Legal privilege is an important protection for taxpayers in tax controversy matters and is a right which should be carefully protected once an audit has been initiated by tax authorities. Important nuances between the privilege regimes in Ireland and other jurisdictions have led to different practices being adopted and privilege can easily be lost in Ireland if the right measures and procedures are not followed.
Legal privilege in Ireland
An established feature of the Irish legal system and common law legal systems more generally is the ability of taxpayers to communicate openly and honestly with their lawyers when seeking legal advice and preparing for litigation. This concept is protected by the doctrine of legal professional privilege, which allows clients to disclose confidential information to legal professionals engaged to provide legal advice and requires that the legal advice provided to the client may not be shared outside of the lawyer-client relationship. Legal privilege
