Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Justice and Equality. Property management agents are regulated by the Property Services Regulatory Authority, PSRA. The Minister for Justice and Equality established the authority on a statutory basis on 3 April 2012. The main function of the authority is to control and regulate property services providers, that is, auctioneers, estate agents, letting agents and management agents. This includes the licensing of all such services providers, the establishment of a complaints investigation and redress system for consumers, the setting and enforcement of standards in the provision of property services, the administration of client accounts, the establishment and maintenance of a compensation fund and the creation of a residential and commercial property register. On 6 July 2012 the authority introduced a new licensing system for all property services providers and the new residential property prices register on 30 September 2012.

In relation to company law, the current framework to address the late filing of company annual returns and accounts was introduced in 2001 in order to address the very low compliance rate with annual return obligations. In 1998 only 14% of companies were filing on time, while the compliance rate now stands at 89%. Under the Companies Acts, 1963 to 2009, a company is required to file prompt and accurate annual returns with the Companies Registration Office, CRO, whether the company is trading or not. A company can have up to nine months and 28 days from its financial year-end to complete its accounts and file its annual return. Where it uses the electronic filing system provided by the CRO, it can obtain a further 28 days to deliver the documents to the registrar. The fee for filing an annual return on time is €20 for an electronic filing and €40 for a manual filing. The CRO issues a reminder letter to every company about one month before its annual return date.

A late filing penalty of €100 becomes due in respect of an annual return on the day after the expiry of the filing deadline, which deadline is 28 days after the effective date of the return, with a daily penalty of €3 accruing thereafter, up to a maximum penalty of €1,200 per return. This penalty is in addition to the standard filing fee of €40 per return. If a company's annual return for the current year or the previous year was not filed on time, the company cannot avail of the audit exemption. Where an annual return is filed late in the year in which an exemption is claimed or in the preceding year, the company loses its entitlement to claim audit exemption not only for the year in question but for the following year also. It may only claim back the audit exemption in the third year if it files correctly and on time in the second year. Although the loss of audit exemption may have harsh consequences for late filing companies, it serves an important purpose, namely the encouragement of compliance with basic corporate filings. In tandem with the revisions to late filing fees, the potential loss of audit exemption has proved to be an effective way of encouraging a culture of compliance. It is important to note that companies have at least ten months after their financial year-end in which to file their annual return.

In addition, a company may be struck off the register and dissolved for failure to file an annual return. If a company is struck off, the assets of the company become vested in the Minister for Finance and if the business continues to trade, the owners will no longer enjoy the benefit of limited liability and so are personally responsible for any debts incurred so long as the company remains dissolved. Any person who was a director of a company at the date of sending to that company of a strike-off notice due to the non-filing of annual returns, may be disqualified from acting as director by the High Court, where the company is struck off leaving outstanding liabilities. Such order may be made by the court on the application of the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement.

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