Accountants concerned about issues with Revenue’s Form 11

Accountants, tax agents and those required to file their own self-assessment income tax returns have expressed concerns about difficulties they have experienced with Revenue’s Online Service (ROS) in recent weeks.

The problems relate to the self-assessment Form 11 and have been ongoing since the middle of June.

One accountant who spoke to RTÉ News, but who didn’t wish to be identified, said there were issues with some of the online fields on the form not pre-populating correctly.

Social welfare payments for last year could also not be accessed using the system.

There were also problems reported with the Deposit Income Retention Tax (DIRT) section of the form, with DIRT being applied at 40% rather than 33% as it should be.

Issues were also reported where ROS is not applying the 3% USC rate on non-PAYE income exceeding €100,000.

Accountants are said to be concerned that some filings already made may be inadvertently incorrect as a result and that the errors are also holding up their work.

Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI) confirmed that its members had also been raising issues with it about the problem.

It said it has been engaging with Revenue on the matter through the TALC Collections Sub-committee.

In a statement to RTÉ News, Revenue said it is aware of issues experienced by taxpayers with the filing of the 2023 Form 11 income tax returns.

It said the issues arose after a system update on June 15th which caused difficulty for customers and agents filing the return.

It added that those issues were rectified on June 26th.

“Returns are being filed and processed as normal since then,” Revenue said.

“Revenue engaged with the tax practitioner bodies and some third-party software providers in relation to their feedback on the issues with the return during that time.”

“Revenue continually monitors its pay and file systems and any necessary fixes and upgrades are carried out as a matter of course.”

However, accountants say they have been told it will be July 15th before certain problems are fixed, including the issue of data from certain Department of Social Protection income payments not being pre-populated on the form.

“Filers can choose to complete a prepopulated return in ROS online or offline options,” Revenue added.

“Revenue provides information where it is readily available in Revenue systems to support the filer.”

“The information provided on a pre-populated return is a prompt to assist filers, but the actual values input in the relevant fields on a return must be confirmed or validated by the filer. This is the basis of self-assessment.”

So far this year, more than 120,000 Form 11s have been filed and over 950,000 PAYE income tax returns for last year filed, Revenue said.