I understand the answer to my question here depends on the complexity of my company and it's affairs but maybe someone can give me an idea of what time frame to expect for a revenue audit.
My company received a letter from Revenue to say the company would be inspected in 3 weeks time for all tax affairs for two consecutive years.
I had 2 revenue officials arrive at the business and the meeting took no more than 1 hour. Everything seemed fine.
They then went on to my book keeper and spent the day quizzing on every single payment made and received by the company.
Again all seemed fine and I believe my book keeper is good. They noted that €300 odd by incorrectly claiming back VAT on a payment was the only liability.
They came back to where I work a few weeks later to look at my cash register. A week after that again to look at my computer where invoices are processed.
Then some email communication between them and my auditor to understand the structure of the company and it's annual return.
That was fine for a few months until they returned to say one of the revenue officials inspecting was switched to a different department and another was taking over. He wanted all data to be downloaded onto a USB stick and said that this was all part of the new e-audit procedure.
Okay fair enough. Certainly not in a position to argue here and so back they go the book keeper.
The problem is this is now going on 9 months and I'm fed up with it all. Fees have to be paid to my book keeper and accountant for correspondence and meetings. My book keeper is tired of it. Got an answer from revenue after saying that this was going on quite a while "that the audit procedure had only switched to e-auditing during my audit therefore they had to return".
So my question is; is this a lengthy time for an audit or is this the norm?
My company received a letter from Revenue to say the company would be inspected in 3 weeks time for all tax affairs for two consecutive years.
I had 2 revenue officials arrive at the business and the meeting took no more than 1 hour. Everything seemed fine.
They then went on to my book keeper and spent the day quizzing on every single payment made and received by the company.
Again all seemed fine and I believe my book keeper is good. They noted that €300 odd by incorrectly claiming back VAT on a payment was the only liability.
They came back to where I work a few weeks later to look at my cash register. A week after that again to look at my computer where invoices are processed.
Then some email communication between them and my auditor to understand the structure of the company and it's annual return.
That was fine for a few months until they returned to say one of the revenue officials inspecting was switched to a different department and another was taking over. He wanted all data to be downloaded onto a USB stick and said that this was all part of the new e-audit procedure.
Okay fair enough. Certainly not in a position to argue here and so back they go the book keeper.
The problem is this is now going on 9 months and I'm fed up with it all. Fees have to be paid to my book keeper and accountant for correspondence and meetings. My book keeper is tired of it. Got an answer from revenue after saying that this was going on quite a while "that the audit procedure had only switched to e-auditing during my audit therefore they had to return".
So my question is; is this a lengthy time for an audit or is this the norm?