VAT due diligence
When commencing a business relationship with an EU customer or supplier, the Irish business is obliged to undertake some due diligence. At a minimum, this should involve entering the suppliers’ number into the EU VAT database.
Revenue guidance includes seeking trade references, obtaining credit and background checks, and making personal contact with the customer or supplier. Where Revenue believes that the business involved knew or should have known that a transaction was connected with fraud, it will deny the input credit relating to that transaction or deny zero-rating of the intra-community supply to identified customers.
The benefit-in-kind position with respect to employer-provided electric vehicles for private use will continue until 2025
Employer-provided electric vehicles
The benefit-in-kind (BIK) position with respect to employer-provided electric vehicles for private use will continue until 2025. It is worth noting that the provision applies to directors and employees irrespective of the level of pay received by the employee.
For the avoidance of doubt, an electric vehicle is one that derives its motive power exclusively from an electric motor, meaning hybrid vehicles are not electric vehicles.
For an electric vehicle made available for an employee’s private use during 2019-22, a full exemption from BIK is only available for vehicles with a market value of up to €50,000 (with some different rules earlier in the schemes). Partial relief applies for vehicles with a value exceeding this amount.
Finance Act 2021 further extended the BIK regime for electric cars for another three years, so that it also applies to vehicles made available in the period from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2025. The relief from the BIK charge arising during this period applies on a tapered basis, with relief given effectively for the first €35,000, €20,000, €10,000 of market value for 2023, 2024 and 2025 respectively. The balance over this amount is charged to BIK as normal. More details are available.
Lobbying
New legislation is proposed in this area, and it is likely the number of entities caught by the legislation will increase. Find out more about the General Scheme of the Regulation of Lobbying (Amendment) Bill 2022.
Owners in multi-unit developments
In apartment blocks, an owners’ management company (OMC) will usually own the common areas and shared facilities. The OMC will bill each owner an annual services charge to cover the maintenance and repair costs for the common areas and to insure the building structure.
The guidance looks at what data an owners' management company might maintain
Usually, the OMC will be owned in common by every apartment owner and managed by volunteer directors who typically delegate the day-to-day management to a property management agent.
OMCs process and transmit personal data in the exercise of their functions in relation to, for example, property title, financial management and debt collection. The Data Protection Commission has issued guidance for such entities on how to manage this personal data.
The guidance looks at what data an OMC might maintain, and this can include CCTV images, the data maintained by the property agent and the personal data maintained in a service charge billing system. The guidance also looks at the personal data that a landlord is legally obliged to hand over to an OMC.
Company law changes
About two-thirds of the 57-page Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Act 2021 concerns the establishment of the Corporate Enforcement Authority that will replace, and perform the functions previously performed by, the Director of Corporate Enforcement.
The remaining parts of the legislation make numerous and important changes to the Companies Act 2014, including:
- changes to how share premium can be used – S14
- payments by subsidiaries in the acquisition of own shares by a parent – S15
- clarification of share-for-undertaking transaction accounting – S16
- shares cancelled or retention as treasury shares – S17
- amendment of how treasury shares are treated – S18
- changes to distribution definitions – S19
- further changes to treasury shares – S20 and 21
- allowing payment of commissions in plcs in additional circumstances – S22
- restrictions on transfer of shares – S23
- share registration changes – S24
- acquisition of own shares out of profits –S25
- a secretary of a company must also be 18 – S26
- exemption on disclosing names of directors – S27
- proxy rules – S28
- removes Institute of Incorporated Public Accountants from list of professional bodies – S29
- proxy rules for a company limited by guarantee – S30
- registration of creditors' resolutions in a creditors' voluntary liquidation – S31
- qualifications for appointment as liquidator – S32
- more frequent reporting by liquidators to Companies Registration Office (CRO) – S33
- more grounds for restricting a director – S34
- including personal public service numbers on CRO filings – S35
