In responding to the announcement by Revenue that they intend to consult around a move to mandatory online filing, ICAI expressed concern that such enforcement is premature.

The following is a copy of the ICAI press release on the announcement:

' “The Revenue Commissioners have already achieved a level of voluntary use of electronic filing which is higher than in any other country” said ICAI Director of Taxation Brian Keegan.

“Progress to date has always been characterised by ongoing consultations between Revenue and interested organisations such as ICAI. In fact agreement on new procedures to improve the voluntary use of electronic filing by larger companies was achieved only this week.” [See Section 1.03 above]

ICAI maintains that while there is significant goodwill towards the Revenue electronic filing service, known as ROS, there have been gaps in the ROS service which Revenue have worked to resolve. These incremental improvements have resulted in a higher proportion of taxpayers using the service every year.

“In our experience, taxpayers will choose to file electronically because it makes good commercial sense — that is why almost three out of every four self assessment taxpayers already use it.”

“It is far better to encourage taxpayers to avail of electronic filing facilities by offering a commercially compelling electronic service rather than enforcing the use of software which may still have some way to go in meeting all taxpayer's needs,” said Keegan.’

A copy of the Revenue Chairman's announcement is available at http://www.revenue.ie/index.htm?/press/pr_130907ros.htm.