The new Revenue Commissioner Niall Cody signed a Regulation to implement Phase 4 of mandatory e-filing and e-payment which obliges income taxpayers who avail of reliefs and exemptions and all VAT registered taxpayers to pay and file on ROS.

With effect from 1 June 2012 the following categories of taxpayers are obliged to file their returns electronically (if they are not already obliged to do so):

• Self-assessed individuals claiming certain income exemptions (Artists Exemption, Woodlands Exemption, and Patent Income Exemption).
• Self-assessed individuals claiming certain retirement related reliefs: (relief for Retirement Annuity Contract payments, relief for PRSA contributions, relief in relation to Overseas Pension Plans (migrant member relief ), Retirement Relief for Sportspersons, and relief for Superannuation Contributions/Additional Voluntary Contributions).
• Self-assessed individuals claiming certain other income tax reliefs (BES relief, Employment and Investment Incentive relief, Seed Capital relief, Film relief, Interest relief on loans applied in acquiring an interest or share in certain companies or partnerships, Transborder relief, Significant Buildings/Gardens relief ).
• All taxpayers who are registered for VAT.

The Revenue Commissioners may, on application, exclude a taxpayer from the obligation to pay and file electronically if they are satisfied that the taxpayer does not have the capacity to do so. In this context “capacity” is taken to mean sufficient access to the Internet and in the case of an individual is not prevented by reason of age, physical or mental infirmity from filing and paying electronically.

In the submission on Mandatory e-filing and e-payment, Chartered Accountants Ireland requested that provision be made for certain taxpayers unable to file electronically and therefore we welcome the exclusion provisions in the Regulations. A taxpayer aggrieved at a failure by the Revenue Commissioners to exclude them from the requirements may appeal that failure to the Appeal Commissioners. An excluded taxpayer may, if circumstances change, have that exclusion revoked and that decision may also be appealed to the Appeal Commissioners.

Where a taxpayer is obliged to file and pay on ROS, the penalty for failing to do so is €1,520 under Section 917EA TCA 1997 (http://www.charteredaccountants.ie/taxsource/1997/en/act/pub/0039/sec0917EA.html) in each instance where the taxpayer does not pay electronically or does not file electronically.

For full details on mandatory e-filing see http://www.revenue.ie/en/online/ros/mandatory-e-filing.html