The Taxes Consolidation Bill 1997 published this week has been hailed as a testament to the enormous benefits that can be unlocked from collaboration between the public and private sectors. But how did it come about, what does it contain and who is likely to benefit from its introduction?

On February 8th, 1995, in his budget speech, the then Minister for Finance, Mr Ruairi Quinn announced that the legislation dealing with income tax, corporation tax and capital gains tax was to be consolidated to facilitate the simplification and streamlining of the tax administration and legislation.

Only two years and eight months later, the Taxes Consolidation Bill 1997 has been published representing, in effect, a consolidation of 30 years legislation. This time was spent transforming the previous legislation and many related Finance Acts, dealing with income tax, corporation tax and capital gains tax, into a single, more precise, userfriendly reference code for the tax adviser.

The Bill comprises 1,104 sections and 29 schedules and is divided into 49 parts. There are six main parts, each allocated a "super-heading".

Interpretation and basic charging provisions;

Income Tax and Corporation Tax: the main provisions;

The taxation of chargeable gains;

Transactions in land;

Other special provisions;

Management provisions.

The idea behind the "superheadings" is that the kind of material that would be of interest to, and be in daily use by, the general practitioner appears in the first half of the Bill, while the specialist provisions appear in the second half.

The parts are further broken down into chapters and sections which give a logical approach to topics and help users to work through the legislation.

The Bill will greatly benefit accountants and tax practitioners because of its structure. The number of sections has been reduced from over 2,000 to 1,104 and the number of related schedules from 50 to 29. Advisers will now have access to all the direct taxes in a single coherent and logical format.

The legislation should be more accessible and user friendly as a significant amount of obsolete material as well as a number of provisos and archaic language have been eliminated. The legislation is more logical and coherent and will facilitate easier use by both domestic and foreign advisers. All in all, business transactions should be capable of being completed more quickly, at least insofar as tax matters are concerned.

The Taxes Consolidation Bill 1997, has been published to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the publication of the Income Tax Act 1967. The first draft of the Bill was available two years after Mr Quinn's budget speech of 1995.

The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, who supported the project while in opposition, has ensured that the effort and momentum behind the project was sustained to ensure the Bill's early publication.

While initial estimates of the cost of producing such a monumental document ran to £5 million, it is understood that, as a result of the successful co-operation between public and private sectors, the actual cost was in the region of £500,000. For an analogous project in Britain, £25 million has been provisionally allocated.

It is likely that the other Acts dealing with taxation may be simplified and consolidated in the future.

Martina O'Brien is a Tax Manager with Farrell Grant Sparts, Chartered Accountants and Business Consultants.