mandelbrot
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But the fact remains that they are well capable of handling operational tasks like issuing invoices & charging VAT etc without continually relying on professionals to do the thinking for them.
Just wondering how long it takes the Revenue to complete an audit and issue an assessment.
I am currently approaching 700 days.
Just wondering how long it takes the Revenue to complete an audit and issue an assessment.
I am currently approaching 700 days.
How long is a piece of string?!
How many of the 700 days has the ball been in you/your accountant's court?
I am aware of cases where taxpayers under Revenue Audit have waited longer than 700 days for a Revenue reply, following mutually-acknowledged full submissions by their accountants of information requested by Revenue.
It's just Revenue trying to raise whatever money they can to keep the country afloat. It's nothing personal even though it might feel like it is.
They can't squeeze any more out of Paye workers as everything is black and white with their tax.
Utter nonsense.
Edited to add: Nonsense because Revenue's function/approach hasn't changed, it remains to ensure that the correct amount of tax is paid at the correct time. They select cases based on risk and based on experience in similar cases, so if there's a focus on a sector is because there's an identified risk(s) and/or a trend of audits in that sector giving rise to additional tax liability.
Mandelbrot,
Under the 2010 Code of Practice, the Code under which ongoing Contractors Project Audits are being conducted, the onus is on Revenue to advise the tax payer when the audit will be concluded:
4.7 Timeframe for Concluding Audits
It is in everybody’s interest that the audit is concluded as quickly as possible.
Where the taxpayer has dealt with all outstanding queries, and has done so
within a reasonable period of time, and the audit remains open for a further
period of three months, Revenue will advise the taxpayer of the current status
of the audit and will estimate, in so far as possible, when the audit is likely to be
concluded.
I've put "Revenue will advise" in bold. Under the new Code (August 2014), Revenue will advise on request of taxpayer/agent as you've said. So it looks like, taking Fearbeag at his word that everything is in order, that Revenue are not following the Code of Practice in his case.
As for RichinSpirit's comments being utter nonsense - yes there is no change in function of Revenue, however my experience of the approach taken in more recent Revenue Audits is that Revenue are being more aggressive. I have no doubt that they are under pressure to previously uncollected tax - this is the message I've heard from other tax advisers and accountants.
As for Revenue being more aggressive in audits, what kind of thing do you mean - aggressive in that they are quicker to raise assessments, or what?
They are less lenient than in the past with little sympathy for minor errors, even in situations where there is clearly no loss of revenue involved. I've seen a case where a principal paid a subbie about 20 times in one year (all at the correct 0% rate) but the first payment was made before the contract was registered on ROS and the inspector slapped the 35% rate on the first payment plus penalties even though the correct rate was 0% anyway.
I've seen another case involving locums where the status of employees / contractors was disputed by the inspector and they raised PREM assessments going back over 18 months incl interest & penalties. This was before the Revenue briefing on the subject so the company wanted to operate the payroll system going forward but inspector dug her heels in and the company ended up liquidating.
Inspectors don't care about what impact an assessment like the ones above could have on the viability of a business going forward and don't seem to be interested in whether a business has to close down because of a simple admin error where Revenue are not even out of pocket.
Inspectors are acting like they are some sort of commission basis.
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