The deadline for paper filing the 2009 Income Tax return and making payment of the relevant tax due is 31 October 2010. Taxpayers who pay and file on Revenue Online Service (ROS) can avail of the extended ROS Pay & File deadline of midnight Tuesday 16 November 2010. To avail of this extended deadline, both the return and the payment must be made online. Readers should note that where only one of these actions is completed through ROS, the extension will not apply and the return and payment must be submitted by 31 October 2010.

Revenue has issued eBrief No. 66/10 which sets out some useful ROS PAYE & File Tips. The main points to note are:

• The latest version of the Form 11 offline application, Version 6.7, should be used. Otherwise forms cannot be uploaded.
• Practitioners are recommended to check that all of their clients are correctly registered. Ideally, your Revenue client list should be updated in advance of relevant due dates.
• All applications to represent a client for tax purposes for the first time or to add an additional tax for a client must be accompanied by a letter of authorisation from the client. Revenue's eBrief No. 40/10 refers.
• Agents can access PAYE Anytime through their ROS Digital Certificate for any of their clients who are registered for PAYE. They can then view their client's Pay and Tax details by selecting the Pay & Tax tab.
• All ROS Debit Instructions (RDIs) should be in place in advance of due filing dates.
• If payment is being made by Laser Card or Online Banking, the client's banks may have monetary thresholds – i.e. daily limits.

Revenue's eBrief No. 66/10, which sets out their ROS Pay & File Tips, is reproduced here.

As the Pay and File deadline of 31 October falls on a Sunday, Revenue announced that over the course of the weekend of 31 October, returns and payments may be dropped in to the post boxes in Sarsfield House, Francis Street, Limerick. Revenue has advised that there will be no facility to acknowledge receipt of deliveries, however, customised receipts will issue in all cases when payments have been processed. All such returns received by 9:00 am on Monday 1 November will be deemed as meeting the filing deadline.

As in previous years, returns with a postmarked date of 31 October will also be deemed as meeting the filing deadline.

Customers using Revenue On-line Service (ROS) to both file and pay have until midnight 16 November 2010. There is still time to register for ROS to take advantage of the extension mentioned above. ROS is the easiest and quickest way to meet all your tax obligations.