Much like the proverbial buses, there were a number of tax-related announcements this week:

1 – Revenue have announced an extension for personal tax and Capital Acquisition Tax returns by four weeks to 10 December. This is good news of course, particularly for those struggling with COVID related issues. However be careful – the extension only applies to those that pay AND file online, otherwise the deadline is 31 October. If you are not in a position to pay the full tax arising, Revenue may well deem that a return filed online with only partial online payment is therefore late and potentially subject to surcharge. In such a case, a submission on or before 31 October would be advisable.

2 – The basis for valuing properties for Local Property Tax for 2021 was due to be updated. This will not now happen for at least another year. Therefore tax-payers can continue to rely on the 2013 values as originally provided. It seems that that the logistical issues surrounding a fair system of valuing properties is not possible at this time. Again this is probably good news for most people as the 2013 values were generally on the low side.

3 – On Thursday this week Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe confirmed there would be no changes to personal tax rates, PRSI or USC, again good news. Whether this will be offset by other tax rate hikes / restrictions of relief remains to be seen – one would hope that at the very least, Capital Gains Tax reliefs such as Retirement Relief and Entrepreneur Relief will not be curtailed at the very time businesses need encouragement to grow.