Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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162. To ask the Minister for Finance the rationale for Revenue changing the operation and scope of the compliance assurance programme, making specific reference as to why the compliance assurance programme will no longer cover the large corporation division, high-wealth and financial services division, and the medium enterprise division, instead targeting exclusively at small business and personal division; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5257/25]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by Revenue that the overall objective of the compliance assurance programme is to validate Revenue’s risk analysis and intervention targeting systems by examining a small number of cases not otherwise selected. Revenue has operated such an assurance programme for many years.

Revenue is currently working on the refinement of the scope and sampling approach for its 2025 compliance assurance programmes and I am informed that the scope of future programmes will be limited to taxpayers whose affairs are dealt with by its Business and Personal Divisions. Revenue advises that this approach reflects its organisational structure, revised in 2018 and further refined in 2024.

A key aspect of Revenue’s revised structure is to devote significant resources to assuring the tax compliance of the largest and highest risk taxpayers in the State. The taxpayers managed by the three Divisions noted by the Deputy, are all subject to individual risk appraisal on a regular basis, therefore Revenue advises that a compliance assurance programme is not necessary.

By comparison, the higher volumes of cases managed by the Business and Personal Divisions cannot, for reasons of resource efficiency, be subjected to the same level of individual appraisal and the selection of cases for compliance intervention must rely, to a considerable extent, on risk analysis software tools. It is intended that Revenue's revised compliance assurance programme will both assure and strengthen of the effectiveness of those tools by examining cases not otherwise selected and potentially identifying new areas of risk.