Taxpayer's Charter of Rights
Written in plain language for general understanding. This is educational content, not legal advice. Based on Irish Acts of the Oireachtas, statutory instruments, and official guidance.
Irish National Law
What is this right?
The Revenue Commissioners have published a Taxpayer's Charter that sets out your rights when dealing with Revenue. These include:
- Presumption of honesty: Revenue will treat you as honest and acting in good faith unless there is reason to believe otherwise.
- Right to information: Revenue will explain the basis for any assessment or decision affecting you.
- Right to courtesy and consideration: You will be treated with respect.
- Right to privacy and confidentiality: Your tax affairs are confidential — Revenue can only share information as provided by law.
- Right to appeal: You can appeal any assessment or decision to the Tax Appeals Commission (TAC).
- Right to representation: You can appoint a tax agent (accountant or tax advisor) to deal with Revenue on your behalf.
When does it apply?
- You are a taxpayer in Ireland — whether individual, sole trader, partnership, or company.
- The Charter applies to all interactions with Revenue, including filing returns, audits, debt collection, and appeals.
- Revenue publishes detailed Codes of Practice for audits, investigations, and debt management — these are publicly available on revenue.ie.
What should you do?
- Know your rights — read the Taxpayer's Charter on revenue.ie.
- If you feel Revenue has not treated you fairly, you can use the internal review process or escalate to a Revenue senior manager.
- You can also contact the Office of the Revenue Commissioners' Customer Service to raise concerns.
- If you are still dissatisfied, you can complain to the Office of the Ombudsman — it can investigate administrative failings by Revenue.
What should you NOT do?
- Don't ignore correspondence from Revenue — failing to respond can result in estimated assessments and penalties.
- Don't assume Revenue is always right — assessments can contain errors, and you have the right to challenge them.
- Don't provide false information — this is a criminal offence under the TCA 1997.
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