Form 11 deadline 2026 · Checklist
Everything to have in front of you before you open ROS, grouped by where it lands on the return. Work down it once and the return itself is typing.
Both free, no sign-up, no email address.
Your PPSN and ROS login
A ROS digital certificate expires every two years. Check yours opens now, not on 17 November.
Last year's Form 11, but only if you pay preliminary tax by direct debit
The 105% option is based on your 2024 liability, which is on that return. The 100% option uses your 2025 liability — computed by the return you are filing now, so there is nothing to look up for it.
Your preliminary tax paid for 2025
It is credited against the 2025 balance. Find the amount and the date you paid it.
Local Property Tax up to date
Filed and paid, or on an agreed arrangement. Otherwise a 10% surcharge is added even to a return filed on time.
Every sales invoice raised in 2025
Dated in the year, whether or not the customer paid. The return is on an accounts basis, not a cash basis.
Credit notes issued
They reduce turnover. Left out, your sales figure is overstated.
Receipts from government agencies
GMS and similar go on their own line, 129, not in with ordinary sales.
Other trading income
Grants, insurance recoveries, scrap sales, tax exempt income — line 130.
Purchase invoices and receipts for the full year
One per item of spending. A card statement line is not a substitute for the invoice.
Subcontractor invoices, split RCT from non-RCT
They are two different lines on the form — 135 and 136 — and RCT invoices should carry 0% VAT with the principal self-accounting.
Anything paid for personally
Business spending out of a personal account still counts. It is the most commonly missed deduction.
The business-use share for anything mixed
Motor, phone, home office, broadband. Decide the percentage now and be able to explain it.
Business bank statements, January to December, no gaps
Check the page numbers. A missing page does not announce itself.
Loan and finance agreements
Only the interest is an expense. The capital repayment is not.
Credit card statements
For any card used for business spending, including a personal one.
Drawings for the year
What you took out of the business. Line 146, and not an expense.
Anything bought that lasts — van, tools, laptop, machinery
Not an expense. Wear and tear at 12.5% a year over eight years, restricted to the business-use share.
Assets sold or scrapped during the year
The accounting gain or loss on disposal is adjusted at lines 163 and 164. A balancing charge or allowance is a different thing — it is worked out in the capital allowances computation, not on those lines.
The wear and tear you claimed in earlier years
You need the year each asset entered the pool to know which of the eight years you are in.
Employment income
Your Employment Detail Summary from Revenue, for you and, if jointly assessed, your spouse or civil partner.
Rental income and its expenses
Case V, a separate panel with its own rules.
Deposit interest, dividends, foreign income
DIRT-taxed interest is still returned. Foreign income and accounts have their own panels.
Social welfare payments
Some are taxable and are returned even where no tax was deducted.
Pension contributions
The contribution and the election to backdate it against 2025 must both be made by 31 October 2026 — or by 18 November 2026 if you file and pay through ROS, the same both-halves condition as the return itself.
Health expenses
Relief at 20%, and nursing home costs at your higher rate. Receipts kept for six years.
Tuition fees
Approved courses, subject to a disregard.
The bank agrees with the paperwork
Opening balance, less money out, plus money in, lands on the printed closing balance.
Nothing is in there twice
The same invoice scanned twice, or a till receipt and the month-end invoice for one purchase.
No money out with no document behind it
Every one of those is a deduction you paid tax on and VAT you did not reclaim.
Your VAT3s and RTD agree with these figures
Turnover on the return should reconcile to the VAT returns you already filed.
Form 46G if you paid any one person over €6,000 for services
A separate return, easy to forget, filed from ROS.
Keep the documents for six years from the end of the tax year. Do not send them with the return — Revenue asks for them only on an audit or assurance check.
Every sole trader completes this panel, whatever the turnover. Accounts are not submitted with the return — the totals are typed into these lines. The categories below are the ones in the year-end spreadsheet, each mapped to the line it totals into.
| Category | Form 11 line | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Purchases | 131 | Stock and materials bought for resale or use in the work. |
| Salaries / Wages | 133 | Staff pay. Your own drawings are not an expense — they go to line 146. |
| Additional Staff Costs | 134 | Employer PRSI, staff pension contributions, training. |
| Sub-Contractors (RCT) | 135 | Construction, forestry or meat processing subcontractors inside the RCT system. |
| Other Sub-Contractors | 136 | Subcontractors outside RCT. |
| Consultancy, Professional fees | 137 | Accountant, solicitor, consultant. |
| Motor, Travel and Subsistence | 138 | The private-use share is already taken out by the Business use % column, so line 160 stays blank — do not add it back again. VAT on petrol and most passenger cars is not reclaimable. |
| Repairs / Renewals | 139 | Repairs keep an asset working. An improvement is capital — it belongs on the Capital items tab. |
| Rental Expenses | 140 | Rent for business premises. Rates and insurance are not this line — they fall into Other Expenses. |
| Depreciation (add back) | 141 | Depreciation is not deductible. Wear and tear at 12.5% is claimed instead — see the Capital items tab. |
| Bad debts / Provisions | 142 | Specific bad debts written off. |
| Rates | 143 | Commercial rates. The form has no separate line, so it lands in Other Expenses. |
| Insurance | 143 | Public liability, professional indemnity, business contents. |
| Light, Heat and Phone | 143 | The private share is already taken out by the Business use % column, so line 162 stays blank — do not add it back again. |
| Advertising | 143 | No dedicated line on the form — part of Other Expenses. |
| Bank & payment fees | 143 | Bank charges, card processing fees, payment platform fees. |
| Other Expenses | 143 | Anything allowable with no line of its own. |
| Entertainment (not allowable) | 161 | Client entertainment is not deductible and is added back at line 161. VAT on it is not reclaimable. |
Line numbers are from the Extracts From Accounts [124 - 168] panel of the 2025 Form 11. Revenue reprints the form each year and line numbers can move — check them against the form you are filing.
Related
General information about record-keeping, not tax advice. Your circumstances decide your obligations — check with Revenue or an accountant before you file.