CRO Interim Ezine 148d 21st October 2015

ANNUAL RETURNS - OCTOBER PEAK

There are 40,000 companies with an annual return date of 30 September and a filing deadline of 28 October. If you are filing an annual return in respect of one of these companies, you are requested to take precautions to ensure that your return is filed on-time and the best way of doing this is to file on-line.

If you submit your B1 on-line you will have another 28 days from the date of submission to deliver your signature page and financial statements to the CRO. The filing fee for an e-B1 is €20 and fora paper B1 is €40.

If an annual return is filed late, late filing penalties apply and, where applicable, the company also loses its entitlement
to claim audit exemption in the current year and in the following year.

Should you experience difficulties filing your form on-line, help with the content of the form can be obtained from:

LoCall 1890-252536* / 059-9178981 / 01-8045394 /01-8045377 or eb1@djei.ie

Help with technical or IT issues is available from:01-8045374  / 01 8045307 / 01 8045355 or electronic.filing@djei.ie 

* Note that the rates charged for the use of 1890 (LoCall) numbers may vary among different service providers.

FULLY E-FILING OF FINANCIAL STATEMENTS NOW AVAILABLE

Fully electronic filing of an annual return is now possible through CORE – www.core.ie and other private software packages:

- The B1 can be submitted on-line, documents signed and certified by means of ROS certificates and payment can be made by Customer Account or by credit card,

- Financial Statements can be uploaded as a pdf attachment by clicking in your Workspace. 

This removes the risk associated with posting documents as the e-filed documents will be listed for processing in the CRO as soon as the Financial Statements accounts are uploaded. It also saves on expensive printing and postage costs.

See https://www.cro.ie/Services/E-Filing/File-Accounts-Electronically or view a Youtube video on how to file a B1 on CORE at https://www.youtube.com/c/croirl

SOME TIPS TO ENSURE THE ANNUAL RETURN IS FILED CORRECTLY

1. When submitting a B1 form on CORE, unless using ROS signatures, you must print down and sign the signature page and deliver the signature page and financial statements (where applicable) to the CRO within 28 days of submitting the document on CORE.

2. When you register on CORE, you can set up a Company Watch to check the status of paper submissions posted to the CRO or submissions filed on-line. Status changes appear in My Events in CORE. After e-filing a B1 on CORE and sending the signature page to the CRO, if the status of the B1 does not change from “submitted” to “received” within 3 weeks, you should contact the CRO.

3. On the B1 form, when certifying the Financial Statements (on Page 5 of paper form), the Act(s) quoted in the Certification box you tick,must match the Act(s) that the financial statements attached to the B1 form are prepared under.

4. The correct sections of the 2014 Companies Act to be quoted in the Abridgement Exemption Statement on the Balance Sheet are 352 and 353 (not 351 and 352). The Balance Sheet must contain this Statement when abridging. For further information, see paragraph 3.5 of CRO Information Leaflet No. 23.

5. Please note that the optimal web browser to use when accessing the CORE and ROS systems is "Mozilla Firefox",

6. For best results when using CORE, make sure "enable pop-ups" is turned on in your web browser.

DO NOT LEAVE IT TO THE LAST MINUTE TO FILE YOUR 2015 ANNUAL RETURN

CRO regularly receives calls from presenters who miss their annual return filing deadline because (a) they encountered technical problems while attempting to submit their B1 electronically on the last day, or (b) they posted their documents to the CRO a day or two before their deadline and they were delayed in the post.

In light of the very serious consequences of late filing (ie late penaltiesand loss of audit exemption), CRO would exhort companies not to leave it to the last day to submit your B1 on-line as there is a risk that a temporary issue with your PC, your broadband service, web browser or server could prevent you from completing the filing on time.

Similarly, if you are sending documents to the CRO close to your filing deadline, CRO advises you to use a form of time guaranteed delivery service which provides proof of delivery. There are a number of providers offering this service (eg An Post's Express Post service).

The 2014 Companies Act places the responsibility on the company itself for on-time DELIVERY of its annual return to the CRO.

IF AN ANNUAL RETURN IS DELIVERED LATE, THE CRO HAS NO DISCRETION IN RELATION TO THE APPLICATION OF PENALTIES AND LOSS OF AUDIT EXEMPTION.

For more information, please see Missed Deadlines page or Information leaflet 39.

APPLYING TO DISTRICT COURT FOR EXTRA TIME TO FILE AN ANNUAL RETURN

Under section 343(5) of the 2014 Companies Act, applications for an extension of time to file an annual return can be made through the District Court.

As a result, CRO can no longer engage in correspondence with companies appealing the application of penalties as a result of the late filing of an annual return. Instead, companies may apply to the District Court in the district court area where their registered office is situated, for extra time to file.

Subject to the company having first put the Registrar of Companies on notice, the District Court will hear applications for an extension of time to file the annual return and may make an Order extending the time to file. Where a company files the annual return within the extra time specified by the Court, the documents will be treated by the CRO as having been received on time. As a result, the consequences of late filing (late penalties and loss of audit exemption) will not apply to that annual return. Please note that a company must have legal representation when making an application to court.

For more information, please see Missed Deadlines page or Information leaflet 39.

Please login or register to post comments.

Theme picker