As we all know, taxes are financial levies imposed upon the taxpayers by the state. Failure to pay your taxes on time or deliberately evading them is punishable by law. Therefore persons who deliberately evade taxes are punished by imprisonment of up to 5 years or fines of €250,000 for individuals (and 500,000 for corporations). It is of high importance to have all your tax forms submitted and paid on or before the tax pay day arrives.
In Ireland, businesses pay corporation tax on the company’s profits which include both income and chargeable gains. Company’s income is calculated in accordance with income tax rules and chargeable gains are calculated in accordance with Capital Gains Tax rules.
There are two rates of Corporation Tax:
- 12.5% for trading income.
- 25% for non trading income (investment income)
In order to pay corporation taxes in Ireland, companies use a self assessment system known as ‘Pay & File’. The obligations of a company with regard to paying Corporation Tax and filing its returns are as follows:
Firstly, a company must pay its preliminary corporation tax before the specified date. Nowadays it is normally done via ROS (Revenue Online Services). This is Revenue’s strategy to establish the use of an electronic channel as the prefereed way way of conducting tax business. It is a secure online facility available 24/7, making it very convenient to pay your taxes quickly and safely.
Secondly, companies must complete and file a Form CT1 and, where applicable, also a Form 46G, both of which are available via ROS as well.
And lastly, companies must ensure online payment of any balance of tax due when lodging the return within 9 months of the accounting period.
According to Revenue, new and start-up companies are not obliged to pay preliminary taxes if their corporation tax liability is €200,000 or less for their first accounting period, but they will have to pay their final corporation tax liability and they are required to submit their corporate tax returns (online).
Revenue Commisioners (Irish Tax Office) have undertaken quite a progressive strategy, technologically, by making it mandatory for most businesses to pay and file their taxes online using R.O.S.
Submitting the right documents to your accountant can take a considerable amount of time. In a bid to decrease this timely process, PlanetVerify have developed an app that lets you do that instantly. Once your accountant sends the list of required documents, PlanetVerify customers simply photograph these documents and submit the photos via the app. The documents will then be sent through a secure channel and stored encrypted in one place. PlanetVerify is fully EU GDPR compliant, so you know where your data is going.
Learn more about the app here.
