The Gazette 1996

GAZETTE

MARCH 1996

Tax G u i d e 1995 / 96 1 5 3 2 p p;

p a p e r b a c k , £60 . 00.

Tax Ac ts 1995/96 1 8 9 4 p p;

p a p e r b a c k , £75 . 00.

VAT Ac ts 1995/96 6 9 7 p p;

p a p e r b a c k , £65 . 00.

C a p i t a l Ta x es Ac ts 1995/96

1 8 9 4 p p; p a p e r b a c k, £65 . 00.

Publishers: Bu t t e rwo r t hs Ireland

Limited

For practitioners who daily deal with tax

issues, the Tax Guide is a useful

publication for the non specialist

whereas the other three are indispensable

to solicitors who must consider the

interaction of taxation with the services

they are providing for their clients.

The TAX Guide

The

Tax Guide

is what it sets out to be,

namely a guide. Nine highly competent

and experienced taxation practitioners

contribute to this publication. This

reviewer was, however, disappointed

that elementary mistakes in the layout

of examples such as the Capital Gains

Tax form of application for a Capital

Gains Tax clearance certificate still

uses the old £60,000 threshold rather

, than the £100,000 threshold. As any

guide should be written with the non-

specialist in mind such omissions

deserve comment. However for the

non-specialist this publication is useful

and as far as any guide can be is

comprehensive in covering the majority

of issues which the average practitioner

who does not specialise in taxation

issues would encounter. The

publication runs to over 1,500 pages.

I was impressed with the index

which leads the reader quickly to the

relevant portion of the publication. The

publishers have used numerous

examples to explain the text and this is

extremely useful for those who will

have recourse to this publication.

The Tax Acts

This publication covers Income Tax,

Corporation Tax, and Capital Gains

Tax. The legislation is set out clearly

and precisely. In addition all

amendments to legislation are clearly

marked and also notes on relevant

case law are given by way of a short

synopsis for each section and

subsection of the legislation at the end

of every section of the legislation. For

Income Tax the publication gives

appropriate cross references to

Judge's Income Tax for a narrative on

each section.

The VAT Acts

For any practitioner involved in

conveyancing, commercial property or

landlord and tenant law this

publication is a must, principally

because of the interaction of VAT

with property. As the vast majority of

case law in this area emanates from

the EU the publication not only

includes the Irish legislation and the

statutory instruments but also the

relevant EU directives. For

practitioners trying to marry our

legislation with EU directives the

publishers have, by way of marginal

notes, cross referenced the legislation

to statutory instruments and the

relevant EU directives and vice versa.

This is an enormous benefit as a time

saving exercise for both specialists

and non specialists and provides for

each of access to the legislation, the

statutory regulations, and the EU

directives, quickly and efficiently.

The Capital Taxes Acts

This publication covers Stamp Duty,

Capital Acquisitions Tax and

Residential Property Tax, all of which

are taxes which solicitors will, to a

larger or lesser extent, interact with in

their daily routine. The publishers

have recently published two

publications being Brian Bohan's

Capital Acquisition Tax

and Donegan

& Freil on

Stamp Duty.

Unfortunately

both publications were launched too

late to allow the publishers to cross

reference these publications in the

Capital Taxes Act publication.

Hopefully this will occur in the future.

One novel element which was in the

previous edition of this publication

was the highlighting of the

amendments introduced in the

previous Finance Act which the

publishers have omitted from this

publication. However, their careful

annotation of all amendments at the

foot of all sections will clearly guide

any practitioner through the

legislative changes and alert them to

the amendments to any section which

have occurred.

While these publications are not

inexpensive the interaction of tax with

the daily routine of a solicitor's

practice makes a knowledge of

taxation issues prevalent to any

transaction a necessary additional

skill. These publications are an

indispensable tool in allowing

practitioners access to the relevant

legislation, on any issue in portable

and comprehensive publications.

The index to the publications are all

comprehensive and carefully

considered to facilitate ease of access

to the pertinent legislation. These are

all annual publications to which every

practitioner should have access to the

most recent edition.

There is now a clear interaction of tax

on what could be termed as main-

stream law. To give just one example

a conveyancer dealing with a

voluntary disposition of property from

a parent to a child may well have to

consider such taxation issues ancillary

to the disposition as Capital Gains

Tax on the disposal, Capital

Acquisition Tax on the acquisition,

Valued Added Tax if it is a

commercial property, Stamp Duty and

in the case of a private residence

Residential Property Tax. All these

taxes may be inter-related to a lesser

or greater extent in what might

otherwise be considered a reasonably

straight-forward transaction. The four

publications from Butterworths, in the

reviewer's opinion, will be an

indispensable tool for leading a

practitioner to the relevant legislation

and commentaries thereon quickly and

efficiently to enable the taxation

issues in such a transaction to be

identified and solved.

This reviewer wholeheartedly

commends these publications to

practitioners.

Richard Grogan

SoIicitor/Senior

Consultant

Craig Gardner/Price

Waterhouse

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