Accounting for our Performance

Comptroller and Auditor General

Revenue is subject to an annual audit examination by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General. The findings of this audit are published in the Comptroller and Auditor General’s Annual Report. The audit reports on tax collected, expenditure, systems, procedures and practices. It also includes in-depth examination of selected Revenue activities.

Committee of Public Accounts

As Accounting Officer, the Revenue Chairman appears before the Committee of Public Accounts (PAC) to deal with issues arising from the Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and other matters relating to the activities of the Office that the Committee wish to discuss.

Other Committees of the Houses of the Oireachtas

The Chairman and Revenue officials attend other Oireachtas committees, such as the Committee on Finance and the Public Service, as required.

Appeals

Taxpayers have rights of appeal to the Appeal Commissioners and the Courts in relation to a range of tax and duty issues. Depending on their complexity, certain appeals can take a considerable time to bring to finality. Revenue has an Appeals Committee in place to consider which appeals should proceed to the higher stage. Table 24 sets out the decisions given in these cases at the various stages in 2009.

* Includes 42 less complex cases where decisions were given by the Appeal Commissioners in appeals taken by the Divisions/Regions without referral to the Appeals Committee. Of these, five were decided in favour of the appellant and 37 in favour of Revenue.

Joint and Internal Review Procedure

Taxpayers who are dissatisfied with Revenue’s handling of their tax affairs can have their case reviewed, either internally by a senior Revenue officer or by an External Reviewer acting in conjunction with a senior Revenue officer. The number of taxpayers requesting Joint and Internal Reviews in 2009 is set out in Table 25.

The Ombudsman

In 2009, the Ombudsman received 116 complaints relating to Revenue and finalised 124 complaints. Table 26 and Table 27 provide further summary information.

Note: Figures provisional pending publication of the Ombudsman's Annual Report for 2009.

Data Protection

An external independent audit of data protection in Revenue was undertaken by the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner over a number of dates between November 2008 and May 2009. The final report of the Data Protection Commissioner was published on the Revenue website. The Commissioner stated that the Report reflects favourably on the approach to data protection in the Office of the Revenue Commissioners.

The report includes a number of specific findings and recommendations and work has already commenced to advance the implementation of these recommendations to further strengthen the quality of our data protection practices.

Of the 12 access requests received in 2009 under the Data Protection Acts, 9 were granted in full, 2 were withdrawn and 1 was dealt with outside of access arrangements. In addition, 11 complaints received from the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner were dealt with, 9 of these were satisfactorily completed and 2 are ongoing.

Freedom of Information

Revenue’s Freedom of Information publications under Section 15 of the FoI Acts (structure, organisation, functions, services and records of Revenue) and Section 16 (rules, procedures, practices, guidelines and interpretations of Revenue) are updated as required and published on our website.

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