An auctioneering firm has brought a High Court challenge to moves by the Revenue Commissioners to inspect the firm's records for the names of people who have bought property abroad since 2002.
Savills Hamilton Osborne King (SHOK) was given leave to seek court declarations that the Revenue is not entitled to go into its premises to look at records for this purpose.
The Revenue served notice on the firm on December 7th that it would be sending an auditor to its premises at Molesworth Street, Dublin, on January 16th to carry out the inspection.
The judicial review proceedings were adjourned to the new year yesterday to allow notice of the case to be served on the Revenue and to allow an application for an injunction preventing the proposed inspection from taking place.
The application for leave to bring the judicial review challenge was made ex-parte (one side only present) before Mr Justice George Birmingham yesterday. The judge heard the Revenue had said it planned under the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 "to inspect all records you have which will assist in identifying persons who have purchased foreign property".
The audit would cover the period December 1st, 2002, to November 2007 and SHOK was asked to have available all records and linking documents which would contain names and addresses of the people involved, and/or the addresses of the foreign property, and/or the amount paid and date of purchase.
Michael Collins SC, for the auctioneers, said that while the 1997 Act gives the Revenue power to carry out "a variety of inspections", it was his case the Act specifically excludes documents relating to clients of a company. The Revenue had taken the opposite view.
The auctioneering firm says that while its employees act for a number of vendors of property located outside the State, the firm itself does not generally act for purchasers. The company holds records of sales made by its clients of such property to Irish-based purchasers.