(This note is not part of the Instrument and does not purport to be a legal interpretation).

These Regulations give partial effect to the provisions of section 891B (inserted by section 125 of the Finance Act 2006) of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 which allow the Revenue Commissioners to make regulations, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, requiring financial institutions, assurance companies, collective funds and State bodies to make an annual return of customers resident in the State to whom interest or other payments are made. These particular regulations provide for the reporting by banks, buildingsocieties, credit unions and savings banks of interest and similar payments.

The broad details of the reporting scheme are:

Reporting Threshold: Accounts and investments that pay interest of €635 or less in a year will not be reported. This is subject to an anti-account splitting provision requiring interest paid on all accounts opened on or after 1 January 2008 to be reported in the first year any payment is made.

Details to be reported: These include gross payment, name, address and date of birth if an individual where the account was opened or the investment was made before 1 January 2009. For new accounts opened and investments made on or after 1 January 2009 the details to be reported include gross payment, name, address, and tax reference number or, in the absence of a tax reference number a special marker indicating that the tax reference number was not provided.

Type of Payments: The income to be reported will be any return on an investment in the nature of interest or any amount paid in consideration of the making of an investment, including building society and credit union dividends, etc.

Phasing-in of Reporting: