We remind you that from Monday 30 June 2025, HMRC will close its online forums for both agents and taxpayers. Following discussions with stakeholders, including this Institute, and a review of both the agent and taxpayer online forums, HMRC has taken the decision to close both with effect from this date. More information is available in a previous news story.

Do you complete expenses and benefits returns? Or do you complete online filing for employment related securities? If so, you have a key role to play in ensuring online returns are submitted by the 2024/25 filing deadline of 6 July 2025 and payments are made on time. The 2024/25 online filing deadline to apply for a PAYE settlement agreement is 5 July 2025, with payments due by 22 October 2025 (19 October 2025 if not paying electronically). The latest Employer Bulletin: June 2025 includes articles on a range of areas of interest to employers, payroll professionals and agents, including some of the upcoming deadlines. Included in this edition are important updates on: • PAYE settlement agreement (PSA) calculations for 2024/25, • organised labour fraud: the supply of labour through employment intermediaries, • mandating the reporting of benefits in kind and expenses through payroll software from April 2027, • Spotlight 68: using prepaid debit cards for profit extraction, to reduce profits and disguise income, • future changes to Statutory Sick Pay, and • parents of teens reminded to go online to extend their child benefit claim. HMRC is running a webinar later this week on 26 June which will provide an overview of forms P11D and P11D(b), examine the benefits of submitting these online, and consider payrolling of expenses and benefits. However, it will not cover how to calculate the value of benefits. Need to know more about PSAs? Choose from the short videos in the 'PAYE Settlement Agreements' playlist, available on HMRC’s YouTube channel. Here’s a reminder of the key deadlines next month:  6 July 2025: deadline for submitting all 2024/25 P11D(b) and P11D forms (if benefits not processed via payroll) and the employee must receive their copy of the P11D,  6 July 2025: deadline for online reporting of the 2024/25 annual return in respect of employment related securities, 19 July 2025: deadline for non-electronic payment of Class 1A National Insurance Contributions (NIC) for 2024/25, and  22 July 2025: deadline for electronic payment of Class 1A NIC for 2024/25. 

Last week, Chartered Accountants Ireland's Director of Members and Advocacy Cróna Clohisey and Head of Public Policy Stephen Lowry were delighted to represent members at the National Economic Dialogue in Dublin Castle. Against the backdrop of the economic headwinds Ireland faces into, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe set the scene by saying "we are all aware of the things we need to do better [but] while there are tests, I know we can rise to them." During the course of the discussions, the Institute represented members' views to Government Ministers on measures to address housing shortages, childcare capacity and the ongoing regulatory and cost burdens facing SMEs. You can access the materials from this year’s National Economic Dialogue here.

That’s according to the Institute’s Northern Ireland Tax Committee chaired by Janette Burns when the Committee responded last week to the UK Government’s consultation ‘Reform of behavioural penalties’. A series of recommendations featured in the submission with the Committee concluding that the UK Government should implement more broad ranging reform of its enquiry regime, including behavioural penalties, by introducing a more graduated and tailored level of compliance interventions, similar to the regime currently in place in Ireland. The Committee also advocates that there is a need for the Government to do more to tackle tax complexity which can be a factor when a taxpayer makes an error that results in a penalty. In summary, the key recommendations are as follows: The minimum penalties for certain inaccuracies and failures to notify should be removed, No failure to notify penalty should be charged if a taxpayer pays the associated tax liability on time or has filed on time, even if they have not notified by the relevant deadline, A fixed reduction to each maximum penalty should be introduced based on the type of disclosure made by the taxpayer, HMRC should explore how fairer penalties can be introduced for the same error made in multiple tax years, The two categories of deliberate behaviour should be combined into one category and a more simplified regime should be introduced for taxpayers making a full unprompted disclosure in this category, Ireland should be excluded from the definition of offshore. Lower penalties should also be introduced for offshore inaccuracies, particularly where these are asset based. In addition, the offshore time limits should be reduced, Penalty suspension should be offered for careless errors on a routine basis and the conditions which must be met should be consistently applied and clearly set out in guidance so that the taxpayer and agent know what to expect and what will be required of the taxpayer, No new non-financial sanctions should be introduced, HMRC should conduct a full review of both the publishing deliberate defaulters legislation and the Managing Serious Defaulters Programme to assess their effectiveness as non-financial sanctions with a view to introducing reforms and improvements to each of these, A review should be conducted of the rates of interest charged and paid by HMRC which should also address the interaction with behavioural penalties, and A range of measures should be undertaken to tackle tax complexity, which should as a minimum include the establishment of a Tax Simplification External Forum reporting annually to Parliament.

From our engagement with members across Ireland, we know that the reporting of tax-free employee benefits in real-time continues to cause administrative headaches for businesses.  Following our recent meeting with Fianna Fáil finance spokesperson, Shay Brennan TD last week, the Deputy raised the issue via a Parliamentary Question to Tánaiste Simon Harris in Dáil Éireann. You can view the Deputy’s question here. We will continue to represent members’ views on this important issue in our lobbying activity in the run up to Budget 2026 over the coming weeks.

TaxSource Total is Chartered Accountants Ireland searchable, complete and freely available online tax resource. This excellent online resource has now been updated for Finance Act 2024. The legislation available includes the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997, the Stamp Duty Consolidation Act 1999, the Capital Acquisitions Tax Consolidation Act 2003, and the Value-Added Tax Consolidation Act 2010.  (Please note that previous users may need to clear their cache (Ctrl+F5) to enable access to the updated content.) 

As we reported last week, the Institute officially launched its latest policy paper on 12 June ‘Enhancing Our Competitiveness – The Case for a Reduced Rate of Corporation Tax in Northern Ireland’. This is a key strategic objective in our lobbying activity reflecting the fact that in a survey of our members in February, 60 percent continue to signal their support for the activation of NI’s devolved powers to set its own corporation tax rate. Members who attended the launch in Belfast have been sharing their perspectives on why the time is right and how the economy will benefit. 

The Institute, under the auspices of the CCAB-I, made representations on behalf of members at last week’s meeting of the Tax Administration Liaison Committee (TALC) Collections sub-committee. Among the issues discussed, Revenue provided clarity on the tax clearance requirement for Residential Premises Rental Income Relief claims, provided an update on its banking modernisation programme, and advised that the PAYE Exclusion Order application is going online. Minutes of the meeting will be available in due course. Residential Premises Rental Income Relief & Tax Clearance Residential Premises Rental Income Relief (RPRIR) contained in section 480C TCA 1997 provides an income tax relief for landlords with qualifying residential premises rental income. It requires landlords with residential property wishing to claim the relief to have tax clearance on 31 December 2024. However, as it is a new relief, landlords who may have been tax compliant on 31 December 2024 may not necessarily have held a clearance certificate on that date. Revenue has confirmed that on an administrative basis, it will accept the landlord’s current tax clearance at the time of filing the tax return. Revenue will update the relevant guidance to reflect this position. A landlord filing a Form 12 income tax return without a current tax clearance in place at the time will see an error message to prompt them to apply for a tax clearance prior to filing. ROS issues with RPRIR Revenue is aware of issues with the ROS Form 11 calculation of Residential Premises Rental Income Relief (RPRIR) for properties with shared ownership in jointly assessed cases. A fix for RPRIP in the Form 11 will be released on 21 June 2025. Revenue will correct any submissions that have been made before that date. Local Property Tax Revenue noted that there are 2.1 million residential properties owned by 1.4 million taxpayers with 95 percent payment compliance to date. Revenue is aware of approx. 17,000 taxpayers registered for either income tax or corporation tax with an exposure to the Local Property Tax (LPT) surcharge if they file an income/corporation tax return before they pay their LPT liability. Revenue wishes to remind agents to check that their clients are LPT compliant before the filing deadline and, if required, put in place a separate agent link which is necessary for each property. Revenue is encouraging agents to check LPT compliance with their clients well in advance of the income/corporation tax filing deadlines to avoid unnecessary delays. A revaluation of properties for LPT purposes will be required on 1 November 2025 and Revenue will commence a bulk issue campaign in mid-September advising them of the changes and their obligations. Form 50A request for offset CCAB-I has received feedback from members reporting delays in Revenue approving F50A offset requests and which is resulting in taxpayers incurring interest charges on late payment of tax, although the money is with Revenue. Based on CCAB-I’s feedback Revenue informed the group that it will mark F50A offset requests as priority so the offset is available when the other activity happens. Banking Modernisation A new payments hub panel will be available on the ROS landing page in mid-August to manage bank account details and create new variable direct debit (VDD) mandates. Taxpayers will be able to see payment activity and status. Guidance will be updated accordingly. The VAT fixed direct debit (FDD) scheme will begin to be wound down from August 2025. VAT FDD taxpayers will be moved to pay and file VAT returns on a  bi-monthly basis but, where applicable, they can opt to file tri/bi-annually. In September 2025, taxpayers paying preliminary tax by direct debit will be migrated to the new payments hub. They will be required to complete and return a new direct debit mandate which will be sent to them by Revenue. Linked agents will be copied on the request. In 2026 Revenue intends to integrate the remaining direct debit arrangements (LPT, VHT, NLWT and C&E) onto the payments hub. It hopes to replace RDIs with VDDs for most tax heads removing the necessity for taxpayers to ‘push’ payments to Revenue. The single debit instruction (SDI) may be redesigned to have future dated SDIs. Revenue will also endeavour to migrate RCT to the payments hub at a later date. Revenue also informed the meeting that it will no longer accept payment by commercial debit card from 1 September 2025. PAYE exclusion order going ‘live’ Revenue informed the group that the PAYE exclusion order application process is going online. The paper system will continue to run in tandem for a period of time and the Tax and Duty Manual and notes for guidance will be updated in due course. Revenue has advised that there is no separate permission required to apply for PAYE exclusion orders but the agent does have to be linked to the applicant in order to apply on behalf of the applicant. If agents are applying on behalf of an employer or a  PAYE employee, they must be the PREM/ payroll agent or the PAYE agent on record.

The OECD has published a report titled Tax Administration Digitalisation and Digital Transformation Initiatives on the use of technology by tax administrations globally. The report provides useful insight to tax administrations considering relevant domestic reforms and may help identify opportunities for future collaboration between tax jurisdictions.

On Wednesday 25 June, the meeting of the EU Parliament sub-committee on tax matters will include a workshop on the study of tax barriers and cross-border workers and tackling the fragmentation of the EU tax framework.

Antigua and Barbuda signed the Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS). This represents an important milestone as the 105th jurisdiction joins the landmark agreement to strengthen the global tax treaty network.

In Irish news this week, Revenue has confirmed it will issue agents with details of client demand notices and the International Monetary Fund has published a report on the Irish economy. In UK news, the Institute has launched its position paper calling for a reduced rate of corporation tax for Northern Ireland, and in the 2025 Spending Review, HMRC has been awarded an additional £0.5 billion in 2026/27 to become a digital first organisation. In International news, the OECD has published guidance on the design of an investigation manual for tax-related crimes. Irish 1. Revenue has confirmed it will provide agents with weekly information on client demand notices. 2. Read about the annual review of the Irish economy by the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund.   UK 3. The Institute has launched a refreshed campaign and published a position paper seeking a reduction in the rate of corporation tax in Northern Ireland. 4. Read about the additional funds awarded to HMRC in the 2025 Spending Review and its plans to become a digital first organisation. International 5. The OECD has recently published guidance to assist tax authorities in compiling manuals to support criminal tax investigations. Keep up to date with all the latest Irish, UK, and international tax developments through Chartered Accountants Ireland’s Tax Newsletter. Subscribe to the Tax News by updating your preferences in MyAccount. You can also read this week’s post EU exit corner here.