S.I. No. 675/2005 - European Communities (Intrastat) (Amendment) Regulations 2005

STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS

S.I. No. 675 of 2005

European Communities (Intrastat) (Amendment) Regulations 2005

I, Bertie Ahern, Taoiseach, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 3 of the European Communities Act 1972 (No. 27 of 1972) and for the purpose of giving further effect to Regulation (EC) No. 638/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004¹ and Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1982/2004 of 18 November 2004² hereby make the following regulations:

1.        These Regulations may be cited as the European Communities (Intrastat (Amendment) Regulations 2005.

2.        In these Regulations “Principal Regulations” means the European Communities (Intrastat) Regulations 1993 ( S.I. No. 136 of 1993 ), as amended by Schedule 5 to the Finance Act 2001 (No. 7 of 2001) and the European Communities (Intrastat) (Amendment Regulations 2002 ( S.I. No. 466 of 2002 ).

3.        Regulation 3 of the Principal Regulations are amended by substituting the following for paragraph (1):

“(1)    In these Regulations -

‘authorised officer’ means an officer of the Revenue Commissioners authorised by them in writing to exercise the powers of an authorised officer referred to in these Regulations;

‘basic Regulation’ means Regulation (EC) No. 638/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004¹ ;

‘Community Regulations’ means the basic Regulation and Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1982/2004 of 18 November 2004² ;

‘Member State’ means a Member State of the European Community;

‘Intrastat system’ means the Intrastat system referred to in the basic Regulation in so far as that system applies to trade between Member States pursuant to Articles 5 to 14 of that Regulation;

‘officer of statistics’ has the meaning assigned to it by the Statistics Act 1993 (No. 21 of 1993);

‘records’ means any document or other written or printed material in any form as well as information (including statistical information) stored maintained or preserved by means of any mechanical or electronic device whether or not stored, maintained or preserved in a legible form;

‘trader’ means a person referred in Article 7 (1) of the basic Regulation.”.

4.        The Principal Regulations are amended by substituting the following for Regulation

5:

“5.     (1)      The Taoiseach shall make a specification from time to time of thresholds below which parties are exempted from providing any Intrastat information in accordance with Article 10 of the basic Regulation.

(2)     (a)  A specification by the Taoiseach for the purposes of paragraph (1 shall be published in the Iris Oifigiúil as soon as may be after it is made.

(b) Until the contrary is shown, evidence of a specification for the purposes of paragraph (1) may be given in proceedings for an offence under these Regulations by the production of a copy of the Iris Oifigiúil purporting to contain the specification.”.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

These Regulations amend S.I. No. 136 of 1993 so as to include Regulation (EC) No. 638/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission Regulation (EC No. 1982/2004.

¹ OJ No. L102 of 7 April 2004, p.1

² OJ No. L343 of 19 November 2004, p.3

¹ OJ No. L102 of 7 April 2004, p.1

² OJ No. L343 of 19 November 2004, p.3