2011 was a year of severe test for the integrity of the tax system. The budget for 2011 saw the introduction of the Universal Social Charge and the biggest increases in the tax burden for many years. A faltering domestic economy ensured that the projected figures at Budget time were not fully met. But tax yields overall were substantially ahead while at the same time compliance levels remained high.

Revenue may highlight their falling staff numbers, but their Report illustrates a decrease in data handling requirement by Revenue for its taxpaying base. In the key resource intensive areas of direct taxes and VAT, it is clear from Revenue statistics that electronic filing is now the norm. Mandatory electronic filing has also resulted in the vast bulk of payments now being made to Revenue electronically. We live in an age when the count of visits to the Revenue website constitutes a “Key Result”.

Unfortunately, due to the recession, the volume of business has dropped for all of us. The amount of correspondence which Revenue handled has dropped by almost 6%. The collapse of the Construction Industry is especially stark. In 2011, Revenue had to deal with one third fewer RCT returns, and for every 4 C2's issued in 2010, only one was issued in 2011.

Despite more processing being done by taxpayers and their agents themselves via ROS, and the lower volumes of business overall, Revenue Customer Service Standard statistics, by their own measure, deteriorated between 2010 and 2011. Generally speaking, turnaround times on returns, declarations and applications were not as good in 2011 as in 2010, with only applications for Tax Clearance Certificates bucking this trend.

The report is published on the Revenue website or is available at the following address http://www.revenue.ie/en/about/publications/annual-reports/2011/index.html