The Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment has announced the commencement of Section 22 of the Companies (Corporate Governance, Enforcement and Regulatory Provisions) Act 2024, which changes the audit exemption regime for small and micro-sized companies. This prevents automatic loss of audit exemption on the first occasion of late filing.
Ireland: New Audit Exemption for Small & Micro Companies
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Ireland
Author: Ema Stamenković
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Content accuracy validation date:
29.07.2025
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The Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, has today announced the commencement of Section 22 of the Companies (Corporate Governance, Enforcement and Regulatory Provisions) Act 2024.
This provides for a change to the current audit exemption regime, whereby small and micro sized companies will not, in future, automatically lose the privilege of audit exemption on a first occasion, in a five-year period, of late filing of an annual return with the Companies Registration Office (CRO).
Section 22 of the Companies Act 2014 replaces Section 363, which states that a company forfeits its audit exemption if it fails to file an annual return for the first time. The updated regime is as follows:
- Stipulates that if a small business fails to submit its annual return and has not filed an annual return in any of the preceding five fiscal years, it will not be eligible for an audit exemption for the next two years.
- Additionally stipulates that a company's first annual return or prior failure to file an annual return prior to the implementation of the provision (since the company has already forfeited its audit exemption) will not be regarded as a prior failure.
With this new approach, late filing fees are retained in all situations, but small businesses are not further penalized by losing their audit exemption, even though a single late filing may occur during any five-year period.
The remaining 2024 Act provisions, which will go into effect later in 2025, deal with various filing and administrative issues pertaining to the CRO.
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