Revenue issued eBrief 50/16 (full details here) in relation to the recent enhancements made to the VAT Return of Trader Details (RTD) form in light of functionality issues experienced by members. Enhancements to further integrate the RTD functionality in Revenue Online Service (ROS) were implemented in April 2016.

Revenue has advised that this development does not change any of the existing arrangements for processing RTDs, however, there are certain enhancements to the process, namely you now have an ability to amend an RTD already submitted through ROS, rendering the previous submission inactive.

A further new development that may be of particular interest is that the RTD will also be included in the list of outstanding returns on ROS. Revenue have stated that it is currently reviewing the possibility of introducing a rule in ROS which will only display RTDs with a due date which is less than six years from the current date. This will have the effect of removing all outstanding RTDs listed which falls outside the 6 year document retention period required by Revenue. Revenue has informed us that implementation of this rule is dependent on resources available and the schedule of enhancements to ROS.