Annual Report 2008

Tax Clearance

Tax Clearance Provisions - Elected Members

Members elected to Dáil and Seanad Éireann during 2007 were obliged under the 2001 Act to provide evidence of tax compliance to the Standards Commission within nine months of the date on which they were declared elected. In the event of a member failing to comply with the legislation and failing to produce the required evidence (a statutory declaration and either a tax clearance certificate or an application statement), it is up to the Standards Commission to decide whether to investigate the matter and to provide any subsequent report to the Committee on Members' Interests.

In the event, some members were in breach of the legislation in that they failed either to make their statutory declaration, to have a tax clearance certificate/application statement issued to them by the Collector General, or to furnish the necessary evidence within the time frames set down in the legislation. All outstanding documents were subsequently received from members. Accordingly, the Standards Commission has a complete set of the required documentation from each member elected during 2007 and there were no substantive contraventions of the legislation.

The Standards Commission decided that as the contraventions were technical in nature, rather than substantive, it would be disproportionate to investigate and report on the matter. The Standards Commission wrote to the Committees on Members' Interests of Dáil Éireann and of Seanad Éireann informing them of its decision in this matter and the basis on which it took the decision.

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