Revenue's eRegistration services were released live through ROS in March and November 2010 with some additional services released in April 2011. Revenue provided an update to Chartered Accountants Ireland on the eRegistration service which may help us in getting the best from the system.

Revenue published eBrief No. 62/11 in October last which detailed a number of common mistakes made by users of the eRegistration system and set out some options for dealing with these mistakes. According to the recent update from Revenue, the level of “error” messages is running at 3% of all activity with the vast majority of errors falling into two categories.

The first mistake identified is registration requests with “New Customer” option selected in error. According to Revenue's update note provided to Chartered Accountants Ireland –

This error arises where an agent selects the new registration option where the customer is already registered with Revenue i.e. PAYE. The “New Customer” option should only be used when registering a new Company, Partnership or Trust and was never registered with Revenue for tax. Where a customer is registered with Revenue for any tax, Tax Type and Registration Number should be used.

The second common error is where an agent submits an agent link request and selects an “existing registration” option where the customer is not registered for that tax.

We understand that a number of enhancements may be made to eRegistration during 2012, including an eRegistration application failure notification.

Revenue is giving priority to eRegistration applications for VAT/RCT. According to the recent update, subject to the enhancements above being delivered, paper applications will not be processed from agents from June 2012, where those applications can be submitted through ROS. Revenue have also proposed that the more straightforward registration services, for example Income Tax and Agent link services, will only be accepted through ROS and paper applications will be returned to agents. Members should note that this will commence immediately.