Consequences of filing a late income tax return

A. Firstly you still have time to file your return as the deadline is extended to 14 November where you pay and file using Revenue Online Services.

If, for some reason, you fail to meet 14 November deadline you should still aim to get your tax return finalised and filed as soon as possible for the following reasons:

Interest at a rate of 0.0219% per day is applied for each day that the return remains outstanding.
There is a 5% late filing surcharge, calculated based on your 2017 income tax liability, if you file within two months of the 31 October 2018 deadline. This then doubles to 10% if you do not file within 2 months of the deadline i.e. by 31 December 2018
Having tax returns outstanding with Revenue can increase the likelihood that you will be chosen to be audited which everyone wants to avoid!

Revenue fully understand that people can miss deadlines from time to time and will take a number of factors into account when applying late filing fees. You must show, however, that you made a genuine attempt to rectify the error of not filing your return as soon as possible.

So if you have missed the deadline don’t despair, act fast and you can avoid additional financial burden and worry!

Date published 2 Nov 2018

This article is intended to inform rather than advise and is based on legislation and practice at the time. Taxpayer’s circumstances do vary and if you feel that the information provided is beneficial it is important that you contact us before implementation. If you take, or do not take action as a result of reading this article, before receiving our written endorsement, we will accept no responsibility for any financial loss incurred.