The importance of safeguards on revenue powers

The last five years have revealed concerns about the appropriateness of Revenue powers. Broadly speaking, these concerns emphasise either the appropriateness of Revenue powers for securing the revenue of the State, or the lack of safeguards on Revenue powers to protect the rights of the taxpayer. It is the emphasis that is important because disagreement revolves around the appropriate balance between the need to secure the revenue of the State and the rights of the taxpayer. In what follows, we present some of the' implicit and explicit concerns about the current balance between Revenue powers and safeguards for the taxpayer. We then outline the broader legal and economic context. In doing so, we demonstrate that the underlying forces for change are encouraging increases in Revenue powers. Finally, we argue that it is logically inconsistent in both principle and practice to increase Revenue powers without appropriate safeguards