling £3.13m per annum. While the State collected the agreed annuities from the landowners, it deducted income tax before forwarding them to the UK authorities. As most beneficiaries of the annuities were resident in the UK, they were subject to income tax in that jurisdiction. This contentious issue of double taxation was the subject of much discussion between the Revenue Commissioners and the UK authorities.
The first steps towards a solution were taken at a London meeting in July 1925, attended by the Minister for Finance, Ernest Blythe, the Secretary and Assistant Secretary of the Department of Finance, Revenue Chairman William O'Brien and Commissioner Carey. The following year agreement was reached. In return for other financial concessions, the State agreed that the annuities would be paid without deduction of income tax. Known as the Residence Agreement, it was based on 'fiscal allegiance' to the country where the taxpayer was resident and provided reliefs for double residency in both countries. A Conjoint Office was set up in London, staffed by Irish and UK Revenue people, to deal with any problems arising. However, the issue of double taxation was not confined to these islands as the League of Nations had earlier commissioned economic experts to examine the question. In fact, the UK/Saorstát Residence Agreement was largely based on the League of Nations' findings. While the difficulties of the land annuities seemed to be resolved, they would later surface and again involve Revenue people.
Against this background of monetary pressures, it is no surprise that the State's formative years were dominated by tight controls on finances. Reductions of public service wages paled beside the 1924 cuts in old age pensions. Although new electric lamps were issued to C&E Preventive staff, a 1929 circular forbade any request for facilities suggested by mere comfort.
From 1924, some new import duties were imposed in what was described as: "a limited but sufficient experiment in the use of a tariff for the stimulation of Irish industry". The rules on merchandise marks were extended to a wide range of goods in 1927. These rules entailed the indelible marking of the relevant articles as to their origin, while any imported goods bearing a shamrock or other inference of Irish manufacture were to be detained. The widespread protection of industry in the State that later emerged could hardly be foreseen in 1928 when a special Commission's Report on duty tariffs received the following comment from the Minister for Finance: "though valuable, the Report had not greatly tended to replenish the Exchequer."
Commissioner Flynn resigned in 1925 and returned to the UK where he later became Deputy Chairman of the Customs & Excise Board. In 1938 he received a Knighthood. He was replaced by M.V. Ó Nualláin whose son, Brian, became famous as the writer Flan O'Brien or Myles na gCopaleen. His satirical, humorous novels and stories were influenced by his childhood in different parts of the country where his father was based. The Irish language, from which many of his works are translated, was actively encouraged in Revenue, with staff in Gaeltacht areas being paid an extra allowance.
Considering his formative years in the distilleries of the Scottish Highlands, it is no surprise to now find Maurice Walsh as the Excise Officer in the Phoenix Park Distillery, Chapelizod. In 1925, as well as being Secretary of Comhaltas Cána, he edited and produced the Association Year book, Cáiniris, which he would later claim was his first published work.
Bark and bite might describe the State's first new duty in 1925. A five shilling Excise licence on dogs, it was collected by the Post Office. Four legged friends also featured in the next year's Finance Act which introduced Betting Duty. Including a bookmakers' licence duty, a registered bookmaking premises duty and a duty on bets, plus controls on totalisators, these new Revenue functions set a precedent for work yet to come.
While radio reception was being received from the UK since 1923, the State's first public broadcasting began on January 1st 1926. On that date, Dr. Douglas Hyde (later to be first Uachtarán na h-Éireann) officially opened the Dublin Broadcasting Station 2RN at Little Denmark Street (off Henry Street). The following year Cork 6CK came on the air and went jingle jangle from the Women's' Jail, Sunday's Well. The State's radio triangle was completed in 1933 when the Athlone Broadcasting Station was inaugurated.
The content of other media forms was causing concern. Protection of public morals saw tighter censorship laws from 1927. Three years later, the new Censorship of Publications Board widened the lists of prohibited publications and included films. Many Irish writers, including Seán O Faoláin, had some of their works prohibited from this time. Around this time, Michael Healy, C&E, Galway, (Nora Barnacle's uncle), was lending vital financial support to James Joyce as he was writing Ulysses.Special sections, staffed by C&E people, were set up to deal with prohibited publications in all the foreign parcels post depots.
In 1928, as the building of Ardnacrusha Power Station began, an Excise duty was put on matches. At that year's Olympic Games in Amsterdam, Pat O' Callaghan was unmatched in hammer-throwing. He has the proud honour of bringing the first Olympic Gold to the State. The following year saw the Wall Street Crash and severe economic recession that reverberated throughout the world. Emigration and unemployment in the State increased enormously.
Foot and Mouth disease, a scourge over the next decade, first came to notice in 1931. Warnings were issued to land frontier staff to exercise vigilance regarding animals exhibited at the Derry Show on June 24th. Apart from the scourge of Foot and Mouth disease, Revenue people were to be more actively involved in the livestock trade of this country before the next year was through.
And so the eighth Autumn came upon Revenue. But there were also lighter sides. Frank Somers, RIP, former C&E, told of being admitted to a Mayo farmhouse by a female old age pension applicant. Querying her means, he was told she had no cattle, no sheep and no pigs. Enquiries complete, Frank left by the back door where he immediately fell over a pig. Returning to clarify one of her replies, he was told: "Ah, that's no pig you tripped over, sir, that's a sow. And you asked me nothing about sows."