Vol. 521 No. 1
78 Mrs. B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if she will make a statement on the progress being made in regard to regularising the position of Irish registered non-resident companies. [16508/00]
A wide-ranging package of measures in the company law and taxation areas was approved by the Government last year, to address problems arising from the use of certain Irish registered non-resident companies, IRNR's, for undesirable purposes. The measures have now been implemented. These taxation measures were implemented in the Finance Act, 1999, and the company law measures, contained in the Com panies (Amendment) (No 2) Act, 1999, were commenced with effect from 23 March and 18 April this year, respectively.
The package of measures will ensure all companies will have to be linked more closely to the State and interface more fully with the Revenue Commissioners and the Registrar of Companies, through compliance with a range of new requirements in company and taxation law. The company law and taxation measures are designed to complement each other and provide that a strong co-operative effort on the part of the relevant revenue and company law authorities will be a feature of the ongoing implementation process. An example of this is reflected in the strike off of companies, where the registrar will have power to strike off in situations where companies fail to supply the Revenue Commissioners, with information to enable them to be registered for tax purposes and revenue furnish confirmation to this effect.
Arising from a major exercise, carried out by the Revenue Commissioners which involved writing to more than 47,000 companies, seeking certain information for taxation purposes on foot of the new provisions in the Finance Act, 1999, Revenue has so far asked the Registrar of Companies to strike off 3,000 companies for failure to supply the information in question. Discussions are continuing between the registrar and the Revenue Commissioners to confirm in particular the correct identification of the companies involved.
Apart from the companies notified for strike off by revenue, the registrar has separately been pursuing a proactive strike off policy for some time, in respect of companies failing to file their annual returns to the companies registration office. In 1999, 31,157 companies were stuck off the register, compared to 10,003 in 1998, while the number in the period to June of this year was 15,640 compared to 21,076 for the same period in 1999. The figures for this year include the first strike-offs under the provisions of the Companies (Amendment) (No. 2) Act, 1999 amounting to some 3,341, which were struck-off last week.
