JUDGMENT was reserved yesterday in the High Court ease to determine whether the wife of Mr John Gilligan is a liable person under the tax laws following the seizure of her property by the Criminal Assets Bureau(CAB).
Mr Justice Morris said he would give judgment as soon as he could.
Ms Geraldine Gilligan claims she is not liable for the £1.6 million tax bill estimated as the result of an assessment for the tax year ended April 1995.
Ms Gilligan, whose husband is detained in England, contends she is not chargeable and her property should not have been seized from the equestrian centre she ran at Jessbrook House, Mucklon, Enfield, Co Meath, in November.
She is taking the action by way of judicial review against the CAB; Mr Barry Galvin, Inspector of Taxes and Chief Legal Officer CAB; Mr Frank Lanigan, Revenue Sheriff for Co Kildare; and the Revenue Commissioners.
During the hearing, Mr Adrian Hardiman SC, for Ms Gilligan said for the relevant tax period Ms Gilligan was a married woman and it was her husband who would be chargeable.
Mr Richard Nesbitt SC, for the defendants, had said she was chargeable. During the chargeable period she had bank accounts in her own name and this was income in her own hands.
Yesterday, Mr Justice Morris asked Mr Patrick Hunt, counsel for Ms Gilligan, what he said to Mr Nesbitt's submission that she and her husband separated in 1995 and she failed to make the return by January 1996.
Mr Hunt said the period of assessment was when she was with her husband. The obligation to make a return was on a chargeable person for the chargeable period. The separation occurred in the following year.
The judge asked if there could be two chargeable persons. Mr Hunt said there could be if they had opted for separate assessment. Ms Gilligan had not.