Ms Cora O'Brien:

We have surveyed and spoken to our members and they have told us of their serious concerns about the changes proposed. Ninety per cent of our members said that small businesses would suffer major cash flow problems, and two thirds said that business activity would be reduced, in some cases even to the point of closure. It would be extremely difficult for businesses to pay 90% of their full year's tax liability earlier than the current October or November dates.

As well as the cash flow problems my colleague has spoken about, there would also have been a great deal of risk in introducing these changes for a number of parties - taxpayers, advisers and Revenue, but also the Exchequer. We have talked about the financial consequences for taxpayers of getting the return wrong - interest, penalties, the risk of an audit. Tax advisers would have lost accuracy in the preparation of returns in a shorter timeframe, and Revenue would have had to deal with many more amendments to returns as taxpayers try to rectify errors after the event. For the Exchequer, there would have been more and not less uncertainty from the proposed move.