The Revenue Commissioners will not be in a position to begin processing information on tax breaks like the stud fee exemption until early next year, an Oireachtas committee heard yesterday.

Liam Irwin of the Revenue Commissioners' strategic planning section told the Committee on Finance and the Public Service that it would begin receiving information from taxpayers who benefit from these concessions in their returns in October.

He said that around 60 per cent of the returns would be made through the Revenue's online service, while the remaining returns would be paper-based.

"Around 60 per cent will be available through our online service and we would be able to do some analysis on these in early 2006," he said.

However, he added that paper-based returns would take longer to analyse, and that the process would not be complete until the first half of next year.

The impact of the provision that exempts the profits from stallion and greyhound stud fees from tax is one of the areas that will be studied. The EU Commission is reviewing the tax break.

Responding to questions from the committee, Mr Irwin said the commission had made inquiries about the stallion tax break several times in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but had only decided to investigate it two years ago.

Complaints from figures in the British racehorse breeding industry led to that investigation.