Revenue spent nearly €950,000 on advertising over the past two years including campaigns urging householders to pay their local property tax and to get their taxes filed on time.
Spending on marketing was down in 2022 to just over €393,000 with over half the money paid out on a campaign around the filing of local property tax (LPT) returns.
The Revenue Commissioners said they had spent around €200,000 alerting home owners to the upcoming LPT deadline, arrangements for phased payments of the tax, and making sure people newly liable for the tax were made aware of it.
Another €33,000 was spent on a campaign around Capital Gains Tax and just under €125,000 on the annual "pay and file campaign" for the self-assessed and self-employed.
Revenue said they had spent €16,285 on recruitment adverts, with the bulk of the money aimed at hiring two staff as Head of Data Analytics and Head of Economic Research.
A further €17,000 was spent on statutory adverts, which included information on motor vehicle seizures as well as "cash holds".
The marketing spend for 2021 was almost €555,000, according to figures released under FOI.
That included nearly €15,000 for a Brexit instructional video around pre-boarding notifications (PBN) which hauliers had to complete when boarding ferries.
There was a €269,000 marketing spend around local property tax deadlines, which included €8,763 for the creation of an animated video on how to pay LPT and another €2,703 for a YouTube "how to file" video.
The annual pay and file advertising radio campaign for the self-assessed and self-employed cost €107,000 while €70,518 was spent on marketing for PAYE workers.
There was also expenditure of €47,000 on recruitment, mostly for the hiring of principal officers, assistant principal officers, and solicitor roles.
A further €12,462 was spent on statutory ads around motor vehicle seizures, court notices, and other campaigns.
Revenue said they could not provide a design or marketing brief around the highest-expenditure campaigns during the past two years.
Asked about the level of expenditure on advertising, a spokesman said they had no comment to make.
Reporting by Ken Foxe
