Revenue have issued a guide on the transfer of information to Revenue of payment transactions by merchant acquirers. Section 891D TCA 1997 (as introduced by section 122 of the Finance Act 2012) provides for the making of regulations which gives Revenue power to access information on credit and debit card transactions carried out in the State by merchant acquirers. The regulations in question were made on the 24 August 2012.

Businesses which offer customers credit or debit facilities engage a merchant acquirer to process these transactions and the merchant acquirer links the customer, the business and the card issuing financial institution with each transaction. Similar legislation to mandate the return of information on payment transactions by merchant acquirers has been enacted in the US, Australia and Portugal.

The information which must now be returned to Revenue must be in electronic format and submitted using the ‘Secure file upload/download service’ on ROS (Revenue On-Line Service). A separate file is required for each tax year. The schedule for submission of the files is set out below.