Tax Filings and IXBRL
Arising from the provisions of Finance Act 2012 certain companies are required to submit their financial statements in IXBRL format as part of the corporation tax submission to Revenue.
What is IXBRL?
IXBRL stands for Inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language. The financial statements produced in this format include a series of tags and numbers allowing computer systems to interpret the financial data.
Revenue to analyse the financial data in much greater detail
As part of the corporation tax return companies were obliged to include an extract of accounts which contained certain profit and loss and balance sheet information such as turnover, gross profit, debtors, shareholders’ funds etc. The completion of the extract of accounts will no longer be required where financial statements are provided in IXBRL. The inclusion of the financial statements in IXBRL format as part of the corporation tax return will allow Revenue to analyse the financial data in much greater detail.
Fewer Revenue aspect enquiries or Revenue audits
As a result Revenue are more likely to identify taxpayers who have tax compliance issues and Revenue are likely to focus their resources on these taxpayers. This should result in a more efficient use of Revenue resources and should also mean that tax compliant companies are subject to fewer Revenue aspect enquiries or Revenue audits.
IXBRL filing deadlines
Companies who are dealt with in the Revenue’s Large Cases Division (LCD) have been required to file IXBRL financial statements as part of their corporation tax return since 1 October 2013 in respect of accounting periods ending on or after 31 December 2012.
All other companies who submit corporation tax returns after 1 October 2014 in respect of accounting periods ending on or after 31 December 2013 will be required to submit financial statements in IXBRL format.
An exemption to the requirement to file IXBRL accounts
An exemption to the requirement to file IXBRL accounts can be availed of where the company meets all of the following criteria: 1. Balance sheet value of the company does not exceed €4.4 million. 2. Turnover of the company does not exceed €8.8 million. 3. Average number of persons employed by the company does not exceed 50.
Final note
It is important that tax agents and companies are aware of the changes to ensure that they are equipped to meet their tax reporting obligations. Companies are advised to ensure well in advance of the mandatory deadline that the necessary systems are in place to meet the obligations.