Frequently Asked Questions Page 2

There are three ways to obtain a Duplicate Certificate (with original signature)

1. Call in to the public office at 14 Parnell Square, Dublin 1, where you can obtain a short certificate (no previous names on the certificate). Occasionally it is not possible to generate a long certificate (showing all previous names) at the time of the request. In these cases the certificate will be available in two to three working days and may then be collected or posted to the customer.

2. Write in to Postal Enquiries, Companies Registration Office, Parnell House, 14 Parnell Square, Dublin 1, stating the company/business name and number (if available). Where applicable, please indicate if you want the duplicate cert to show any previous company names.

3. If you hold an account with the Companies Registration Office, you can e-mail your request to mailto: postalenquiries@djei.ie  Please state your account number, authorisation for deduction from your account and whether or not the cert is to be posted to you or will be collected.

The fee for a Duplicate Certificate is €12.

You can obtain a Duplicate Certificate for public sector use only - free of charge, simply by entering an email address and the company/business name number.  Link to Duplicate Certificate Facility

The duplicate certificate is emailed in PDF format. Acrobat Reader is required to view PDF documents and can be downloaded for free from the Adobe website. Please note that you can order a duplicate certificate for both a Company or a Business Name. When ordering a duplicate certificate online, please ensure that the 'business type' corresponds to the certificate you require. You can check your number using the Company Search Facility.

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Depending on circumstances, a company may be entitled to claim audit exemption. There are a number of conditions that have to be met. Please see Audit Exemption page for further details. A company which is registered as a Private Limited by Guarantee without Share Capital is not entitled to Audit Exemption and cannot amend itself to become another type of company.

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The first Annual Return Date (ARD) is the date which is six months after the date of incorporation. An annual return must be submitted, however, no accounts need be attached to this first return. Second and subsequent ARDs will fall on the anniverary of the company's first ARD, unless the company elects to change its ARD, and accounts are required with these returns.

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No, a fax copy is not acceptable, as all documents submitted to the CRO must bear original signatures. Please also see Common Errors page regarding filing annual returns. Please also Practical Steps page with regarding to submitting documents by post to the CRO.

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An Annual Return Date (ARD) of a company is the latest date to which an annual return must be made up. The annual return must be filed with the CRO within 28 days of the date to which it is made up. Please see Filing an Annual Return. Please also see Common Errors page regarding filing annual returns.

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Yes, an appeal can be made, but there are limited circumstances in which a waiver will be considered. Please see Penalty Waiver page.

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Yes. However Form B73 ought not to be filed with a company's first annual return (made up to the date which is 6 months post-incorporation, no accounts attached) as such filing shortens the timescale within which accounts have to be filed by the company - for example a company incorporated on 10 February 2010 is due to make its first annual return (without accounts) up to 10 August 2010.

On filing this return, its next annual return date becomes 10 August 2011. If the company files a B73 with its first return, however, it creates a new ARD, being the date nominated by it on the B73, and accounts will have to be attached to its second return which can be made up to 10 February 2011 at the latest.

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Yes, an ARD can be altered and may require the submission of an additional form to the annual return, depending on the circumstances. Please see required steps for ARD Change and Information Leaflet 22.

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A late filing penalty of €100 becomes due in respect of an annual return on the day after the expiry of the filing deadline, which deadline is 28 days after the effective date of the return, with a daily penalty amount of €3 accruing thereafter, up to a maximum penalty of €1,200 per return. This penalty is in addition to the standard filing fee of €40 per return. See also Missed Deadline page.

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 A company can be dissolved following Liquidation or following strike-off, which can be either Voluntary Strike-off or Involuntary Strike-off. Voluntary strike-off requires that a company have no assets or liabilities and be up-to-date with their annual returns.

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The restoration of a company is dependent on the means that the company was dissolved. A company that has been struck off the register can be restored within 20 years of the dissolution. Restoration can be made in one of two ways depending on the amount of time since dissolution - Administrative Action and Court Order.

A company that has been dissolved following a completed liquidation can have the dissolution declared void, only within 2 years of the dissolution, by court order.

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No. Provided all outstanding annual returns are filed before the complete application for voluntary strike-off is received, no further returns are required to be filed with the CRO. For example, where a company's Annual Return Date is 30th September and a complete application for voluntary strike-off, that satisfies all the requirements set out above, is received and registered on 10th September, the annual return due to be made up to 30th September is not required to be filed.

However, please note that in order to qualify for voluntary strike-off, a company must be up to date with its annual filing requirements as at the date it lodges with the CRO an application for voluntary strike-off which application satisfies all the requirements set out above. This means that in the event that a voluntary strike off application does not comply with any of these requirements and is returned to the presenter, that company will have to ensure that it is up-to-date with its annual return filing requirements as at the date it re-lodges an application which does satisfy all CRO requirements.

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A company can seek voluntary strike-off but only in particular circumstances and following submission of certain information. Form H15 must be completed. Please see Voluntary Strike-off for more details.

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The CRO register of charges records "the persons entitled to the charge" as one of the mandatory items specified in section 103 CA 1963 (section 103(1)(b)(vi) CA 1963).

In the event that there is a change in the identity of the lender under a registered charge during the lifetime of that charge, it is possible to have the details of the person entitled to the charge amended on the CRO register by submitting a request in writing addressed to Mortgages Section, CRO, and supplying a certified copy of the deed of novation or deed of transfer, as appropriate, for verification purposes.

CRO having received the foregoing, will be in a position to amended the "Person Entitled" details on the register in respect of the charge concerned.

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In the case of a company incorporated in the State:

Form C1 (Application to register particulars of a charge in the State),· Form 47B (C3) (Particulars of a charge subject to which property has been acquired) - 47a (C4) (Series of Debentures), 48 (C5) (Further issue of debentures) are filed with the CRO within 21 days of the creation of the charge. Filing fee €40.

In the case of a company incorporated outside the State and which has an established place of business or branch in the State: · Form 8E (particulars of a charge on property in the State created by a company incorporated outside the State) · Form 9E (particulars of a charge subject to which property in the State has been acquired).

Form C2/47c has a filing fee of €15.

Forms C6 (full satisfaction) and C7 (partial satisfaction) are filed where the charge has been satisfied. Satisfactions have filing fees of €15. See Mortgages page for more details.

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The acts state rather who can't be liquidator to a company - please see Winding Up page for further details. There are no formal qualifications necessary to be a liquidator of a company.

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A company can return to Normal status and recommence trading but only following an order of the High Court. Please see Winding Up page for further information.

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Ireland is party to the EC Convention, Council of Europe Convention and the Hague Convention. Please see the Statutory Declaration page with regards to requirements for authentication of Irish forms being sworn abroad.

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No. Once the company has been placed in Liquidation, the returns of the liquidator are submitted each year - forms E3, E4 (22/23) etc depending on the type of liquidation. Liquidation submissions have filing fees of €15 each.

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If ineffective, the company is deemed to be in a Creditors Voluntary Winding Up rather than a Members Voluntary Winding Up, and would necessitate application to the High Court . Therefore it is important to file the document correctly. Please see Declaration Page.

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The information available here is an extract from the Registers of Disqualified and Restricted Persons, which are updated regularly.

Other Registers available:

The Auditors Register can be searched online.

The list of the partnerships on the Register of Limited Partnerships is also available.

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Please see: Forms for Companies and Business Names and Forms for the Registrar of Friendly Societies.

Information leaflets are also available. Statistics can be obtained from the Companies Annual report available on the Corporate page. The CRO cannot provide any statistical analysis on behalf of a member of the public. The CRO Gazette details some of the documents registered in the CRO on a weekly basis as well as strike-off lists.

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Increasingly forms can be filed online with the CRO. We hope to expand the number of documents that can be filed online in the future. Currently the most popular types of form - B1, B2, B10 and G1 can be filed online at www.core.ie as well as applications to register a business name. Please see E-Filing Frequently Asked Questions regarding CORE.

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