It’s a race against time for some self-employed taxpayers around the country today, as the deadline for income tax returns for 2013 runs out at midnight tonight. Last year more than one quarter of small tax payer filed their returns late.

In order to meet the deadline, customers must file their 2013 Form 11 return and make the appropriate payment through the Revenue Commissioner’s electronic filing service, ROS, for preliminary tax for 2014, and the balance for income tax in 2013.

Failure to do so runs the risk of incurring interest and penalties on their tax liability, as well as increasing the likelihood of being audited. Revenue imposes a surcharge of 5 per cent if you are less than two months late in filing your tax return, rising to 10 per cent thereafter.

The deadline for customers who file their returns by paper passed at the end of October. Last year the Revenue said that 91 per cent of income tax returns were filed electronically, with just 46,000 paper returns received. Last year almost three quarters of customers with a tax liability of € 75,000 or less filed on-time, increasing to 89 per cent for those with a liability of between €75,000 and €500,000. Within a month of last year’s deadline, 83 per cent of those in the under-€75,000 category had paid.

Remember, if you wish to pay by credit card Revenue will make you pay a transaction charge of 1.1 per cent of the value of the payment - so a tax liability of €30,000 will result in an additional payment of €330 -plus potentially greater interest fees from your bank if you don’t settle your credit card account in time. No such charge applies to debit cards or direct debit.

If you find that you are due a refund for 2013 and want to use this to offset against your preliminary tax for 2014 or capital gains tax bill, you must complete the statement of Net Liabilities. Revenue recommends that this statement and the Form 11 should “ideally” be filed on the same day.

Bear in mind also that if you have yet to pay your local property tax a surcharge of 10 per cent will be applied to the final liability, subject to a maximum amount of € 63,485.

If you have yet to register for ROS, or if you need a new digital certificate, you may find that it will be impossible to meet today’s deadline, as it can take up to 10 working days for Revenue to process these.

If you have any queries about today's deadline you can contact Revenue here on 1890 201 106 (+353 1702 3021) or email roshelp@revenue.ie. Revenue's helpline will be open until midnight tonight.