The Office of the Revenue Commissioners (RC), (Irish: Oifig na gCoimisinéirí Ioncaim) - now called simply Revenue - is the Irish Government agency responsible for customs, excise, taxation and related matters. Though Revenue can trace itself back to predecessors (with the Act of Union 1800 amalgamating its forerunners with HM Customs and Excise in the United Kingdom), the current organisation was created for the independent Irish Free State in 21 February 1923. Revenue was established by Revenue Commissioners Order, 1923 and is responsible to the Minister for Finance and was for many years referred to as the Revenue Commissioners.
Revenue consists of a Chairman and two Commissioners all of whom have the status of Secretary General as used in Departments of State. The first Commissioners, appointed by W. T. Cosgrave, were Charles J. Flynn, William Denis Carey and William T. O'Brien, the chairman.[1] The current Commissioners are: Chairman Josephine Feehily,[2] and Commissioner Michael O'Grady.[3] Additionally there are approximately 7,000 full-time equivalent staff.
Revenue is based in Dublin Castle and uses a symbol of its gates as its logo, while its staff of almost 7,000 work in almost all of the 26 counties of the Republic of Ireland. The motto of Revenue translates as "to serve the community by fairly and efficiently collecting taxes and duties and implementing Customs controls".
From April 1979 until June 2000 Revenue had control of the issue of the Personal Public Service Number (then referred to as Revenue and Social Insurance Number) to individuals. In 1991 it delegated a block of numbers to the Department of Social Welfare and on 19 June 2000 the issuing was transferred to the department entirely.