**Tax Clearance** A Tax Clearance Certificate is confirmation from Revenue that a person's/entity's tax affairs are in order at the date of issue of the certificate. **eTax Clearance** eTax Clearance was introduced in December 2015. The changes are in line with the legislative provisions of Section 95 of the Finance Act 2014, which provided for 2 key changes processing of tax clearance applications, certificates issued by the Collector-General and verification by third parties, is all in electronic format; and where a taxpayer is found to be non-compliant with their obligations their tax clearance certificate can be rescinded (or withdrawn). eTax Clearance is available to business, PAYE and non-resident customers with a PPSN/Reference number. There is no change to the current process for customers/applicants that are not registered for Irish tax, i.e. non-residents or some community/voluntary groups. These applications will continue to be processed by the Collector General’s Office. Furthermore, eTax Clearance does not apply to Standards in Public Office (SIPO) applicants. Applications in eTax Clearance are processed in real time. Customers who are tax compliant receive a Tax Clearance Access Number, which along with their PPSN/Reference number they give to a third party to verify their tax clearance details. eTax Clearance produces electronic output - in ROS or myAccount - and customers have the facility to print their tax clearance certificate from the screens, if required. Tax clearance will be regularly reviewed and if a customer becomes non-compliant, their electronic tax clearance certificate can be rescinded (withdrawn). Where a customer’s tax clearance certificate is rescinded, and the customer requires tax clearance at a future date, they will have to reapply online for tax clearance. The new eTax Clearance system was available from 7 December 2015 and applicants could apply for electronic tax clearance from that date. **Verifying an eTax Clearance Certificate** Third party users are able to verify an eTax Clearance Certificate via ROS or the Government Networks. Most third parties are verifying tax clearance on ROS; and it is possible to verify a single case or to verify a list of cases in a bulk upload. To access ROS you need to be registered for ROS. ROS customers may, if they wish, create ROS sub-certs for other users in their organisation who may only need ROS access to verify tax clearance. Only a ROS administrator can create ROS sub-cert user for its own ROS account. If you are not yet registered, see register for ROS to obtain your ROS digi-cert in 3 easy steps. Once registered for ROS, you can access Verify Tax Clearance from the ‘My Services’ tab in ROS. You will be prompted to input the tax reference number and tax clearance access number of the case you need to verify - then select 'Verify'. If you are verifying a number of cases on a regular basis, it will be easier to use the bulk upload facility (select the ‘Upload’ button and ‘Verify’ button). The file format for the bulk upload is a .csv file. The file structure is 2 fields: for Tax Reference Number and Tax Clearance Access Number. The File Specification document is available: pdfElectronic Tax Clearance Verification (PDF, 348KB). **Verifying paper tax clearance certificates** The transition period from paper clearance certificates (which have a specified end-date on the certificate) to eTax Clearance (which is subject to ongoing review and is therefore not end-dated) is during the first 6 months of 2016. Paper tax certificates issued in the period from 1/7/15 to 30/9/15 have an end-date of 31/3/16; and certificates issued in the period from 1/10/15 to 31/12/15 have an end-date of 30/6/16. Applications outside the scope of eTax Clearance The only exceptions to using eTax Clearance are: 1. non-resident applicants who have no Tax Registration Number in this state, 2. non e-enabled applicants. 3. non-registered voluntary bodies e.g. tidy towns committees Completed Forms should be returned to Office of the Collector-General, Sarsfield House, Francis Street, Limerick (re (ii) non-resident applicants), or the local Revenue District (re (iii) and (iv) non e-enabled applicants or non-registered voluntary bodies). 4. tax clearance certificates in relation to the Standards in Public Office Act (SIPO) 2001, Completed Forms should be returned to Office of the Collector-General, Sarsfield House, Francis Street, Limerick.