After a number of significant proposals in the committee stages, the Companies (Statutory Audits) Act 2018 has not changed the ability of companies who are late in filing an annual return to apply to the District Court to retain the audit exemption and avoid paying late filing penalties.
When the Bill was introduced, it was proposed that companies who wished to retain both the audit exemption and avoid paying late filing penalties, these companies would have to make an application to the High Court. This was a most unwelcome proposal and we are delighted that this has now been dropped.
Minister Humphreys also proposed an amendment to the 28 days rules to role this into an automatic 56 days instead of getting 28 days from the date you file the annual return to when the financial statements must be uploaded and the annual return signature page filed in the CRO. This amendment was also withdrawn.
After significant representations made by a large number of interested parties, the Act has left Section 343 of the Companies Act 2014 unchanged so companies that have missed the filing deadline will still be able to make an application to the District Court.
How Can CLS Help If You Have Missed Your Filing Deadline
How Can CLS Help
CLS Chartered Secretaries can assist companies to make the application to the District Court. We can give you a definitive time frame and fixed cost to making the application. Click here to download our District Court Application Form Inert Link. For more information please contact one of the team on 059 9186776 or cosec@clscs.ie
Significant and Welcome Changes to CORE
A contributing reason for not amending the district court rules is that the CRO are upgrading the CORE electronic filing system that companies use to e-file annual returns.
The new system will allow signed PDF signatures pages to be uploaded in CORE, which will mean there will be no requirement to send signatures pages by post for 95% of CRO forms. Yes this will include the B1 Annual Return!!
One of the main reasons for missing the deadline is the signature page not being received in the CRO before the filing deadline. This new system will make posting signatures pages redundant for most CRO forms.
There will also be a facility to email a link to clients so they can pay for the filing fees. The new system will be more user friendly, allow the administrator to view all the documents of the sub users, and a user friendly tab to show the progress of the filing.
The new system is not due to go live until Q2 2019 and CRO are currently testing the system for the Register of Friendly Societies.
If you are like us we are pretty excited for this new system to be introduced and we will keep you updated on its progress as soon as we hear more.
Until then its business as usual so make sure you:-
- File the annual return before the filing deadline
- Upload the financial statements in CORE before the signature page is filed in the CRO
- Use Express Post for sending the signature page to CRO for returns close to the filing deadline
- Monitor your CORE workspace and email address for any annual returns that have been returned by the CRO
- The job is not completed until the annual return and the financial statements are showing as received and registered!
Please Note:
Our CLS Insights aims to bring you practical information and news on Company Law and Company Secretarial. We cover the topics that matter to your business and give practical tips and also the benefit our experiences. Please remember this article is a guide and legal advice should always be obtained. If you have any queries please contact one of the team and we would be happy to help.
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