Deadline looms: Just one more day to pay taxes for 2017

Self-assessed taxpayers need to act now to file and pay tax returns for 2017; deadline is also tomorrow for Form 12 and CAT filings

Self-assessed taxpayers need to pay and file now to avoid late payment penalties. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

Self-assessed taxpayers have just one more day to file and pay their taxes for 2017 or risk late payment penalties and interest.

The final deadline for the Revenue’s ROS online filing system is midnight tomorrow, November 14th. This means that taxpayers will need to file their Form 11, settle their 2017 tax bill, as well as making a preliminary payment for their 2018 taxes, by this date. The deadline for paper returns, October 31st, has already passed.

Late payments attract a “late-filing” surcharge. This surcharge, which is added on to your tax due, runs from 5 per cent of the tax due, or €12,695, whichever is the lesser, if the return is delivered within two months of the filing date. This rises to the lesser of 10 per cent of the tax due, or €63,485, if it is submitted after these two months – January 14th, 2019.

If their income has been steady, then taxpayers should see their tax bills fall for 2017, on the back of tax moves such as an increase in the earned income credit from €550 to €950, and reduction in the universal social charge.

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Landlords will also get some relief but it will be small. In the 2017 budget, then Minister for Finance Michael Noonan increased tax relief on mortgage interest to 80 per cent of the interest paid on borrowings on a rental property, up from 75 per cent previously. This means that a landlord paying €3,900 in mortgage interest a year will save €78 on their 2017 tax bills.

This year more people might find they are obliged to file a Form 11, or self-assessed tax form, for the first time, if they’ve taken on work in the “gig economy”, such as letting a room or property through Airbnb, opened a foreign bank account, or received dividends from shares.

Typically, if you have non-PAYE income of €5,000 or more in a year (that’s up from €3,174 previously), you are what’s known as a “chargeable person”, and will be required to file a Form 11.

Other taxes

People who received gifts or inheritances with valuation dates in the year ended August 31st 2018, also have a due date for capital acquisitions tax (CAT) returns and payment of tomorrow, November 14th.

And, if the Revenue has asked you to file a Form 12, on the back of income earned outside of the PAYE system, the extended deadline for online returns for this form is also November 14th.

Fiona Reddan

Fiona Reddan

Fiona Reddan is a writer specialising in personal finance and is the Home & Design Editor of The Irish Times