The public consultation process

Note

This consultation is now closed and a report on the Public Consultation process has been published. For more information, please see Report on the public consultation process.

On 10 October 2023, Minister McGrath announced in his Budget Day speech that Revenue would launch a public consultation. This public consultation focused on how digital advances could be used to modernise Ireland’s VAT Invoicing and Reporting System. This initial consultation covered the reform of Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Government (B2G) VAT reporting, supported by eInvoicing.

Modernising Ireland’s domestic VAT Reporting system will make it easier and more seamless for businesses to comply with their VAT reporting obligations. Revenue was also interested in the views of our stakeholders on the development of a new system of digital real-time VAT Reporting in conjunction with mandatory eInvoicing. The stakeholders included businesses, accounting software providers, eInvoicing providers, tax practitioners, accounting firms, bookkeepers, business and industry representative bodies, and all other interested parties.

This public consultation process ran from 13 October 2023 to 31 January 2024. 

The consultation paper provides further context on why this consultation was undertaken.

The consultation questions included two Sections, A and B.

Section A - General consultation questions

The questions in Section A asked for your views on real-time digital VAT reporting and eInvoicing. The views of all respondents were sought and encouraged. These questions were not exhaustive and additional themes that you considered relevant were welcome. You were asked to set out the reasons for your views and provide any evidence which you considered relevant.

Responses and submissions to the consultation questions presented in Section A of this consultation are subject to the provisions of the:

• Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2014
• Access to Information on the Environment (AIE) Regulations 2007-2018
• and
• the Data Protection Act 2018.

The contents of all submissions received in response to the consultation questions in Section A have been published on Revenue’s website. All personal data has been redacted prior to publication.

Section B – Business context

Business taxpayers were encouraged to tell us about their business in Section B. This helped us to understand the context for your responses in Section A and fully appreciate what is important for their business model.

Taxpayer-specific replies in Section B were treated in the strictest confidence and are not subject to release under Freedom of Information legislation. Furthermore, Section 851A Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 (TCA 1997) formalises taxpayer confidentiality and reassures taxpayers that their personal and commercial information disclosed to Revenue is protected against unauthorised disclosure by Revenue to third parties. Your answers may be anonymised and aggregated for the purposes of analysing the profile of business respondents.

Respondents to the consultation in any capacity other than as a taxpayer, for example, as an advisor or representative body, did not need to complete the questions in Section B. Instead, they were asked to provide some context about their organisation and the capacity in which they were contributing to this consultation.

For more information on the outcomes of the consultation, please see Report on the public consultation process.