Chartered Accountants Ireland, under the auspices of the CCAB-I, wrote to Revenue to highlight the pressures facing a number of small and medium sized accountancy firms in meeting the corporation tax and income tax deadlines. Some firms continue to face challenges due to the disruption of COVID-19. The matter was discussed at a recent meeting of Main TALC. Revenue’s position is that accountants facing difficulties should file tax returns on a best estimates basis and then seek to finalise the return under the self-correction mechanism. There will be no formal arrangement available to agree an extension beyond the arrangements already in place for the income tax filing date. However, Revenue advises that if individual firms have exceptional difficulties, e.g., the unavoidable absence of key personnel due to Covid, and will not be in a position to file returns by the corporation tax or income tax deadlines they should contact Revenue via MyEnquiries setting out the exceptional nature of their particular difficulties and seek to agree an arrangement for filing their returns.

Revenue will extend the opening hours of phone lines on the week of the income tax deadline and advises that MyEnquiries is the main contact point for taxpayers and accountants. The CCAB-I requested that the customer standard response time to MyEnquiries should be reduced from 25 days over the peak period to a maximum of 20 days given the fact that Revenue phone lines (other than the ROS Helpdesk) will only open from 9.30am to 1.30pm. If accountants experience unsatisfactory service with MyEnquiries, they should raise the issue with Revenue’s Exceptional Contacts facility.

Revenue confirmed that additional tax deadlines will not be introduced between now and the end of the year.