At a meeting of the TALC Collection subcommittee towards the end of last year, Revenue advised that a number of developments to the ROS RTD Form and filing procedures are taking place over three Stages. Stage 1 commenced in September 2013 with VAT registered traders reminded to submit outstanding VAT RTD Forms and continued in November 2013 with a new ROS RTD format.

Tax Briefing Issue 05 which is available on www.revenue.ie also contains details on the new ROS RTD format which was released on 29 November 2013. Instructions for filing on ROS and the associated ROS screens are included. According to the Tax Briefing, the new format is designed to be highly user-friendly and the administrative burden when completing the RTD is lessened.

Stage 2 is scheduled for mid-2014 and will include automated VAT RTD compliance measures. Stage 3 expected in 2015 will introduce a limited number of additional fields including new fields on the value of property disposals and acquisitions.

It is not immediately apparent how these developments can be reconciled with the recently proposed EU VAT Directive aimed at VAT Compliance simplification.

First reported in Chartered Accountants Tax News in August 2013, VAT registered traders are reminded of their obligations to submit a RTD Form and notified that they may be requested by their Local Tax District to submit outstanding VAT RTD Forms in order for any refund claims to be processed.