Update regarding the Submission of Financial Statements in iXBRL

Tax Briefing Issue No. 04/12 outlined Revenue’s intention to accept financial statements in iXBRL format via ROS.

This facility will go live over the week-end beginning Friday 23rd November 2012. The iXBRL functionality will be released live as part of an integrated package of enhancements to ROS and will be accessible to taxpayers and practitioners from 26th November 2012. All Corporation Tax payers will have the option of uploading their financial statements either as part of their CT1 return filing or at a separate time. This facility will be extended to Income Tax in January 2013.

In advance of iXBRL functionality becoming available on ROS, Revenue has published a number of support documents on the Revenue iXBRL webpage including:

• Electronic Filing of Financial Statements (iXBRL) - Public Interface Test (PIT). Revenue Online Service (ROS) Public Interface Test (PIT) options available to software vendors, taxpayers and practitioners are outlined in this document. The PIT environment will enable users to (i) check the file format of an iXBRL instance, or (ii) simulate live submission iXBRL documents against Revenue records via ROS to ensure the document is fully valid. The document also describes how this service may be accessed.
• Electronic Filing of Financial Statements (iXBRL) - Error Messages. This document provides guidance to users in relation to error messages generated while uploading financial statements in iXBRL format. The document outlines the phases of validation and the types of error messages generated as a result of either technical iXBRL errors or breach of business validation rules.
• Electronic Filing of Financial Statements (iXBRL) - Technical Note. This document is aimed at software developers and those who are using conversion tools to prepare accounts in iXBRL format and provides technical information on acceptable taxonomies and entity identifier schemes as well as the validations rules which apply to financial statements submitted in iXBRL format.

As further documents are prepared, they will be published at this location. The Revenue iXBRL webpage also includes contact details for the iXBRL Business Team and a link to an iXBRL related "Frequently Asked Questions" webpage.

Revenue continues to encourage taxpayers and practitioners to take advantage of the optional filing period to ensure that they will be fully prepared when iXBRL filing becomes mandatory.