Revenue's 291,000 tax audits and interventions brought in €734m last year

Exchequer returns for 2025 show receipts of €106bn in taxes and duties

Wed, 07 Jan, 2026 - 15:06

Martin Claffey

Audits and compliance interventions by Ireland's tax authorities brought in €734m in 2025 while 189 tax avoidance cases yielded a further €41.7m, figures released by Revenue on Wednesday showed.

Revenue published its preliminary results for 2025 which showed Exchequer returns for 2025 show receipts of €106bn in taxes and duties. Some €36.57bn came from income tax with €34.66bn coming from corporation tax. Value added tax (vat) accounted for €22.9bn.

In addition, Revenue collected over €34bn on behalf of other departments, agencies, and EU member states, including €19.45bn of PRSI contributions.

Over the year, Revenue completed over 291,600 audits and compliance interventions, which brought in €734m, settled 189 tax avoidance cases yielding €41.7m, and secured 204 criminal convictions for tax evasion offences with fines totalling €340,000. Revenue also published 113 settlements in the list of tax defaulters.

“Timely compliance rates remained strong in 2025, with voluntary compliance delivering rates of 99% for large and medium cases and 92% across all other cases," said Revenue chair Niall Cody.

Some 60.2m customs declarations were processed by Revenue, of which 45.2m were in respect of imports from Britain. Customs duty of €617m was collected, of which €265.7m came from imports from Britain.

In addition to tobacco and drugs, Revenue also targeted consignments of nitrous oxide - commonly known as laughing gas - intended for misuse, seizing products with an estimated value of €1.3m in 2025.

In 2025, teams seized over 46.9m cigarettes and 39,100kgs of drugs, with an estimated value of €191.1m. Revenue director general of customs Ruth Kennedy said 2025 recorded the second highest cocaine seizures of the past decade, surpassed only by 2023 when €157m of cocaine was seized on board MV Matthew.

During 2025, Revenue launched a new Cosaint, a new customs sea vessel.

Revenue’s digital services continued to be the primary channel through which individuals and businesses engaged with the tax system. During the year, Revenue’s digital services processed over 87m transactions. Revenue services took 1.8m phone calls.

Revenue noted strong compliance rates among taxpayers repaying covid warehoused debt through phased payment arrangements (PPAs), with 95% of the 12,700 arrangements being honoured, and monthly payments averaging €23m.

Revenue launched its Local Property Tax (LPT) revaluation campaign last year. The new LPT rates apply from 2026 to 2030, and Revenue commissioner Maura Kiely said there has been a strong response. Property owners are due to submit their LPT return and arrange payment by Friday (January 9) unless they have taken the option to select an annual debit authority which will be collected on March 20.

Following a Supreme Court judgment taken in 2023 which found that Domino's Pizza delivery drivers were employees, not contractors, Revenue has provided employers with an opportunity to regularise bona-fide misclassification of employees for 2024 and 2025 without penalty or interest. The deadline to avail of the disclosure opportunity is January 30.