Plans to bring forward the pay and file deadline for self-employed business and individuals have been postponed for at least a year by Minister for Finance Michael Noonan.

In a brief statement today Mr Noonan said after consulting he had decided not to introduce changes for 2014.

He said the intention to bring forward the deadline from the current date of October 31st remained, with the aim of providing more clarity around the annual tax take and to help with Budget Day moving to October.

Mr Noonan said any changes would not now be made until the Finance Bill 2014 meaning the earliest they could take effect would be from 2015.

Bringing forward the deadline had faced growing opposition among senior politicians from all parties.

For many years, the pay and file deadline for the self-employed has been October 31st for manual returns, and three weeks later for online returns.

Mr Noonan has indicated he wanted to move the date forward to either June or September, largely as a result of the earlier budget.

TDs from Government parties, from the Opposition, and a number of professional bodies expressed strong concerns about the move, arguing that it would have caused cash-flow problems for self-employed individuals and small companies and caused disruption, as well as reducing the high level of accuracy of Revenue data on this cohort.

The decision has been welcome by ISME which also called for a comprehensive consultation process before any changes were made.