Annual Returns and Accounts
An Annual Return (B1 Form) is a document setting out prescribed company information which is required to be delivered by the company to the CRO at least once a year. The B1 must be accompanied with the documents required by CA 2014 to be annexed to it, which for the majority of companies are the financial statements.
Every company has a statutory Annual Return Date (ARD). This is the latest date in the year that the annual return can be made up to. The ARD is the anniversary of the ARD in the previous year (unless the company changes it) and for new companies it is fixed as a date six months after their incorporation.
Failure to file your annual return within 28 days of your ARD can result in late filing penalties being imposed (€100 + €3.00 per day) and a loss of audit exemption.
Six Month Annual Returns
Companies have a statutory Annual Return Date (ARD). This is the latest date in the year that the annual return can be made up to. The ARD is the anniversary of the ARD in the previous year (unless the company changes it).
For new companies it is fixed as a date six months after their incorporation. In other words if your company is incorporated on 30th December 2016 you will need to file a Six Month Annual Return made up to 30th June 2017.
No financial statements need to be affixed to your six month annual return, however failure to file within the 28 days from your ARD will still result in late filing penalties of €100 + €3.00 per day being levied by the CRO.
Audit Exemption
The Companies Act 2014 extends the previous legislation and, providing that certain requirements are met, allows additional company types to avail of the exemption from having their financial statements audited. It is important to note that this does not exempt these companies from the statutory requirement to prepare financial statements, lay them before the company’s AGM and file them with the annual return.
There are two kinds of audit exemption:
- Small Company/Group Audit Exemption
- Dormant Company Audit Exemption