Finance Act 2012

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Returns of payment transactions by payment settlers.

122.— The Principal Act is amended by inserting the following after section 891C (inserted by section 121 ):

“891D.— (1) In this section—

‘authorised officer’ means an officer of the Revenue Commissioners authorised by them in writing to exercise the powers conferred by this section;

‘central organisation’ has the meaning assigned in the definition of ‘electronic payment network’;

‘electronic network transaction’ means any transaction which is settled through an electronic payment network;

‘electronic payment facilitator’ means any person, other than a payment settlement entity, acting on behalf of a payment settlement entity who submits instructions to transfer funds to the account of the merchant to settle the reportable payment transaction;

‘electronic payment network’ means any agreement or arrangement—

(a) which involves the establishment of accounts with a body (in this section referred to as a ‘central organisation’) by persons who—

(i) are unrelated to the central organisation,

(ii) provide goods or services, and

(iii) have agreed to settle transactions for the provision of such goods or services pursuant to such agreement or arrangement,

(b) which provides for standards and mechanisms for settling such transactions, and

(c) which guarantees persons providing goods or services pursuant to such agreement or arrangement that such persons will be paid for providing such goods or services,

but does not include any agreement or arrangement which provides for the issue of payment cards;

‘electronic settlement organisation’ means the central organisation which has the contractual obligation to make payment to merchants of electronic network transactions;

‘merchant’ means—

(a) in the case of a payment card transaction, any person having an address in the State who accepts a payment card as payment, and

(b) in the case of an electronic network transaction, any person having an address in the State who accepts payment from an electronic settlement organisation in settlement of such transaction;

‘merchant acquirer’ means the person who has the contractual obligation to make payment to merchants in settlement of payment card transactions;

‘payment card’ means any card which is issued pursuant to an agreement or arrangement which provides for—

(a) one or more issuers of such cards,

(b) a network of persons unrelated to each other, and to the issuer, who agree to accept such cards as payment, and

(c) standards and mechanisms for settling the transactions between the merchant acquirers and the persons who agree to accept such cards as payment,

and the acceptance as payment of any account number or other indicators associated with a payment card shall be treated for the purposes of this section in the same manner as accepting such payment card as payment;

‘payment card transaction’ means any transaction in which a payment card is accepted as payment;

‘payment settlement entity’ means—

(a) in the case of a payment card transaction, the merchant acquirer, and

(b) in the case of an electronic network transaction, the electronic settlement organisation;

‘PPS Number’, in relation to an individual, means the individual’s personal public service number (within the meaning of section 262 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 );

‘reportable payment transactions’ means, subject to regulations, any payment card transaction and any electronic network transaction;

‘services’, in relation to an electronic payment network, includes making arrangements directly or indirectly for persons to make voluntary payments with or without consideration for the benefit, in whole or in part, of another person;

‘tax reference number’, in relation to a person, means—

(a) in the case of a person who is an individual, the individual’s PPS Number, and

(b) in any other case—

(i) the reference number stated on any return of income form or notice of assessment issued to the person by a Revenue officer, or

(ii) the registration number of that person for the purposes of the Value-Added Tax Acts.

(2) The Revenue Commissioners may by regulations provide that a payment settlement entity be required—

(a) to make to the Revenue Commissioners an electronic return for or by reference to such year or years, other than a year earlier than 2010, of reportable payment transactions and such other information as may be specified in the regulations, and

(b) subject to subsection (4)(b), to include in any such return the tax reference numbers of merchants included in the return.

(3) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (2), regulations may, in particular, provide for—

(a) determining the date by which a return required to be made under the regulations shall be made to the Revenue Commissioners,

(b) prescribing the manner in which returns are to be made,

(c) specifying the type of reportable payment transactions to be included in the return,

(d) imposing an obligation on payment settlement entities to request, on or after a date specified in regulations, a tax reference number from merchants, which date shall not be earlier than the date such regulations come into force, for the purposes of including that number in a return under regulations,

(e) imposing an obligation on every merchant to provide the payment settlement entity concerned with the relevant tax reference number upon request being made by such payment settlement entity, and

(f) specifying the details relating to the reportable payment transactions to be included in the return, including, but not limited to, the following—

(i) account and reference numbers,

(ii) information concerning the business or service conducted by the merchant,

(iii) information relating to the terminals used by the merchant, such as the number of terminals in use, the serial numbers of such terminals and the location of such terminals,

(iv) information relating to the merchant, including name, address, email address and contact numbers, and

(v) bank account information of merchants to and from which funds are transferred by the payment settlement entity.

(4) (a) A payment settlement entity shall make all reasonable efforts to obtain from a merchant that person’s tax reference number and the merchant shall provide to the payment settlement entity his or her tax reference number.

(b) Where the tax reference number provided for the purposes of this section is an individual’s PPS Number, the payment settlement entity shall only use that number (as so provided) for the purpose of including it in the return to be made under subsection (2) and for no other purpose.

(5) An authorised officer may at all reasonable times enter any premises or place of business of a payment settlement entity for the purposes of—

(a) determining whether—

(i) information included in a return made by a payment settlement entity was correct and complete, or

(ii) information not included in such a return was correctly not so included,

or

(b) examining the procedures put in place by that payment settlement entity for the purposes of ensuring compliance with that person’s obligations under this section.

(6) (a) Section 898O shall apply to—

(i) a failure by a payment settlement entity to deliver a return, and to each and every such failure, and

(ii) the making of an incorrect or incomplete return,

as it applies to a failure to deliver a return or to the making of an incorrect or incomplete return referred to in section 898O.

(b) A payment settlement entity which does not comply with—

(i) the requirements of an authorised officer in the exercise or performance of the officer’s powers or duties under this section or under regulations, or

(ii) any requirement imposed on the payment settlement entity by regulations made under subsection (2),

shall be liable to a penalty of €3,000.”.