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Small Company Audit Exemption

 

All Irish Companies are required to have their financial statements audited, except where they meet the criteria for, and actually claim, the audit exemption.

Criteria

An Irish limited liability Company can claim the audit exemption provided that its last annual return was filed within the required period, and the Company meets the following criteria in both the financial year in question and in the previous financial year:

  • Has a turnover not exceeding €8,800,000
  • Has a balance sheet total not exceeding €4,400,000
  • Has an average number of employees not exceeding 50;
  • No objection has been received from more than 10% of the shareholders;
  • Is not a parent company or a subsidiary company (within the meaning of the European Communities (Companies: Group Accounts) Regulations, 1992); and
  • Does not come within one of the 19 classes of companies listed in the Second Schedule to the Companies (Amendment) (No.2) Act 1999 (e.g. companies such as insurance companies, banks etc)

Availing Of the Exemption

The decision to avail of an audit exemption should be recorded by the Directors in a Minute, or Resolution, noting that the Directors are of the opinion that the Company can satisfy the specific conditions set out in Section 32 of the Companies (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1999 (as amended) for a particular year end.