Further to our on-going engagement with Revenue as a member of the iXBRL TALC subgroup, CCAB-I have made a submission to Revenue setting out details of our proposal for incentivising taxpayers mandated to file iXBRL accounts with Revenue. iXBRL filing will be mandatory from October 2013 for companies handled by Large Cases Division in respect of filing dates on or afterwards. Chartered Accountants Ireland as a member of CCAB-I has long raised the concern that the immediate benefits of iXBRL filing will be realised by Revenue, rather than by taxpayers, and a better balance must be struck.

In the submission we acknowledge the progress made by the iXBRL subgroup to date and the clarity provided by Revenue on iXBRL filing through publication of eBriefs, Technical Notes and updates to their dedicated iXBRL webpage. However, we also note in the submission that Revenue is yet to confirm details of the benefits for taxpayers filing in iXBRL.

CCAB-I propose that based on precedent that the current four year time limit as provided for by section 959AA of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 be reduced to one year from the end of the year of assessment in the case of taxpayers mandated to file iXBRL accounts. This reduction in the period for which Revenue can make or amend assessments on the taxpayer will provide greater certainty and consequently be a valuable incentive for taxpayers and their agents filing iXBRL accounts.

We will be engaging with Revenue on our proposal and a number of other outstanding issues we have raised with iXBRL filings.

The full text of the CCAB-I submission is published on the Chartered Accountants Ireland website and is also published on here of this issue of tax.point.