Taxpayers who are dissatisfied with the way the Revenue Commissioners handle their tax affairs will now be able to call for an independent expert to be involved in assessments of their complaints.

A new panel, appointed yesterday, consists of three members who have the technical expertise to deal with tax issues but are not civil servants or members of the Revenue staff. The creation of the panel follows the announcement by the Revenue earlier this year of new internal review procedures for dealing with complaints.

The panel members are solicitor Ms Edwina Dunn, accountant Mr William Horgan and lawyer Ms Ita Mangan. Ms Dunn specialises in commercial, competition and European law and was formerly a partner with McCann Fitzgerald. Mr Horgan is a business consultant and was a partner in Arthur Andersen and a council member of the Institute of Taxation. Ms Mangan specialises in welfare law and citizens' rights and was a member of the Expert Working Group on Tax and Social Welfare.

Until these appointments, any request by a taxpayer for a review of their file was handled by a senior Revenue officer not connected with the case. Now taxpayers can opt to have one of the external assessors involved in the review, along with the senior Revenue official.

Where the senior Revenue official and the external reviewer cannot agree on a recommendation, the taxpayer will be informed and advised of the other options available - appeal to the Appeals Commissioners or to the Ombudsman.

A taxpayer can initiate a review when dissatisfied with the way in which the Revenue is exercising its powers or with any aspect of a Revenue audit or inquiry. This can be done by writing to the internal review unit at the office of the Chief Inspector of Taxes, which is based in the Setanta Centre, Dublin 2.

Opting to include an external reviewer in the review process will not affect the taxpayer's right to appeal to the independent Appeals Commissioners or to the Ombudsman. The external reviewers will be bound by the Official Secrets Act in order to protect taxpayers' confidentiality.

Announcing the appointment of the panel, Revenue chairman Mr Dermot Quigley said he wanted "to reassure the general public that the appropriate checks and balances are in place as regards the use of our new powers and our general operation. The appointment of the new reviewers will help to ensure that our internal review procedures are not only fair and unbiased but are publicly seen to be so".

When the powers of the Revenue were extended in recent Finance Acts, there were calls for measures to ensure that compliant taxpayers were protected from any possible abuse of those powers by Revenue officials.