Filing of your company's accounts in an iXBRL format to the Revenue Commissioners is required for all companies filing their corporation tax return after 1 October 2014 unless they meet the exemption criteria set out below. A company must meet ALL three of the following criteria:-

1. The total net assets of the company do not exceed €4.4 million;
2. The amount of the turnover of the company does not exceed €8.8 million; and
3. The average number of persons employed by the company does not exceed 50.

It is intended that all remaining Corporation Tax Payers will be included in the next phase which will commence at a later date, which is not yet set. The company's financial statements must be filed within 21 days of the company's Corporation Tax filing date. Late filing of the iXBRL formatted financial statements can lead to late filing surcharge and penalties.

Surcharges and Penalties

Revenue's insistence on mandatory iXBRL increases the cost of tax compliance with little/no benefit to the taxpayer.  After much canvassing by tax professionals and their professional bodies, Revenue have clarified their position that the application of surcharges and penalties is at their discretion and if applied, the company or their adviser should contact Revenue. Revenue also clarified that they will not impose surcharges/penalties in respect of errors in the creation of the iXBRL filing for a period of 2 years in cases where the taxpayer has made reasonable efforts to comply with their obligations.

How We Can Help

At Cooney Carey, we prepare iXBRL financial statements using the best recognised iXBRL software package.  The software developers were instrumental in creating the iXBRL format and are recognised as market leaders in the field of iXBRL. We had previously tested a range of other available software packages used for iXBRL and we were unsatisfied with the quality, consistency and level of recurring errors.  We are therefore confident that all financial statements tagged by us in an iXBRL format is 100% recognised and accepted by the Revenue.

What questions do you have?

Don't be shy and ask us. Please post your comment below or call Paul Leonard, Partner at Cooney Carey, on 01 677 9000. 

If this article helped you, please share it with other businesses.