Tommy McGibney chartered accountant says: “Revenue selects a high proportion of their audit cases on a risk-based approach and a low salary to contract value could well be a possible trigger,”.
Practically speaking, Revenue is exceptionally supporting and even-minded when managing them over the audit. Sometimes, when somebody needs assistance with an issue or to put something right, they are commonly obliged to talk with.
You know Revenue’s “Code of Practice for Revenue Audit,” says in their mission statement, “To serve the community by fairly and efficiently collecting taxes and duties and implementing Customs controls.”
You should also know that Accounting Business Audit teams have targets to complete. Coming in their bad books will be bad for your business.
We would suggest that if your accounting firm’s turnover is not more than the €100,000 mark, there’s little possibility that you will be audited.
Revenue Audits, And Investigations
A Revenue audit is an assessment of your tax returns and records by a Revenue official to guarantee that income, chargeable gains and profits are accurately determined and that none are excluded from the return. An audit may likewise be completed to watch that tax credits, reliefs, and so forth, claimed are due.
There are various levels of the audit. At the easier level, there could be a circumstance where one of your filings is strange.
For instance, all your past VAT returns left you with a modest liability and afterwards you document a return where you are making a significant VAT claim.
For this, they are probably going to send you a letter and request that you explain the inconsistency. If this happens, just clarify why there has been a change and this will be cleared up.
Now, the next level of audit would be an aspect question. Once more, Revenue will send a letter to clarify what they are hoping to explain. An aspect inquiry is by definition restricted to a specific function of the business, you have to explain that matter only.
The revenue department will disclose to you which tax part is concerned (commonly PAYE or VAT). Also, what period they are checking.
They’ll likewise tell you when they plan on visiting your premises to check your records. You have the opportunity to arrange the data they need.
Criteria of Revenue selecting Accounting Business for an audit
Revenue chooses a firm for auditing in four different circumstances:
The Risk, Evaluation, Analysis and Profiling system (REAP): It is a risk-based method that connects predictive models and particular business rules to recognise compliance risks by investigating transactions and operations. REAP utilizes revenue information and third-party data to spot when something doesn’t seem right and may hence require examining.
For example: if your business has a gross net revenue that is way too much to earn in your sector.
Special projects: One more method of choosing a firm for audit is the point at which they come surprisingly close to an exceptional project, where Revenue centres around a specific business area, transaction, or trade.
They will mostly pick a sector where non-compliance with government guidelines is high, as this permits them to augment their outcomes.
Randomly choosing a business: Few review cases are chosen arbitrarily every year. They will examine anybody not particularly your business.
Re-auditing: Where Revenue has discovered non-compliance previously, it is probably going to re-investigate the organization again in the future to ensure that things have been corrected.
Closing Note:
If the date confirmed for an audit doesn’t work for you, don’t spare a moment to call Revenue. Also, check if Revenue can change the date.
You must build an individual relationship with the officer(s) taking care of your case. Ask them about what they’d prefer to see when they visit. It will help them see you’re making an effort not to conceal anything.
Talk to a professional accountant & bookkeeper to do all the paperwork on your behalf. Outbooks is a leading accounting & bookkeeping firm in Ireland, feel free to contact and get the best advice on your accounts.