Revenue has agreed to further extend the filing deadline for returns of information for Approved Profit Sharing Schemes. It comes after IPSA highlighted problems with Revenue’s new online filing system and the challenges faced by companies due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The deadline for filing 2019 ESS1 forms has been extended to 31 August 2020. ESS1 is the return of information by the trustee of an Approved Profit Sharing Scheme. Prior to this year, all ESS1s had been filed in hard copy form. However, in February, Revenue announced the move from paper returns to online filing of the forms, via the ROS system, with a deadline of June 30.
IPSA requested an extension from Revenue after it became apparent that alongside the challenges of remote working due to the Covid-19 lockdown, trustees and plan administrators were also encountering additional problems with Revenue’s new system for filing ESS1s.
‘Positive outcome’: IPSA Council member Nigel Derrick
In order to file the return of information, many APSS trusts needed to apply for a Tax Registration Number (via TR1 form) in order to set-up each scheme/trust on the ROS system.
However, there has been an inconsistent approach by Revenue to processing TR1 forms. Some trustees and plan administrators have had TR1s were rejected despite those forms containing the same information in the same format as other TR1 forms for which tax numbers were issued.
IPSA raised this issue on behalf of our members and the employee share scheme industry and Revenue issued an apology and confirmation that a consistent approach would be adopted going forward.
Revenue initially rejected an extension of the deadline but after IPSA highlighted further issues with the ROS system that had been identified by our members – such as Revenue file format rejecting – Revenue last week agreed to extend the deadline from 30th June to 31st August.
IPSA’s service providers will continue to complete Tax Number & ROS registrations and work through the online filing format issues.
IPSA Council member, and former Chair, Nigel Derrick said: “This is a really positive outcome. It will come as a relief to many service providers that Revenue has agreed to extend the deadline for filing ESS1 forms. The move to online filing coincided with all the challenges associated with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic – both for APSS service providers and Revenue itself – and meant that meeting deadline which was not feasible for the industry.
“Fortunately, we were in a position to explain the issues identified by our members and, because of the strong working relationship we have with government, Revenue engaged with IPSA, listened to our concerns, and responded in a manner that ensures the best outcome for share scheme providers and their companies they represent.”
