Finance Act 2010

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Provision of information relating to persons, conveyances and goods.

97.— (1) In this section “transport operator” means a person or class of persons—

(a) concerned with any aspect of the movement of persons, conveyances or goods out of the State, or

(b) any person directly concerned with the movement of persons, conveyances or goods into the State,

to whom regulations made by the Revenue Commissioners under this section relate.

(2) For the purposes of the prevention, detection and investigation of offences under the Customs Acts and the statutes relating to the duties of excise, the Revenue Commissioners may make regulations requiring a transport operator or class of transport operator to provide to the Revenue Commissioners, in relation to persons, conveyances or goods, entering or leaving the State, or about to enter or leave the State, by air or by sea, the following to the extent known to the transport operator concerned:

(a) a list specifying the name and nationality of each person carried or to be carried on board the conveyance and in such form, and containing such other information relating to the person, as may be prescribed in the regulations;

(b) details of the members of the crew of the conveyance;

(c) such information in respect of the conveyance or goods as may be prescribed in the regulations;

(d) copies of such documents, including travel documents relating to any person or goods carried or to be carried on board the conveyance, as may be prescribed in the regulations;

(e) such other information as may be prescribed in the regulations.

(3) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (2), regulations under this section may, in particular, include provision for—

(a) notifying a transport operator that he or she is a person to whom the regulations relate,

(b) determining the timing, frequency, manner and format by which information to be supplied under the regulations shall be made to the Revenue Commissioners,

(c) delegating to an officer, or a particular class of officers, of the Revenue Commissioners the authority to perform any acts and discharge any function authorised by the regulations or this section (other than the power to make regulations) to be performed or discharged by the Revenue Commissioners,

(d) prescribing the offices of the Revenue Commissioners to which the information should be delivered, and

(e) such supplemental and incidental matters as appear to the Revenue Commissioners to be necessary—

(i) to enable a transport operator to comply with the regulations, or

(ii) for the general administration and implementation of this section and the regulations.

(4) Regulations made under this section shall be laid before Dáil Éireann as soon as may be after they are made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by Dáil Éireann within the next 21 days on which Dáil Éireann has sat after the regulations are laid before it, the regulations shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under them.

(5) Information provided to the Revenue Commissioners in accordance with this section shall be kept only for the period necessary to achieve the purpose for which it was provided in accordance with the section. The need for the retention of any information kept for a period greater than 12 months shall be reviewed at least annually by the Revenue Commissioners.

(6) Without prejudice to any other penalty to which a transport operator may be liable, any transport operator who, without reasonable cause, fails to provide the information which he or she is required to provide by regulation under this section, or who provides information which he or she knows to be incorrect or misleading, shall be liable to a penalty of €1,500.

(7) Section 1077A of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 (as inserted by section 98 and Schedule 5 of the Finance (No. 2) Act 2008 ) is amended in the definition of “the Acts” by inserting “(h) the Customs Acts,” after “(g) the statutes relating to the duties of excise and to the management of those duties,”.