Revenue Audit

Revenue can choose to audit your business at any time. These audits can look at VAT, PAYE/PRSI, Income Tax, Corporation Tax, or all four of these taxes at the same time or separately.

1.If you do the things below, you will lower the chance of a Revenue audit:
1. Send your annual financial statements and tax return to Revenue on time.

2.File your VAT and PAYE/PRSI returns on time.

3. Pay your taxes on time. This includes your Income Tax, PAYE/PRSI, VAT, and Corporation Tax.

4. You can only claim as a business expense costs that are entirely, solely, and absolutely necessary for the business.

5. If you run a cash-only business, make sure you keep good cash records that show how much cash you got each day and where it went.

6. If your sales or profit margin go down, make sure you tell your accountant why.

7. If your salary or personal income changes in a big way, make sure to tell your accountant why.

8. If you are having trouble paying your taxes, talk to the Revenue as soon as possible so you can work out a plan to pay the back taxes.

2.If you have been chosen for a Revenue Audit, you should think about the following:

1. Think about whether a full review needs to be done or whether any transactions need to be looked at more closely.

2. It might be a good idea to ask for more time before the audit starts (in the event that you believe it will take time to prepare the relevant calculations or carry out a thorough review).

3. Make sure that any information you share meets the rules set out by Revenue.

4.Make sure you know what the right penalty is for not paying enough tax, and think about whether or not you can argue that there shouldn’t be a penalty.

5. While getting ready for the audit, you may find mistakes that caused you to pay too much tax. Think about whether these amounts should be included in the disclosure or whether they should be dealt with during or after the audit.

6. Think about whether or not a problem affects more than one tax head. For example, if it turns out that VAT was wrongly reclaimed on entertainment costs, it should be found out if the way that cost was treated for corporation tax purposes was also wrong.

7. If you owe more VAT or PAYE to Revenue, think about whether the amount of corporation tax or income tax you owe for that period may have been overstated (which would reduce the net payment due to Revenue).