Revenue have launched a consultation on the proposed introduction of an additional electronic compliance requirement. Mandatory from September 2013, larger business taxpayers will have to file financial statements to Revenue in iXBRL (inline eXtensible and Business Reporting Language) file format.

Essentially XBRL is an electronic language which uses tags to describe accounting and tax data in a manner which can be analysed by computer. “inline” XBRL is a version of XBRL which allows XBRL documents to be presented as normal human-readable documents. Revenue intend to provide an additional electronic service which will facilitate the filing of financial statement and tax computations in iXBRL by late 2012. The initial focus will be on taxpayers whose affairs are managed by Revenue's Large Cases Division (LCD) and the option to submit Financial Statements in iXBRL format will be available to all taxpayers from that time.

Revenue have published a consultation document available at http://www.revenue.ie/en/spotlights/efiling-financial-statements-tax-computations.html which sets out their proposals for the introduction of iXBRL file format. They are justifying this “initiative” with an out of context quotation from the Commission on Taxation 2009 report, along with reference to the position in the United Kingdom. Citing the UK experience as a precedent (where the transition was not an unqualified success), the consultation document omits to mention that in the UK, only bodies corporate are required to file using iXBRL. The clear suggestion is that mandatory iXBRL will apply to business customers currently handled by Large Cases Division. Not only that, but in the UK, Companies House accepts company accounts filing in the iXBRL format. Accordingly, there is arguably a commercial benefit in the UK which will not be immediately available in Ireland.

Chartered Accountants Ireland will be responding to this consultation and members are invited to share their views on the proposals by contacting the Tax Department. We have already brought to Revenue's attention the experience of our UK members in filing iXBRL account and will continue to engage with Revenue throughout the development and roll-out of the iXBRL programme.