Online tax system success

The taxman has netted more than £1.6bn since an online payment system was introduced a little more than a year ago, it was announced tonight.

Known as the Revenue Online Service (ROS), the hi-tech collection set up has passed the two billion euro mark.

ROS caters for the filing of most business tax returns and also provides 24-hour access to tax details for online customers.

Revenue Commissioners head Dermot Quigley said: ‘‘The significant level of payments received through ROS displays the high level of confidence that Irish businesses have in conducting their business and financial transactions with us via the internet.

‘‘Critically, the success of ROS to date demonstrates that with the appropriate security infrastructure in place - such as digital signatures - businesses in Ireland are happy to conduct business, including financial transactions, over the internet.’’