Revenue published their headline results for 2012 last month. Despite the total number of Revenue interventions carried out in 2012 being down on the previous year, the suggestion is that taxpayer compliance levels are being maintained. It also seems there has been a drop in the number of taxpayers subject to collection enforcement since 2011.

The total tax yield reported will be of no revelation to members given that the total tax take of €36.6bn has been highlighted in recent Exchequer figures and reported on in the January issue of tax.point.

Which may come of a surprise is the reduction in the number of compliance interventions including audits carried out in 2012 when compared with 2011. A total of 537,822 were undertaken by Revenue in 2012, this compares with 557,565 interventions in 2011. On the other hand, the average yield per intervention increased with the total yield in 2012 at €492.4million, just under €1 million more than was collected in 2011.

Collection enforcement activity is down significantly on the total number of 44,496 in 2011. A total of 31,808 taxpayers were subject to collection enforcement procedures in 2012; of which 22,707 taxpayers were subject to sheriff enforcement, 11,756 less taxpayers than in 2011. More detail is provided on the type of proceedings being initiated than was offered in previous years.

20 more convictions were obtained in 2012 than in 2011 with the main increase coming from customs offences. The total number of cases at the end of 2012 is at 196.

Compliance levels are the same as 2011 with 98% compliance for large cases (annual tax liability greater than €500,000) and 95% for medium cases (annual tax liability between €75,000 and €500,000). All other cases also remained constant at 80%.

The 2012 headline results were published on the Revenue website. For comparison, the 2011 headline results are also available in the achieve press release section on the Revenue website.