ICAI are pleased to share with you the final results of the ROS survey which we hosted in February 2007.

Many thanks to those of you who completed our online survey on ROS usage and/or sent additional comments on your concerns in relation to ROS.

155 firms of all sizes and types completed the survey. As the key aim of the survey was to identity the impediments to filing through ROS; and the impediments to making payments through ROS, a summary of the findings will be listed under each heading.

I. Filing through ROS

Over 80% of respondents identified that they filed the vast majority of income tax returns electronically.

Despite this, respondents felt that there was still a role for facsimile forms. The main reasons given (by over 1/3 of respondents in each case) were that accountants needed to be able to submit paper substitute returns where the return could not be submitted through ROS; and that accountants need a fall back position in the event of ROS failure.

II. Making Payments through ROS

Over 90% of the respondents said that they were willing to make tax payments online. On the understanding that only 29% of taxpayers actually made income tax payments online for the 2005 tax year, it is worth considering the impediments to making payments through ROS.

Almost half of the respondents identified client resistance as the main reason for the mismatch.

The report reproduced at Section 2.01 provides a statistical analysis of the results of the survey, together with additional comments that some respondents made.

This report has been presented to the relevant Revenue contact in this area. We will continue to work with Revenue to ensure that the needs of our members in the area of online filing continue to be met.