Compliance & regulation.

Last reviewed: May 2026

1. Who we are.

ClaimBack.ie is a service offered by J.G. Carlin & Co. Limited, a firm of Chartered Certified Accountants in practice in Buncrana, Co Donegal since 1981.

2. Professional regulation.

The firm is regulated by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) — one of the two principal accountancy bodies recognised in Ireland under the Companies Act 2014. ACCA regulation means we are subject to its Rulebook, including the Code of Ethics and Conduct, mandatory continuing professional development, practice-monitoring inspections, and an independent disciplinary process.

Members of the firm hold the following professional designations:

• ·FCCA — Fellow of the Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)
• ·FCA — Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland
• ·CTA — Chartered Tax Adviser (Irish Tax Institute)
• ·QFA — Qualified Financial Adviser

We carry professional indemnity insurance to the level required by our regulator. Details of the policy and insurer are available on written request.

3. Authority to act as your tax agent.

We hold a Tax Agent Identification Number (TAIN) 12611V issued by the Office of the Revenue Commissioners. A TAIN is the identifier Revenue assigns to a person or firm authorised to deal with Revenue on a client’s behalf — it gives us access to the Revenue Online Service (ROS) functionality required to file returns and submit claims for our clients.

Holding a TAIN does not, on its own, authorise us to access any particular taxpayer’s record. For each client we need a client link — either approved by the client in their Revenue myAccount, or evidenced by a signed Authorisation Form PAYE A1 (for clients who have not registered for myAccount). We retain a copy of every signed mandate for at least six years as required by Revenue’s Tax and Duty Manual Part 37-00-04b §5.

Revenue does not operate any system of approving or endorsing tax agents. The TAIN is an administrative identifier and confers no quality assurance. For the avoidance of doubt, nothing on this site is intended to convey or imply Revenue’s endorsement, approval of, or association with this firm beyond the mere fact that a TAIN has been issued. This statement is made in accordance with Revenue’s Tax and Duty Manual Part 37-00-04b §1.

4. Anti-money-laundering supervision.

Accountancy services fall within the scope of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010, as amended. As a firm regulated by ACCA, our designated competent authority for anti-money-laundering (AML) supervision is ACCA itself, not the Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Unit of the Department of Justice. We are subject to ACCA’s AML monitoring, risk-assessment, and training requirements.

In practice, this means we are required to:

• ·Verify the identity and address of every client before commencing work (client due diligence — photo ID plus proof of address dated within three months).
• ·Maintain risk assessments at firm and client level, and apply enhanced due diligence where the risk profile requires it.
• ·Train staff in AML awareness and source-of-funds questioning.
• ·Retain client identification records for at least five years after the end of the engagement.
• ·Report any suspicion of money laundering or terrorist financing to the Financial Intelligence Unit of An Garda Síochána. Where we make such a report, the law prohibits us from notifying you.

5. Records and retention.

We retain client records for six years from the end of the engagement. This period satisfies both Revenue’s expectation for the retention of agent-link mandates and supporting documentation (Tax and Duty Manual Part 37-00-04b §5 and §12) and the wider accountancy and AML retention obligations described above.

What we retain typically includes the signed engagement letter and Terms of Business acceptance, the signed agent-link mandate (where applicable), copies of supporting documentation supplied by you for each relief claimed, the working papers used to calculate the claim, the filed return and any correspondence with Revenue, and the signed Tax Review Summary produced at the close of the engagement.

Records are held electronically in secure, access-controlled storage in the European Union, with role-based access limited to staff who need the records to do their work. After the six-year period elapses, records are securely destroyed.

6. Electronic signatures.

Revenue requires that any electronic signature on a document it relies on (for example, the PAYE A1 agent-link form) meets the standard set out in the Electronic Commerce Act 2000 — specifically a qualified electronic signature backed by an accredited certification service provider. Most consumer-grade e-signature workflows do not, by default, produce signatures that meet that standard.

For that reason, where a paper PAYE A1 form is the chosen agent-link route, our default request is for a wet-ink signature — that is, the form is printed, signed by hand, and returned to us as a scan. This avoids any risk of Revenue rejecting the mandate because of uncertainty about the signature’s provenance.

For Revenue myAccount approvals, no signature on a paper form is required: Revenue’s own authenticated approval flow within myAccount is the legal mechanism, and it satisfies its own evidentiary requirements.

7. Client refunds and bank details.

Revenue pays PAYE refunds directly to the bank account a taxpayer has registered on their own Revenue record. We never collect or hold refund money on a client’s behalf, and we have no access to a client’s bank account. This reflects Revenue’s rules in force since 1 January 2025, as set out in Tax and Duty Manual Part 37-00-04b §14.

Where a client wishes to update the bank details on their Revenue record, that update is made by the client through their own myAccount. We cannot make that change on a client’s behalf.

8. Confidentiality and data protection.

We act as data controller in respect of the personal data you provide to us, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. Full information about the personal data we collect, the legal bases on which we process it, your rights, and the third-party processors we use is set out in our Privacy Policy.

We will not disclose your information to any third party except to Revenue and other Irish public authorities in the course of advancing your claim, to our own professional advisers, insurers and regulators under their own duties of confidentiality, or where we are required to do so by law.

9. Complaints and escalation.

If at any point you are not satisfied with our service, please raise the matter with us in the first instance. Email Joseph G. Carlin, FCCA at info@claimback.ie with a clear description of your concern. We will acknowledge within one business day and aim to provide a substantive response within ten working days.

If the matter cannot be resolved between us, you may refer the complaint to our regulator, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), via accaglobal.com/complaints. If your complaint relates specifically to the handling of your personal data, you may also refer it to the Office of the Data Protection Commission at dataprotection.ie.

10. Statutory and regulatory references.

For completeness, the principal Irish statutes and regulator guidance referenced on this page are:

• ·Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 (as amended) — the primary code governing PAYE and the reliefs we claim on your behalf. Section 1078 sets out the offences and penalties for incorrect returns.
• ·Electronic Commerce Act 2000 — the basis for the recognition of electronic signatures in Ireland, including the qualified-electronic-signature standard Revenue refers to.
• ·Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010 (as amended) — the principal Irish AML legislation applicable to accountancy services.
• ·Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR — the framework governing our processing of your personal data.
• ·Companies Act 2014 — the basis for our recognition as a regulated accountancy firm.
• ·Revenue Tax and Duty Manual Part 37-00-04b — Revenue's guidelines for agents and advisors acting on behalf of taxpayers.
• ·ACCA Rulebook — the rules, code of ethics, and disciplinary framework under which we are regulated.