Revenue published the results from a survey of SME taxpayers conducted by Revenue between November 2012 and March 2013. The survey broadly covered the level of satisfaction with Revenue customer service and channels of communication, filing returns, factors that influence compliance and shadow economy activity. Over 2,000 surveys were issued to a random selection of VAT registered taxpayers and the overall response rate was 46%.

The key findings from the survey include:

• 70% of respondents had no difficulty paying taxes. However, 1 in 5 SMEs experienced difficulty paying taxes both on time and in full, a substantial increase on 2008.
• 55% of respondents contacted Revenue over the past year with phone calls continuing to be the most used channel of communication followed by ROS and the Revenue website.
• 3 out of 4 SMEs spend less than two hours per week on Revenue related matters.
• 86% of respondents are ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with Revenue customer service and those reporting ‘dissatisfied’ or ‘very dissatisfied’ is at its lowest since the first SME survey in 2006.
• 17% reported that they have personally seen an increase in shadow economy over the past year with 65% of these feeling this had an impact on their business.

The full survey results are published on the Revenue website. The results of prior SME surveys carried out in 2008 and 2006 are also available.