Report on Payments to Governments


The Companies (Accounting) Act 2017 commenced on 9th June 2017. Certain types of company must file a Payments Report with the Companies Registration Office under Part 26 Companies Act 2014 (as amended). The Report must be submitted using Form PR1. Form PR1 has a filing fee of €15.

Companies that are required to file

Part 26 obliges large companies, large groups and “public interest entities” that are active in the mining and extractive industries or the logging of primary forests to prepare and file annual reports on payments made to governments with the Companies Registration Office (Schedule 18 CA 2014). (Companies Listed in Schedule 18 to the Companies Act 2014 are listed below)

Part 26 of the Companies Act 2014 as inserted by the Companies (Accounting) Act 2017 provides for the description of the payments to be included, the format for reporting and the companies that are affected. Non-designated private unlimited companies (ULCs) are not obliged to file a Payment Report under section 1274a. 

Form to be filed
The documents must be filed using Form PR1 (filing fee €15). The form must be filed within 11 months of the Financial Year End. Failure to file is a category 3 offence.

A holding company, which prepares group financial statements under section 293, is obliged to prepare a consolidated payment report where it or its subsidiary(ies) is/are a mining or quarrying undertaking or a logging undertaking. 

Content of Payment Report

Entity Payment Report
A company shall in respect of its entity payment report, for each financial year, include the following in relation to its relevant activities:

(a) the government to which each payment has been made, including the country of that government;
(b) the total amount of payments made to each government;
(c) the total amount per type of payment made to each government;
(d) where those payments have been attributed to a specific project, the total amount per type of payment made for each such project and the total amount of payments for each such project.

(Where a company makes a payment that is not attributable to a specific project, it shall not be necessary in the entity payment report to allocate it to a specific project).

A company shall not be required to include a payment in the entity payment report if— (a) it is a single payment of an amount less than €100,000, or (b) it forms part of a series of related payments within a financial year where the total amount of that series of payments is less than €100,000. However, payments, activities and projects shall not be artificially split or aggregated to avoid the application.

The disclosure of payments is required to reflect the substance, rather than the form, of each payment, relevant activity or project concerned. Where payments in kind are made to a government, the entity payment report shall state the value of such payments in kind and, where applicable, the volume of those payments in kind, and the directors shall provide supporting notes to explain how the value of such payments in kind has been determined.

Content of consolidated payment report
A holding company shall in respect of its consolidated payment report, for each financial year, include the same information as set out above for an entity payment report and shall also state:
(a) any payments resulting from the relevant activities of a mining or quarrying undertaking and (b) any payments resulting from the relevant activities of a logging undertaking.

Where an undertaking makes a payment that is not attributable to a specific project, it shall not be necessary in the consolidated payment report to allocate it to a specific project. 

Exemptions available

 Exemptions are available under Chapter 4 Part 26 Companies Act 2014:

  • An exemption to preparing a payment report is available to a subsidiary/holding company if the entity payment report is included in a consolidated payment report prepared by the holding company. (section 1454)
  • An exemption is available from producing the entity/consolidated report if the company has a higher holding undertaking based in another EU State where the higher company has produced a consolidated report that includes the Irish companies information.
  • The directors will also be exempt where the company is subject to equivalent reporting requirements and the payments have been disclosed in this other report. (section 1455).
  • An exemption is available from producing the entity/consolidated report if the company has a higher holding undertaking based in another EU State where the higher company has produced an equivalent reporting requirements consolidated report that includes the Irish companies information. (s1456).
  • An exception is under section 1460 CA 2014 as amended where the directors are exempt where the company instead submits a copy of the entity consolidated) report prepared in accordance with the equivalent reporting requirements within 28 days after such payment is made available to the public under the equivalent reporting requirements.

Companies Listed in Schedule 18 to the Companies Act 2014  
Section A - Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
Division Group Class  Description 

International Standard Industrial Classification Revision 4 

 02  02.2   02.20  Logging  0220
         
Section B - Mining and Quarrying
Division Group Class  Description 

International Standard Industrial Classification Revision 4

 05     Mining of coal and lignite  
   05.1   Mining of hard coal  0510
   05.2  05.20  Mining of lignite  0520
 06     Extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas  
   06.1  06.10 Extraction of crude petroleum  0610
   06.2  06.20  Extraction of natural gas  0620
 07     Mining of metal ores  
   07.1  07.10 Mining of iron ores  0710
   07.2   Mining of non-ferrous metal ores  
     07.21 Mining of uranium and thorium ores  0721
     07.29 Mining of other non-ferrous metal ores  0729
 08     Other mining and quarrying  
   08.1   Quarrying of stone, sand and clay  
     08.11 

Quarrying of ornamental and building stone, limestone, gypsum, chalk and slate

 0810 (part of)
     08.12 Operation of gravel and sand pits; mining of clays and kaolin  0810 (part of)
   08.9    Mining and quarrying not elsewhere classified  
     08.91 Mining of chemical and fertiliser minerals  0891
     08.92 Extraction of peat  0892
     08.93 Extraction of salt  0893
     08.99 Other mining and quarrying not elsewhere classified    0899