Your Money Column by Sean Sweeney
Self-employed workers, company directors and landlords across Ireland are being urged to prepare for the annual Pay and File deadline, which falls on October 31, 2026, as accountants warn that confusion over the system continues to catch taxpayers out every year.
Under Ireland’s self-assessment regime, taxpayers must file their Form 11 Income Tax Return and pay any outstanding tax on the same date, rather than handling the two separately.
For the 2025 tax year, this means filing a return, settling any balance owed for 2025 and making a preliminary tax payment towards 2026, all by the same deadline.
Preliminary tax, an advance payment made before the tax year has even ended, is designed to bring self-employed taxpayers into line with PAYE workers, who pay tax through every payslip. To avoid interest charges, taxpayers must pay at least 90 per cent of their final liability for the current year, or 100 per cent of the previous year’s liability, the option most commonly used because it is simplest to calculate.
Those who file and pay through the Revenue Online Service (ROS), rather than on paper, benefit from an extended deadline.
Revenue has confirmed that for the 2025 tax year, taxpayers using ROS for both filing and payment will have until Wednesday, November 18 2026. Missing either element, filing online but paying by another method, or vice versa, means the extension does not apply.
Not everyone is obliged to file a Form 11. Broadly, those considered “chargeable persons” include the self-employed, company directors holding more than 15 per cent of a company’s shares, landlords and anyone with non-PAYE income exceeding €5,000 net or €30,000 gross.
The consequences of missing the deadline can be significant. A surcharge of 5 per cent of total tax liability, capped at €12,695, applies to returns filed within two months of the deadline, rising to 10 per cent, capped at €63,485, beyond that.
Interest also accrues daily on unpaid tax at a rate of 0.0219 per cent. Filing on time, even without full payment, avoids the surcharge entirely.
The deadline also presents an opportunity rather than simply an obligation. Pension contributions made before the cut-off, whether personal or, for directors, through a business, can be backdated to reduce the previous year’s tax bill.
The same October 31 date also applies to Capital Gains Tax returns.
Given the complexity of preliminary tax calculations, the interaction with pension planning and the strict rules governing the ROS extension, professionals continue to stress that seeking expert advice well ahead of the deadline, rather than in its final days, can make a material difference to what taxpayers ultimately owe and what reliefs they are entitled to claim.
Sean Sweeney, QFA RPA is a Qualified Financial Advisor and Retirement Planning Advisor. You can contact him through Fairstone Letterkenny (formerly John F. Loughrey Financial Services) by telephone on 074-9124002 or by email on [email protected]