Willie Penrose (Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 96: To ask the Taoiseach if the low turnover limit of €150,000 will be increased to small businesses which complete Intrastat forms; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16213/04]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Intrastat is the system used for collecting statistics on the physical trade in goods, that is, the actual movement of goods, between member states of the EU. It has two distinct components — specific information captured as part of the VAT system and a survey known as Intrastat.

Under the VAT system, all registered traders must complete boxes E, exports, and E2, imports, on their periodic VAT returns to the Office of the Revenue Commissioners, the VAT3 form. Under the Intrastat system, detailed monthly returns are required from traders whose annual import or export values exceed a threshold, the assimilation threshold. At present, traders with imports from other EU member states exceeding €191,000 annually, and-or exports exceeding €635,000 annually, are obliged to complete the detailed monthly return in respect of the relevant flow.

The thresholds are set so that a minimum of 97% of annual trade by value is reported at the detailed level. This quality requirement is determined and supported by EU law. This is important in order to have available robust detailed intra-EU statistics on external merchandise trade, a major economic indicator, while at the same time managing the burden being placed on respondents to the survey. At the end of each year, the thresholds are reviewed and revised as appropriate, while remaining consistent with the above quality criterion and the national requirement for good statistics.