Pearse Trust Blog

This is a guest post written by Ruth Skehan of Fitzwilliam Tax Consultants

The Draft Companies Bill

The second part of the draft Companies Bill, called “Pillar B”, has been drafted and is due to be published in late 2012 or early 2013.

A foundation is a self-governing legal entity established by a “founder”. It is managed by a foundation “council” according to its constitutive documents which will be discussed below. The founder transfers rights, title or interest in the property to the foundation for a specific purpose.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information has developed standards of transparency and exchange of information together with the cooperation of non-OECD countries.  These standards are perceived as the international norm for tax cooperation and are part of the ongoing attack on uncooperative tax havens.

UK Business Secretary, Vince Cable, has announced that over 100,000 companies in the UK may save millions of pounds in administration and accountancy costs through a reduction in auditing and financial reporting requirements.

Ireland’s success in attracting cutting edge Foreign Direct Investment has continued at pace during 2012. US, European and Asia / Pacific companies have demonstrated continued confidence in Ireland’s ability to successfully house their overseas operations.

A recent ICSA review of the corporate governance practice in the NHS found that, despite evidence of the understanding of directors of good governance practice, on average, only 10% of agenda items relate to strategic issues. Given the key responsibility of any board to set the direction and strategy of its organisation, meeting agendas must keep the discussion focused on vision, mission and goals, as opposed to operational detail. 

On Wednesday 5 December 2012 Ireland’s Minister for Finance Michael Noonan T.D. will deliver his second budget speech to Dáil Éireann.  Under the terms of the programme, agreed with the EU / IMF / ECB, Ireland is required to adjust downwards its public sector deficit by approximately €3bn in 2013. This adjustment will be effected by means of a mix of public spending cuts and revenue raising measures.