Mr. Niall Cody:

Yes. One cannot get charitable tax exemption now unless one is registered as a charity. That was the fundamental change with the introduction of the Charities Regulator. Since it regulates the sector, a charity must first register with it and then apply to us for a tax exemption. In the question put by the Deputy, the entity could not avail of the exemption. It would then be down to the nature of the body. For example, is it a company or a person portraying himself or herself in a certain way? The entity would have tax liabilities like anyone else. If someone has an income from criminal activity, he or she is liable to tax. The challenge is knowing who he or she is. It is a risk-based system and we are always interested in information about entities, for example, which the underlying person or company operating it is.