Taxpayers and accountants can still make an application to Revenue to agree the non-application of late filing surcharges on income tax returns due last Friday if the application is made to Revenue today. As previously reported in Tax News, Revenue told the CCAB-I that it will take a pragmatic approach to surcharges on tax returns which could not be filed on time due to COVID-19 restrictions. At a TALC meeting last week, Revenue confirmed that taxpayers and accountants could contact Revenue on Monday 14th December to apply for the non-application of surcharges.
We understand that the process to access Revenue’s pragmatic approach to agreeing the non-application of late filing surcharges is as follows:
- Revenue should be notified by Monday 14th December (the previous position was that Revenue should be notified in advance of the income tax deadline).
- The notification should set out the list of clients and their PPSNs and this should be submitted via MyEnquiries.
- The notification should set out the exceptional circumstances why the accountant is unable to make the deadline and provide a timeline when he or she expects to file the tax returns.
- Revenue will reply to the notification and accept the request for the non-application of late filing surcharges or decline the request.
- Surcharges will not be suspended where the tax agent/taxpayer has a record of filing tax returns late.
Revenue’s systems will automatically apply the surcharge and a caseworker in Revenue will lift the surcharge subsequently where the arrangement is agreed with Revenue. Initial output from Revenue’s systems may indicate that the tax return is late and that a surcharge will apply, and this will then be reversed on foot of a manual update by a Revenue caseworker. It may be a good idea for accountants to explain the arrangement with clients in advance to avoid misunderstandings.
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