eProbate – A Lot Done. More to do The introduction of the new Statement of Affairs (Probate) Form SA.2 signals a significant change to the probate process, and provides the Revenue with earlier and more comprehensive access to the information executors are providing to the Probate Office. Brian Broderick reviews the new process and sets out a number of pros and cons
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recent article from Revenue in the Irish Tax Review noted that one of the aims of Revenue’s Capital Acquisitions Tax (CAT) Strategy 2018-2020 was to increase levels of e-filing and e-payment of CAT through improved e-services.The online Form SA.2 is a step towards the improved e-services and practitioners filing CAT returns using a ROS business certificate will be able to use a ROS TAIN number, and have access to a wider range of online payment options for CAT. Revenue have better insight into the information to be gleaned from the probate application as a result of the process of turning the paper CA24 into the online Form SA.2, and as the system becomes operational, there could be an increase in Revenue queries in relation to estates. There may be future developments in terms of improving e-services. Revenue’s Corporate Priorities 2020 document indicates that they want to “Fully exploit opportunities to expand the pre-population of returns and leverage the benefits of the proposed online CAT form CA24 for Revenue, the Probate Office, taxpayers and agents”. One possibility is that CAT returns could be pre-populated from Revenue’s records in the future (similar to the pre-populated returns currently provided for income tax). On the one hand this would be very useful for a busy practitioner, but on the other hand, there would be a risk that if beneficiaries did
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not file their CAT returns in a timely manner, the Revenue might assess based on the pre-populated returns. This would overestimate the CAT in many cases as the Form SA2 provides a “date of death” profile for the estate, and information on the costs of administration and any changes in the value of assets are not available to Revenue. The beneficiaries could go on to file a return to displace the assessment, resulting in an accurate CAT liability. However, there would be a risk that some beneficiaries would simply accept the Revenue figures and overpay the CAT. A Revenue letter generally issues automatically to taxpayers once the Grant issues as a reminder that CAT returns are due. It is possible that this could include an indication of the CAT liability in the not too distant future.
Form SA.2 While the manner in which the information is provided to Revenue has changed, and the format and layout of the new online form is unfamiliar, the information that needs to be included in the form is largely the same as the information in the paper Form CA24. There are however some additional fields, including: • Confirmation of whether proceeds from a section 72/73 life assurance policy became payable to a beneficiary on the death of the disponer, • Domicile status of a beneficiary, and • Date of birth of a beneficiary.
