Revenue focus areas for 2026 came from a meeting between Revenue and the Irish Tax Institute [ITI]. This meeting took place in late January. It’s an annual meeting between the Personal Division of Revenue and the ITI. The personal division covers all PAYE taxpayers, non-trading entities, trusts, and non-profit organisations. Key focus areas include Local Property Tax [LPT], Stamp Duty, tax credits, and refunds.
The personal division also looks after Capital Gains Tax service delivery.
The main points we will look at are
- Tax refunds for 2025
- Capital Gains Tax areas
- Compliance focus areas
- Local Property Tax
- Summary
Tax refunds for 2025
Tax refunds for 2025 of €428 million have been issued, with underpayments of €13 million. This is from 571,000 statements of liability for 2025 at the end of January 2026. In relation to claim numbers, there were
- 162,000 medical expense claims
- 56,000 remote working relief claims and
- 103,000 flat rate expense claims
Looking at the numbers, the average refund is about €750. Some will be a lot lower, while others will be much higher. I noticed this earlier in the week when we filed a tax return for a company director. Apart from salary and bonus from his company, he had other untaxed income from rents and a dividend. His tax liability on that income should have been €21,250. His final tax liability was €17,800. We were able to claim extra tax credits and expenses to the value of €3,450 as follows
| Tax liability on rents and dividends | €21,250 |
| Less Medical expenses credit | (€179) |
| Mortgage interest credit | (€640) |
| Landlord tax credit | (€800) |
| Rent tax credit | (€1,624) |
| Flat rate expenses | (€207) |
| Final tax liability | €17,800 |
Many millions go unclaimed every year, and there are many reasons for that. Fear of Revenue, complexity of returns, lack of IT skills and just not knowing. A telling comment in the notes is
“Despite Revenue communications to many taxpayers indicating a refund may be due and encouraging them to file an income tax return, many taxpayers do not file a tax return.”
So, Revenue are telling you that they owe you money and you are leaving it with them. We found that a few non-resident clients were due large refunds in the year of departure.
PAYE Underpayments
With PAYE underpayments, Revenue will usually collect these repayments over four years. You get a statement of liability for 2025 in early 2026 showing you owe €1,000 to Revenue. They will collect that by reducing your tax credits by €250 a year for each year from 2027 to 2030. You can also clear that liability through your myAccount, so you’re not kicking the can down the road.
This gets a bit messy if you are in a constant underpayment position. Roll forward to the start of 2027, and you owe Revenue €1000 for 2026, too. They will reduce your tax credits by €250 for each of 2028, 2029, 2030 and 2031. As a result, you’ll have an extra €500 in tax in 2028, 2029, and 2030.
Capital Gains Tax Areas
One of the CGT areas highlighted was claims for Principal Private Residence [PPR] relief. Revenue identified cases where relief was claimed but not due. Other areas of concern included
- Submission of CGT clearance when the value is under the threshold
- Increase in a loss to create no gain
- CGT details are not on the Form 11 when they should be
- CG1 forms submitted unsigned
- Computation not included with a non-residence vendor clearance application
- Use of the paper CG50 when the online form is more efficient
- Payment made to the incorrect year, and then an offset must be made
- Surcharge removal requested for Income Tax and CGT, made separately when they should be made at the same time.
The institute noted that the different CGT payment dates confuses taxpayers. They recommended a single payment date to the Minister of Finance after the end of the tax year.
Tax defaulter’s list
Looking at the latest tax defaulters’ list, there were 25 cases published worth €7.9 million to Revenue. Of these 25 cases, five related to CGT. Four of those were for the non-declaration of CGT, and the other one was for undeclaration. Three were company directors/landlords. One was a property development company, and the other was a cryptocurrency investor.
The landlords and property company didn’t declare and pay the CGT owed on property sales. They fall under the heading “Non-declaration of Capital Gains Tax”. The cryptocurrency guy landed himself a bill of €155,030 for under declaring his CGT.
From a tax advisor’s viewpoint, it seems crazy that you wouldn’t declare and pay the CGT owed on a property sale. After all, you have the money. And Revenue know you sold the property. The sale is on the property register. Revenue will also have a stamp duty return with the buyer and seller’s details and the value of the sale.
Compliance Focus Areas
Some of the usual compliance focus areas appear in the notes to include
- The rental sector
- Charities and sports bodies and
- Capital Taxes non-filers
Rental Sector
Revenue confirmed that in the rental sector, “egregious behaviour” and “off the radar” landlords are key areas of interest. I admit I wasn’t exactly sure of the meaning of the word egregious, although I know it isn’t a positive thing! Sticking it into Google, it comes up as
“something that is remarkably bad, shocking, or flagrant”
So, if you bought a kettle for your rental and put it into repairs and not capital allowances, don’t worry! These are the landlords that are not paying any tax, declaring the rent or under declaring both. It sounds more like a blatant disregard for the tax laws. Revenue will have access to all sorts of third-party information. They know and will be coming for those involved.
One such landlord has his name in lights in the recent defaulter’s list. His address is Valencia, Spain, and his occupation is landlord. He owes €189,000 in tax, interest and penalties and hasn’t paid a euro of it. I’m off to Valencia in a few weeks and can track him down for you, if the price is right.
Charities and Sports Bodies
The notes mentioned compliance activities relating to the Charitable Donations Scheme. Revenue will seek proof of payment of the donation and examine the accuracy of the claim. They are also looking at VAT and PAYE compliance for charities and sports bodies. Hot topics would include the classification of self-employed and employees. This would be post the disclosure scheme that ended last January.
Sports bodies with gyms and/or bars will be mindful of registration requirements for VAT.
Capital Taxes Non-filers
We touched on this above in relation to CGT and tax defaulters. It also applies to Gift/Inheritance Tax, known as CAT. It even covers individuals who could have no CAT liability but should file a CAT return. Such individuals are not following the 80% rule. This is where the value of the gift or inheritance exceeds 80% of the relevant group threshold. In these cases, the rule is you must file a CAT return.
Local Property Tax
This tax isn’t too expensive for most people. I know people hate paying it, but boy, does it cause problems if you don’t. And it’s not even the payment at times. It could be the lack of filing a return. There is a view that “sure everything is grand” because Revenue deduct this from my salary every month, but. There’s always a but! You must file your LPT returns, too. The LPT return for the period 2026 to 2030 was due on the 12th of November 2025.
It’s a tax that we don’t have any visibility over, except in a few cases. Our clients complete an annual checklist before we file their tax return. We ask the question on that if their LPT returns and payments are up to date. Their answer is always Yes. Then you download their Income Tax or Corporation Tax return and see there’s an issue. Don’t get me wrong, this warning message is great, but your heart sinks when you see it. It’s back to the client to sort out before filing the return. Otherwise, there’s a world of pain. Reading the notes, I realise the world of pain that I was thinking of could only be the tip of the iceberg!
Revenue issued 1.5 million letters last September in advance of the revaluation date of 1 November 2025. At the end of January, about 80% of the LPT returns have been filed. There are over 200,000 properties where LPT has been paid but no return filed.
“Property owners are not fully in compliance with their LPT requirements in the absence of filing a return.”
A payment compliance campaign will begin this month. Revenue will write to property owners who are employees. and if they don’t receive a reply will deduct the payment from their employment income
LPT Surcharge
An LPT surcharge will apply when the Income Tax/Corporation/CGT return is filed. And interest will also apply. Another problem for taxpayers is that the LPT remains a charge on property. That property can’t be sold, gifted or inherited until you pay the LPT.
High Value properties
High value property owners not compliant with LPT, watch out. These properties get specific mention in the notes
“High value properties, for example, properties in band 20, may be of focus together with a risk-based approach”
This “risk-based approach” is very interesting, and they elaborate further to confirm they’ll look into
- Who owns the property
- Whether CAT issues arise
- Maintenance of the property and any related PAYE issues.
They confirm that “this rigorous approach will involve both audits and investigations.” And a further comment is even more concerning
“LPT can serve as an entry point to a whole case review of a taxpayer’s compliance.”
Vacant Homes Tax
The yield and number of properties in the Vacant Homes Tax net is small. However, Revenue confirmed they will conduct a significant project to ensure compliance. Property owners should keep records to show occupancy or tenancy. The current VHT rate is seven times the LPT liability.
Summary
You’ll see from the above and the tax defaulter’s list that Revenue are going after tax evasion. Those who are not paying their taxes. Those who are under-declaring their income, whether they are in a company or not. This leads to a reduction in Income Tax, corporation tax and VAT in some cases. If you are a compliant taxpayer, there’s nothing to worry about.
One of the issues is a lack of awareness. You think you are compliant, but you’re not. You may need to file an LPT return even though you continue to pay the tax. Or you aren’t aware that you need to file a CAT return. The value of the gift or inheritance you received exceeds 80% of the group threshold. I have never seen interest charged on LPT before, so that’s new to me. As is the “whole case approach” for high-value properties. It shows that maintaining good tax compliance is very valuable.
I hope this information about Revenue Focus Areas for 2026 is helpful to you. The key message is to stay in Revenue’s good books. Not doing that can be expensive and painful. You can end up paying what you should have paid in the first place, and more on top of that.
Do you and your business need help to be as tax-efficient as possible? If so, start here
