Revenue scrap ROS online Amend Tax Return facility

Revenue have withdrawn their ROS facility to amend an income tax return online.

Back in September 2010, Revenue added a useful feature to their ROS site which allowed a user to amend online a previously-filed Form 11 Income Tax return.  At the time, I heartily welcomed this move and hailed it as ‘an important innovation’. In the intervening 20 months or so, I used it on a number of occasions, most commonly as a particularly easy way of claiming a tax credit or allowance that had been omitted from an original tax return.  I found the facility to be both useful and straightforward to use.

This morning I was reviewing the tax records of a client who had reached 65 years of age in late 2010 but hadn’t previously notified either myself or Revenue of this fact. He was therefore entitled to an Age Credit for 2010, along with PRSI exemption and partial Income Levy exemption for that year.

I accessed ROS to amend his 2010 tax return accordingly but I could not find any links to access the ‘Amend Form 11′ facility. A quick google search yielded a blank apart from my own blog post of September 2010 which outlined the steps involved in amending a return on ROS and a link to the relevant Revenue eBrief which was issued around that time.  I was dismayed to find the eBrief link was dead, bringing me to a ‘Page not found’ page within the Revenue.ie site.

Increasingly puzzled, I tried the ROS help section of ROS.ie and its ROS FAQ – Form 11 page which told me:

“Can I avail of ROS to file an amended Form 11?     
Unfortunately at this time if you have previously filed a Form 11, on either paper or through ROS, you will not be presented with the option of filing an amended return.”

Finally admitting defeat, I then had to resort to writing a letter to Revenue asking them to (i) update and amend my client’s 2010 Form 11 accordingly; and (ii)  issue a new Income Tax assessment including the Age Credit and exemptions. My letter has just gone off in the post. I expect that it will reach Revenue in 1-2 days time and they will presumably deal with it in due course. No matter how efficiently they manually process it, the service cannot match the speed and efficiency of the automatic ROS service.

I am disappointed that Revenue have withdrawn the facility to amend returns online via ROS, and it seems to be a retrograde step for everyone concerned.

It is doubly disappointing that they didn’t alert accountants and taxpayers of the move, choosing instead to merely delete the eBrief that had previously explained the feature. Maybe I’m expecting too much, but a fresh eBrief announcing the change would at least have made ROS users aware that the feature no longer existed – saving both their own and their clients’ time. Hopefully Revenue will reintroduce the facility before too long.

Revenue extend Pay & File Tax Return Deadline

In a surprising move, Revenue have announced today that they have extended next week’s ROS online Pay & File Tax Deadline by 24 hours. The original deadline of Tuesday 15 November is now extended until midnight on Wednesday 16 November.

This new deadline covers the following

• online filing of Form 11 Income Tax Returns on ROS
• online payment of 2010 Income Tax liability
• payment of Preliminary Tax for 2011.

Today’s Revenue statement does not mention any extension to the deadline for making Pension/AVC contributions which qualify on a back-dated basis for tax relief for 2010. If you are considering making such a contribution in the coming days in order to obtain 2010 tax relief, I suggest that you do so by the original deadline of next Monday – at least until and unless Revenue confirm in the meantime that the pension relief deadline is also extended.

I have no idea why Revenue have at this late stage opted to extend the deadline by a day. Perhaps it is compensation of sorts for last week’s 31 October deadline for paper-filed tax returns, which fell on Bank Holiday Monday when Revenue offices were closed and many accounting and tax firms found themselves having to open on the Bank Holiday.

Either way, the deadline extension is very welcome, although it would have been simpler and easier for everyone concerned had this change been made months ago.  Spare a thought for your accountant or tax advisor if they have already made holiday or ‘quality time’ plans for Wednesday 16 November!

The ROS Technical Helpdesk will now be open until midnight on 16 November 2011.

2010 Capital Gains Tax Deadlines Looming

If you made a Capital Gain in 2010 from selling or disposing of an asset, congratulations! Making a gain of any sort is quite an achievement in these difficult times.  That said, don’t celebrate for too long, as the deadline is looming for payment of your Capital Gains Tax (CGT) liability.

For Capital Gains arising in the period 1 January 2010 to 30 November 2010, the due date for payment is 15 December 2010. For gains made in the month of December 2010, the payment deadline is 31 January 2011.

Although these are very tight deadlines (as short as 15 days for a sale made in late November),  it is essential to meet them, as Revenue charge interest on late payments.

To make a payment to Revenue for the January – November period, download and complete a CGT payslip attach your cheque or draft payment, and forward it to The Collector-General, FREEPOST, Sarsfield House, Francis Street, Limerick.

If you dispose of property in 2010, you must also submit a tax return to Revenue in respect of the disposal. This can be done by using a Form CG1 or Form 11 tax return, and applies regardless of whether you have a CGT liability on the disposal.

The due date for filing such a return for 2010 is 31 October 2011.  Late- or non-filers are charged an additional surcharge of 5-10% of the liability, so it is very much in your interest to file on time.

The 2010 Form CG1 and Form 11 will not be released until early 2011, but the 2009 versions of these forms may be accessed here and here respectively.