Revenue Estimated Tax Notice: What To Do If You Missed Your 2024 Tax Return

A Revenue estimated tax notice is a bill for income tax that Revenue works out itself when a return has not been filed. It is not based on what you actually earned, and there is no appeal. You have 30 days to put it right.

Revenue has started sending these notices to non-PAYE taxpayers who did not file a 2024 income tax return. The Irish Tax Institute has put the number affected at more than 80,000.

If one has arrived in your ROS inbox or your letterbox, contact us today. In most cases it is straightforward to sort out.

The short version

• The estimate is the higher of €1,000 or the average tax on your last two filed returns
• You have 30 days from the date on the notice
• There is no appeal. Filing the return replaces the estimate with your real figure
• If you are no longer a chargeable person, you cancel the registration instead
• A late 2024 return carries a 10% surcharge, and interest runs at roughly 8% a year

What is a Revenue estimated tax notice?

Revenue can now estimate your income tax where a return has not been filed by the due date. The power sits in Section 959AX of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997, added by Finance Act 2025, and it works the same way the VAT estimate system has worked for years.

Revenue no longer waits for the return to arrive. It works out a figure, writes to you with it, and gives you 30 days. If you have an active ROS digital certificate the notice goes to your ROS inbox. Otherwise it comes in the post.

An estimate can cover more than one year, so if you have a few years outstanding you may get more than one notice.

How does Revenue work out the figure?

Revenue does not look at your 2024 income at all. It uses a set formula. The estimate is the higher of:

• €1,000, or
• the average tax liability on your two most recently filed returns

Revenue's own example: two returns showing €15,000 and €10,000 average out at €12,500, so the estimate is €12,500. If you have never filed a return, the estimate is €1,000.

The figure is not meant to match what you owe. It can land well above the real number if your income dropped or you stopped trading, and it can land well below it. Either way, the return still has to be filed.

Can you appeal a Revenue estimate?

No. Revenue's guidance says the estimate cannot be appealed. There are two ways to get rid of it.

1. File the return and pay. File the missing return for the year named on the notice through ROS, and pay the tax due along with any interest, penalties and late filing surcharge, within the 30 days. Your real liability then replaces the estimate.

2. Cancel the registration. If you stopped trading, sold the rental property or resigned the directorship, you should not be registered for income tax at all. You can cancel it through ROS under Manage Tax Registrations, or with a Form TRCN1. Cancelling does not remove a return you were obliged to file, so any open year still needs to be dealt with.

What happens after the 30 days?

The estimate becomes enforceable, which means Revenue can collect it as if you had filed a return showing that amount and not paid it.

Collection is handled by the Collector General's Division. The options open to Revenue include attaching a personal bank account, referring the debt to the Sheriff, and legal proceedings. Interest and penalties keep running until the return is filed.

What does a late 2024 return cost?

Filing clears the estimate, but two charges still apply.

Late filing surcharge

Under Section 1084 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997:

• Filed within two months of the deadline: 5% of the liability, capped at €12,695
• Filed more than two months late: 10% of the liability, capped at €63,485

The 2024 return was due on 31 October 2025, or 19 November 2025 for anyone who filed and paid through ROS. A return filed now falls into the 10% band. The surcharge applies even where the tax itself was paid on time.

Interest

Interest runs at 0.0219% a day, which works out at roughly 8% a year, from the original due date. On a €10,000 balance outstanding since October 2025 that comes to somewhere around €700 so far.

Why does the notice mention VAT?

Accountants have noticed that the cover page refers to VAT several times even where the demand is for income tax. It is left over from the VAT template the new system was built on.

So if you have never been VAT registered, the notice is not a mistake. Check the tax head in the body of the letter, and treat the 30 days as running.

Who is getting these notices?

They are going to non-PAYE taxpayers, which in practice means:

• Landlords with Irish or foreign rental income who stopped filing
• Sole traders and contractors who wound down but left the registration open
• Proprietary directors, who are chargeable persons because of the shareholding
• People who moved abroad and assumed the Irish filing obligation ended there
• Anyone with RSUs, share options or crypto disposals who registered in an earlier year and then went quiet
• Retired or ceased traders who never formally deregistered

In each case there is an income tax registration still sitting open on Revenue's system. While it is open, Revenue expects a return every year, and not filing one is now enough on its own to produce a demand.

What to do

1. Find the notice and check which years it covers. The 30 days runs from the date on it, and more than one year can mean more than one notice.
2. Work out whether you were a chargeable person for 2024. That decides whether you file or cancel the registration.
3. Pull your 2024 records together. Income, expenses, rental statements, broker statements, pension contributions, medical expenses.
4. File the return. The estimate goes as soon as a valid return is on the system.
5. Look at 2023 and 2022 while you are at it. If one year slipped, others often did. Our free tax review will tell you where you stand.

There is usually more in this than a bill. Rent tax credit, medical expenses, remote working relief, pension relief and capital allowances are all commonly missed by people who stopped filing, so a properly prepared return often comes out far closer to break-even than the estimate suggested. Sometimes it produces a refund.

How we can help

We deal with this every week. We will check whether you need to file or cancel the registration, prepare and file whatever years are outstanding, claim the reliefs you are entitled to, and deal with Revenue and the Collector General for you.

Contact us today, or email the notice to damien@irishtaxhub.ie. We will tell you, at no charge, what needs to happen and what it is likely to cost.

Sources

• Revenue: Estimates for Income Tax and Corporation Tax
• Revenue: Calculating the estimate figure
• Revenue: Enforcement and displacement of Revenue estimates
• Revenue: Estimate displaced by filing a return
• Revenue Tax and Duty Manual Part 47-06-08: Surcharge for late submission of returns
• Revenue: Pay and file campaign