CRO netted €9.7m in late filing fees in 2024
The CRO has resumed its strike-off process for failure to file beneficial-ownership information, after a suspension of the process early last year, due to IT difficulties.
The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment (DETE) has confirmed that strike-offs are expected to increase during Q3 this year.
Failure to file
A spokesman said that the added failure to file beneficial-ownership information with the Registrar of Beneficial Ownership (RBO) of Companies and Industrial and Provident Societies to the grounds under which a company may be struck off under the
The mandatory RBO was part of the EU’s fourth money-laundering directive, or
Public access to the Irish RBO was shut down in 2022 following a European Court of Justice ruling, which found that open access was “a serious interference with the fundamental rights to respect for private life, and to the protection of personal data”.
Failure to file can result in fines of up to €500,000.
The process for failure to file beneficial-ownership information is the same as that which applies to companies who face the involuntary strike-off process for other reasons.
Ten-week warning
The process is as follows:
- A ten-week warning letter (courtesy email) sent to the company’s registered email address,
- Involuntary Strike Off Notice issued by registered post to the company’s registered office address and to all the directors at their registered home address (by ordinary post) ten weeks after the ten-week warning email. These are statutory letters required under the
- The company will be struck off two months after the notice is issued, if the RBO information is not filed,
- Approximately 28 days after the statutory letter is issued, the company will appear in the CRO Gazette (published every Wednesday),
- Approximately 28 days later, the company will be voluntarily struck off, always at the Registrar’s discretion,
- Approximately five days later the company will be dissolved, and a notice will appear in a second CRO Gazette.
Due to difficulties with the enforcement module of the CRO IT system, the CRO suspended its voluntary strike-off programme, early in 2024.
The department said that the CRO continued to monitor companies for compliance with their statutory filing obligations and to enforce filing obligations under the Companies Act 2014.
All delayed annual returns are subject to late-filing fees.
The CRO received a total of €9.7 million in late-filing fees during 2024.