Editorial Policy

Who produces the content

Content on this site is researched and drafted by Vitor Oliveira Alves, co-founder of D'Emilia Accounting, and reviewed for technical accuracy by Marina Luna Oliveira d'Emilia, a qualified accountant with direct professional experience preparing voluntary disclosures, managing Revenue audits, and calculating penalty and interest liabilities for clients in Ireland.

The penalty framework described on this site is not simple. The distinction between prompted and unprompted voluntary disclosures, the way interest compounds separately from the surcharge, and the mitigation provisions that can reduce a published penalty are matters that require professional understanding to describe accurately. Marina's review ensures that the content reflects the framework as it operates in practice, not only as it appears in a summary description of the rules.

Primary sources

Every factual statement on this site about penalty rates, interest rates, surcharge thresholds, and voluntary disclosure procedures is verified against primary sources:

• Revenue Tax and Duty Manual — Penalties — the authoritative Revenue guidance on the penalty framework, including the categories of non-compliance and the applicable rates
• Revenue Tax and Duty Manual — Interest on Overdue Tax — the current interest rate (8% per annum, charged daily at 0.0219%) and how it is applied to unpaid tax
• Revenue Tax and Duty Manual — Voluntary Disclosures — the conditions for prompted and unprompted disclosures, the applicable penalty rates, and the mitigation provisions
• Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 (as amended) — the underlying legislation governing Revenue's penalty powers
• Finance Acts — amendments to penalty rates, interest rates, or enforcement provisions
• Revenue published enforcement statistics — for context on how the penalty framework operates in practice

Update triggers

The Revenue penalty framework does not change with every Budget, but specific rates, thresholds, and procedural requirements can be amended. Content on this site is reviewed when:

• Finance Act amendments change penalty rates, interest rates, or the conditions for voluntary disclosures
• Revenue TDM updates change the administrative guidance on how penalties are applied
• Revenue public guidance updates on voluntary disclosures or settlement procedures
• Reader corrections identify an error or outdated reference
• Annual review — all core pages are reviewed annually regardless of specific triggers

Given the high stakes of the subject matter — incorrect information about penalty rates could lead a reader to significantly underestimate their liability — we apply a higher standard of verification for this site than for our sites covering less consequential information.

The calculator

The penalty calculator on this site is built on the published Revenue rules for surcharges, interest, and penalty rates. It is designed to produce an indicative estimate — not a precise calculation and not a Revenue determination. The calculator does not account for:

• Revenue's discretion to mitigate penalties in individual cases
• The effect of full versus partial payment at the time of disclosure on penalty rates
• Any negotiated settlement terms
• Circumstances that might move a case into a different penalty category than the one assumed

The editorial approach to the calculator is to make the estimation methodology transparent — so users understand what assumptions are built in and where the estimate might diverge from a real Revenue calculation — rather than presenting a figure without explaining its basis.

Independence

This site is owned by D'Emilia Accounting. We do not accept paid placements. D'Emilia Accounting offers professional services for Revenue compliance situations and we link to demiliaaccounting.ie. That is a genuine commercial interest which we disclose. The editorial content on this site is written to give readers an honest understanding of the penalty framework. We do not overstate the complexity of the subject to make professional help seem more necessary than it is; we also do not understate it in ways that might lead readers to underestimate a genuine Revenue exposure.

Use of AI tools

AI writing tools are used to assist drafting. All content is reviewed by the named authors. Penalty rates, interest rates, and descriptions of the voluntary disclosure framework are verified against Revenue's published Tax and Duty Manuals before publication. AI output is not used as a source for penalty figures or procedural rules.

Last reviewed: July 2026