Revenue is looking at ways to cut back on posting letters to taxpayers and to make more use of “robotics” and artificial intelligence (AI) to deal with queries.
The tax authority is reviewing its postage practices, which cost around €14.8 million in 2025. It also plans to make greater use of its online platform to send important tax documents to millions of taxpayers each year.
Budget documents published alongside Budget 2027 last week said Revenue was “developing new systems and processes to transition” some customers to “digital-only” communication methods. However, a Revenue spokeswoman told The Irish Times that its work is focused on a “digital-first approach, rather than digital-only communications.” This, she said, means “prioritising digital correspondence where appropriate, while continuing to provide postal communications where necessary.”
The first people affected will be taxpayers who already have an account with Revenue’s online service, MyAccount, but still receive letters by post. About 4.6 million people are registered for MyAccount.
Two types of document have been identified as particular areas of focus. Tax credit certificates and statements of liability are sent out in large numbers every year. In 2025, Revenue sent 1.4 million tax credit certificates and more than 600,000 statements of liability, at a total cost of about €3.7 million.
Revenue’s postal volumes are significant. It issued almost 10 million postal items in 2025, equal to a little over 3.4% of all the letters delivered by An Post that year, according to An Post’s annual report.
An Post said the move to digital communications has “been the reality” for more than a decade across Government. A spokeswoman said the commitment to e-government has been part of Government policy “over several administrations,” and that this has pushed An Post to transform into a major ecommerce parcel and logistics company. She said An Post is reviewing its strategic priorities to decide where to focus future investment, and is “hugely ambitious” about opportunities to expand and modernise in a digital world.
Revenue’s push towards digital services is not new. Its Annual Report 2025 describes a “digital-first business model” and records 26.5 million logins to MyAccount and 24.4 million to its Revenue Online Service (ROS) in 2025, with electronic payments worth €149.1 billion processed. Revenue has said it provides direct assistance for those who need support, recognising that a digital-first approach must be complemented by accessible help. In a statement to an Oireachtas committee earlier this year, it said more than 87 million transactions were processed through its digital services in the previous year.
Revenue received a budget allocation of €684 million for next year, up about 4%, according to the Budget 2027 expenditure report. Besides the review of its postal practices, other efficiencies and reforms it is expected to deliver include expanding its “AI and robotics portfolio of applications into customer service channels.” The Budget also announced that a new public spending efficiency taskforce will be set up within three months.
Revenue has used robotics for several years to speed up routine internal tasks and free up staff. In 2019, The Irish Times reported that Revenue had worked with Deloitte on a pilot using robotic process automation to update about 20,000 taxpayer records.
On AI, Revenue Commissioner Ruth Kennedy told the Oireachtas AI committee earlier this year that Revenue does not use AI to make tax-related decisions or carry out its statutory functions. She said it has long used the technology to help direct taxpayer queries to the correct caseworker and to help staff find relevant information so that they can respond “promptly and accurately.”
For taxpayers, the practical message is that more documents are likely to appear online first, while paper letters will remain available where needed.
