Revenue published its annual report for 2016 with the Revenue Chairman noting that the collection of taxes and duties in a fair manner remains the focus for Revenue. Revenue say they want to improve the way they interact with taxpayers, along with protecting the economy and supporting trade with the impending Brexit.

Highlighted by Revenue in their report were:

• Revenue collected €47.95 billion in taxes during 2016, an increase of 4.7 percent on 2015 and the highest level of receipts in the history of Ireland.
• Income tax was up 4.5 percent, corporation tax was up 7 percent and VAT was up 4.2 percent on 2015 figures.
• The total collected from Revenue audit and compliance interventions was €555.6 million
• 40 tax avoidance cases were settled which collected over €10 million in tax, interest and penalties; 836 cases were ongoing at end of 2016
• €7.7 million was collected from cases where off shore structures were used to evade tax
• Over 90 percent of taxpayers filed their tax returns on time during 2016
• Debt available for collection was down 8 percent on 2015
• 10,896 taxpayers are in instalment arrangements worth €103 million
• Over 2 million phone calls were handled during 2016
• A new Revenue website will launch in June 2017
• It is estimated that more than 1,700 Revenue staff will retire in the next 5 years and Revenue recruited more than 500 staff during 2016, recognising that it needs to build capability

The 2016 Annual Report can be found on the Revenue website.