Opinion: Expect more focused Revenue audits this year, and beyond. Bolstered by its heady successes in bringing tax defaulters to account, and substantially bolstering tax revenue, it is now to carry out more vigorous audits.

The mere thought of Revenue audits is enough to cause fear and trepidation. A Revenue audit usually starts with the tax inspector inviting the taxpayer to admit to any wrongdoings.

A business which went through this scenario likened it to being stopped at a Garda checkpoint, knowing that the tax and insurance are in order, but feeling fearful that something untoward will be found that you are unaware of.

However, Revenue audits are essential as they are designed to rout out the tax cheats and not to penalise the compliant taxpayers who make genuine mistakes.

A short paragraph in the latest Revenue's annual report said it has "reconsidered the effectiveness and objective of its random audit programme and has adopted a more effective random audit approach for 2005". Up to now, they have not been statistically random sampled; rather they have been left to the district inspector to decide which company to audit.

In a telling report, the Public Accounts Committee (Pac) noted that the Revenue's policy of selecting cases for random audits changed from year to year.

Also the direction was to screen cases to reduce the number producing a nil yield. That was understandable but now it is expected to be really random; that makes a lot more sense as no one will be excluded.

The annual report for 2004, published last month, reveals just how important these audits are. In total 16,321 audits were completed - a little up from the previous year - and they yielded a whopping €549.6 million.

That was 28 per cent higher than in the previous year, and more than double the level in 2002. That is bound to continue upward until (if ever) we have a relatively tax compliant regime.

A breakdown of the audit figures reveals that there were 4,058 comprehensive audits (under all tax headings). Verification audits (these mainly target taxpayers exercising share options), amounting to 6,103, were the highest, but yielded just €76 million, down from the yield of €86.8 million in 2003. VAT audits were also among the most popular for the Revenue and totalled 2,776.

These audits, of course, are part of the Revenues pursuit of taxes due and which has been an outstanding success. Indeed, it must be accorded an accolade as the most successful of the State organisations.

Equally important is the Revenue's ability to sell itself as a pro-consumer body. But in terms of data provided on customer service standards, it has to be said that the Revenue has taken a step backwards. Up to the latest results it provided comprehensive information under 26 headings. This has now been whittled down to seven.

The alteration reflects the Government launch of a customer charter initiative for all departments and offices.

"The new charter" the Revenue explains "is intended to reflect the mutual expectations of Revenue and its customers...".

Now everything is lumped into one category (returns, declarations and applications).

Also, the category dealing with general correspondence had been broken down into two headings;: routine and complex matters. These are now lumped together.

Because of the new standards, the figures are not comparable with previous years, so judgements cannot be made on the trend of customer services.

The diminution in the information provided by the Revenue on customer service standards must be regarded as a retrograde step.

Granted it is designed to standardise the data for all state bodies. However, would it not have been better to have aspired to the previous high standard set by the Revenue rather than settle for something less?