Last week, Revenue published preliminary headline results for 2024, showing record-breaking collections for tax and duties of over €107 billion, with a further €30 billion collected on behalf of other government departments and EU Member States. Income tax, corporation tax and VAT were the largest contributors to the tax take in 2024 at €35.1 billion, €39.1 billion and €21.8 billion respectively, all higher than in 2023.
Combatting non-compliance remains a key priority for Revenue, in addition to confronting various tax-avoidance schemes. Some of the highlights of this work during 2024 were as follows:
- Revenue completed almost 311,000 audit and compliance interventions yielding €591 million.
- Revenue settled 256 tax avoidance cases yielding €46 million.
- Revenue secured 20 criminal convictions for serious tax evasion and fraud and published 74 tax settlements in the list of tax defaulters.
Revenue also reports that the introduction of real-time payroll reporting has led to a year-on-year increase in the number of PAYE taxpayers managing their own tax affairs. During 2024 Revenue processed nearly 1.4 million income tax returns for PAYE for the 2023 year of assessment. Revenue reports that during the first week of 2025, over 175,000 PAYE taxpayers have already filed a return in respect of the 2024 year of assessment.
Looking ahead to property tax pay and file obligations, Revenue reports that the Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT) will come into force in 2025 and will apply to land which is zoned and serviced for residential use. By 31 January 2025, local authorities will publish the revised map for 2025, showing land that is within the scope of RZLT and Revenue’s RZLT registration portal will open at that time. RZLT returns and liabilities will be due in May 2025.
Separately, Revenue also published a statistical infographic on the Debt Warehouse Scheme, which is available here and which shows that 94 percent of tax debt is either settled or secured by Phased Payment Arrangements.