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5 Reasons to do business in Ireland

Posted in Category(ies): Latest News

5 Reasons to consider doing business in Ireland

 

Photo by Stephen Bergin on Unsplash

 

1.      Ireland has been ranked as one of the best countries for business by Forbes Magazine.

  In addition, the IMD World Competitiveness 2017 Yearbook ranked Ireland;

 

         – 1st in the world for investment incentives for foreign investors

         – 1st in the world for labour flexibility and adaptability of the workforce

         – 2nd most competitive country in Eurozone

 

2.      Native English Speakers

 Post-Brexit, Ireland will be the only native English-speaking member in the EU with access to the European Market of 500 million consumers.

 

3.      An unrivalled Hub for Foreign Direct Investment

 In 2017 Ireland was named the best country in the world for attracting high-value foreign direct investments for the sixth year in a row. Many of the world’s

 high performing global companies are doing business in Ireland including Google, Facebook, Paypal, Intel, Twitter, Pfizer, Citi, Huawei and Novartis.

 

4.      Well Educated Workforce

 Ireland’s workforce is well educated, flexible and adaptable. Ireland also has the highest proportion of science and engineering graduates in the OECD.

 

5.      Attractive Tax Regime

  Ireland offers 12.5% corporation tax and 25% R&D Tax credit and other taxation benefits. The country also has exceptional intellectual property (IP) 

  and holding company regimes.

 

For facts about Ireland, click IDA Facts about Ireland

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Posted on by | Van-Geraghty

Involuntary Strike Off – Some Questions Answered

Posted in Category(ies): Strike Off

 

We’ve put together some of the most commonly asked  questions  from clients in relation to Involuntary  Strike Off.

  

What is an Involuntary Strike-off?

This means the Companies Registration Office (CRO) strike a company off the Register and technically, the Company no longer exists.

We aren’t trading, can I just let the Companies Registration Office do the strike-off and save myself money?

Don’t be tempted! You run the risk of prosecution and Director Disqualification.  

Can the Company continue trading if the company has been involuntary struck-off?

No, and there can be very serious repercussions for companies that continue to trade while struck off.

How are Companies Registration Office dealing with non-compliance?

The CRO confirmed in October 2017 they are introducing a programme of prosecutions for companies who are late with filing. Frequent late filers are likely to be targeted first.

What are the fines for late filing?

  •          CRO late filing fees, are capped at €1,200 per Annual Return.
  •          Directors risk being disqualified for up a period of 5 years.
  •          If convicted; the maximum fine is €5,000 and/or up to 6 months imprisonment per offence.

What do I do if I get a summons?

You will have to appear in Court, pay any outstanding penalties and bring your filings up to date.

What other Grounds are there for Strike-off besides Late Filing:

The CRO can strike off a Company because of liquidator related issues, if request by Revenue and where no company directors are on record in the CRO.                                                 

What is the process for Involuntary Strike off?

The process takes a few months, CRO first a reminder, followed by a statutory notice, and then publishes notices in the CRO Gazette. If after all these stages, relevant filings and fines are not paid – the company is dissolved.

Is it possible to have a company restored to the register after involuntary strike-off?

It is possible to have a Company restored to the Register, but this can be very costly exercise, especially if an application to the High Court is necessary.  You also need to factor in the costs of paying late filing fees, filing outstanding Annual Returns and Financial Statements. 

Conclusion

Ensure Annual Returns are filed on time to avoid involuntary strike-off and unnecessary fines.

 

If you have any questions on any aspect of striking off your Company please free to contact either Van Geraghty or Kathryn Maybury at KomSec Limited on +353 1 210 7595 or email your enquiry to info@komsec.ie.

 

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Posted on by | Van-Geraghty

Board Diversity – how diverse are you?

Posted in Category(ies): Boards

A Board should challenge itself, and its Management Team. It should actively review, question, explore potential flaws, exploit current and future potential of the Company. The greatest threat faced by any Company is not political or economic but, complacency. Having a diverse Board should be a key tool to ensure complacency does not exist or creep into a company structure unseen or, unchallenged.

Board Diversity should embrace all diversity in order to maximise its own potential, for example:

o   gender – a no brainer, society consists of different genders, why would a Board not reflect the realities of society;

o   ageism – maintaining a balanced age profile on a Board provides experience and fresh thinking;

o   occupation – Director occupations can bring an imbalance to a Board, e.g. the majority of individual Directors on the Board of an engineering company should not be engineers;

o   length of service – staying too long on a Board can, in some cases, end up being a little like a guest who is enjoying themselves so much they do not realise they are no longer as entertaining as they once were!

Appointing an individual simply to “fit” whatever is the current hot topic for Board Diversity is insulting to the individual, and an utter waste of time for the Board, Management and the Company itself.

Boards must willingly embrace the concept of diversity in all its guises, and support the individual Directors, and the Company adapt to the change in Board dynamics.

Board diversity is for the long haul, there are no shortcuts but, like anything that is hard work the results should be worth waiting for.

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Posted on by | Kathryn-Maybury

Happy Christmas – donation to the Kevin Bell Trust

Posted in Category(ies): Latest News

 

 

 

KomSec Limited will be closed from 24.12.2018 to 02.01.2019 inclusive.

 

Everyone in KomSec Limited wishes you all a very Happy Christmas, and hope you have a contented time with your family and friends.

Our families seem even more important at Christmas.  Sadly though people die regardless of the season.  When that death happens overseas it adds an unexpected burden of logistics, costs, and bureaucracy to an incredibly emotional time. 

This year KomSec Limited has made a contribution to the extraordinary Kevin Bell Trust which helps alleviate the financial burden of repatriating a family loved one.

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Posted on by | Kathryn-Maybury

Learning Portal for Charity Trustees

Posted in Category(ies): Charities

The Charities Regulatory Authority has introduced a “Trustee Learning Portal” to provide training to help Trustees understand their legal obligations.

The first course “Guidance for Trustees” is online and takes approximately 40 mins to complete. The content covers the material from their guidance booklet of the same name. Try it for yourself, https://trusteelearning.ie/.

Despite the limitations of online learning, there are numerous advantages; the course is free, convenient, flexible and delivers quality information to a large cohort of Trustees in Ireland fully online.   

We can look forward to the introduction of additional courses over the coming months to support Trustees in getting to grips with governance requirements in the Charity Sector.

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Posted on by | Van-Geraghty

CRO Christmas Deadlines

Posted in Category(ies): Companies Registration Office

CRO CHRISTMAS DEADLINES

December is often a frantic month as everyone juggles Christmas presents and clearing their office desks.

KomSec cannot help with the Christmas presents but, we can help you clear any outstanding filing requirements you may have before Christmas.  Just remember, the CRO will not guarantee processing any submissions received after the following dates.

 

–  Company Incorporations                        11th December         

–  Change of Name                                       11th December

–  Reservation of Company Name             19th December

 

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Posted on by | Kathryn-Maybury

Trustees’ Week: 13-17 November 2017

Posted in Category(ies): Charities

Trustees’ Week: 13-17 November 2017

 

What is Trustees’ Week?

This week is Ireland’s first Trustees’ Week and is a nationwide campaign organised by the Charities Regulatory Authority and other partner organisations to celebrate the essential role that Trustees’ in Ireland play for the not-for-profit sector and to highlight the opportunities for all of us to make a difference and get involved.

 

#TrusteesWeekIrl

The week will be supported by the organisations on the steering committee posting on social media using the hashtag and publishing a series of blogs about trustees, you can access these on the Trustees’ Week LinkedIn page here.

 

Events

Please click on the hyperlink CRA Trustees’ Week Events  for a list of events being held in Dublin and Limerick. In addition, the Charities Regulator will host public meetings in Limerick (November 13) and Dublin (November 15). 

 

E-Learning Module for Trustees

The centrepiece of these will be to showcase the new e-learning module for trustees (which will be hosted on www.charitiesregulator.ie, the Charities Regulator website).  There will be case studies from a number of charity trustees and a short presentation by Boardmatch Ireland on how to become a charity trustee. 

 

 

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Posted on by | Van-Geraghty

Is climate change affecting the Companies Registration Office?

Posted in Category(ies): Companies Registration Office

Climate change can now been seen in the Companies Registration Office (CRO) as, following a drought in prosecutions for a number of years, it has re-started prosecuting companies for late filing of Annual Returns.

 

The CRO suspended prosecutions following the introduction of the Companies Act.  Now that companies and practitioners have had an opportunity to become familiar with the Act the CRO have now re-started a prosecutorial regime.

 

Currently, there are over 214,000 companies on the Register.  Compliance with Annual Return filing deadlines for the past number of years has consistently hit over 80% per year leaving a potential pool of 42,800 companies that might fall into the category of late filing. 

 

Obviously, a number of variables apply but, that said, just over 20 companies have been prosecuted by the CRO.  These companies will have to appear before the Courts in November, and without over relying on weather related puns it is fair to describe this level of prosecution as a trickle.

 

Upon conviction the Courts can apply a Class A Fine (€5,000) per offence.  It will be interesting to see how the Courts deal with the prosecutions in November as historically outcomes could best be described as patchy.  Will the trickle become a flood?  Only time will tell but, I would not be putting out the sandbags just yet!

 

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Posted on by | Kathryn-Maybury

The General Data Protection Regulation – what is relevant for small firms?

Posted in Category(ies): The General Data Protection Regulation

With so much publicity on GDPR it can be hard to separate the wood from the trees, and zero in on what is actually relevant. 

Planning out a structured response should help the bulk of small firms find life under GDPR not quite as daunting as it may first appear. 

 

As a starting point small firms should consider the following three points.

– What personal data does your firm retain

– Why is the personal data retained

– What does your firm do with the personal data

 

Ensuring your firm can document answers to the above will go a substantial way towards demonstrating compliance with GDPR. 

 

Reviewing your firms’ position on “Privacy Notices” and “Giving Consent” should be your next port of call.  Privacy Notices deal with the lawful basis for processing personal data, the length of time such data will be held, etc.  Giving Consent is required to clearly show that consent to use of personal data for specific reasons was freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous. 

 

Companies (small firms in particular) have finite resources so, plan out what resources your firm can put into GDPR, who will be responsible for overseeing implementation, and timelines for completing the above first steps. 

 

The deadline date for complying with GDPR is May 2018 but, for small firms to best manage resources starting now so that the work programme can be spread over months is practical. 

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Posted on by | Kathryn-Maybury

General Meetings – some basics

Posted in Category(ies): Meetings

GENERAL MEETINGS

 

General Meetings are meetings specifically for the Member(s) of a company split into two types as outlined below.

 

Depending on the type of General Meeting companies should at least consider:

o   the type of Resolution(s) to be proposed;

o   is the option to pass the Resolution(s) in writing;

o   what notice periods must be given; and

o   what regulations (if any) are contained within the company Constitution.

 

Annual General Meeting (AGM) – the AGM is the General Meeting most of us would be familiar with, and surprise, surprise, it must be held annually!

The most standard business dealt with at an AGM is:

(a)          presentation of Financial Statements to the Members;
(b)          re-appointment of Statutory Auditors; and
(c)           authorising Directors to fix remuneration of Statutory Auditors.

Companies must hold their first AGM within 18 months from date of incorporation, from then the company must hold its AGM within 15 months from the date of the preceding AGM.

 

Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) – an EGM is commonlyconvened by the company for events such as:

(a)          change of company name; and

(b)          changes to Constitution.

However, in exceptional circumstances an EGM can be convened at the request of the Members or Courts. Convening an EGM in this manner usually means the relationship between the Board and Member(s) is dysfunctional, e.g. lack of trust in how the company is being managed or, refusal of members to attend an EGM. Fortunately, the majority of companies will never come across such a situation, and heaven help those that do!

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Posted on by | Kathryn-Maybury