Late filing penalty fees totalling €7.2 million accounted for 37 per cent of the Companies Registration Office’s revenues of €19.27 million last year.
According to the CRO's 2018 annual report, the €7.2 million received in late filing fees from 13,451 companies – an average penalty payment of €535 – topped the €7 million the CRO received in submission fees for all other documents filed in 2018.
However, the €7.2 million in late filing fees is 29 per cent down on the €10.08 million generated in late filing fees in 2016 and 10 per cent down on the €8.23 million received under the same heading in 2017.
The CRO annual report states: “There has continued to be a reduction in late filing fees paid.”
The CRO’s revenues last year of €19.27 million represent a 10 per cent increase on the revenues of €17.48 million recorded in 2017. The chief factor behind the increase was miscellaneous income soaring from €1.5 million to €5 million, with the CRO attributing this to “enquiries, bulk data sales, credit notes, [and] customer account balances”.
Expenditure
The CRO’s expenditure was steady at €7.1 million, comprised of €4.6 million in pay and €2.5 million in non-pay, resulting in a surplus of €12.17 million. At the end of last year, 223,013 companies were registered, with more than half of those companies registered between 2010 and 2018.
The report shows there are only 173 companies that were incorporated prior to 1920 that are still registered at the CRO, with only 96 incorporated between 1920 and 1929 still registered.
The number of new companies registered last year totalled 22,428, just marginally higher than the 2017 figure.
