There are over 50,000 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 ensure that your correctly completed return is delivered to the CRO on-time. The only way of doing this is to file on-line.
Please note that filing of an annual return and its financial statements must be done online. It is not possible to submit paper copies of either document. All returns must be completed online and must also be paid for online. Mandatory e-filing was introduced on 1st June 2017.
After 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. 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.
- For more information on e-filing,you can viewa Youtube video on how to file a B1 on CORE at https://www.youtube.com/c/croirl
Payment must be made for an annual return online: The filing fee for an e-B1 is €20. Remember that if you have chosen to pay by credit card, payment will be taken immediately and is NON REFUNDABLE (as we cannot store card details). If you would prefer to pay by customer account, payment will not be deducted from your customer account until signatures are applied. Open a customer account online. 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.
If you have chosen to sign electronically and pay with a customer account or by credit card, then the submission is entirely electronic, so no signature page or cover sheet is needed unless your are signing as an EFA. As EFAs cannot in law certify the accounts they must attach an overall certificate to the patch page and file it with the CRO on or before the annual return's due date
Q: My financial statements pdf is too large and won't upload to CORE. What can I do?
A: PDF files should not be more than 5 mb. If your file is too large perhaps consider removing pictures/images from the financial statements. Copy the required text to a new Word processing document. There are other alternatives if using other Word Processors like CUTEFTP. Click File, Save As PDF. 3. Click the Radio Button “Minimise Size” and “Compress Pictures. Compress Pictures will offer options - the lower the resolution you choose - the smaller the size of the document. Click Ok and Save the Document as PDF. Reducing size of pdf accounts.pdf
Q: Will my Signature page be physically sent back if my annual return is non-compliant? No. Where documents are non-compliant they will no longer be physically sent back to the Presenter. An email will issue to the Presenter informing them that their document is sent back and that they must resubmit their B1, re-upload their financial statements, print and sign a new signature page and deliver it to the CRO within 14 days. Remember also that the signature page should not be submitted before the financial statements has been uploaded. Presenters cannot certify documents that have not been uploaded.
Companies and Presenters should ensure that they provide the correct email addresses to ensure they are alerted when their documents are sent back as they will no longer receive a letter or documents by post.
Q: Can I still send in a list of directorships with my signature page? A: The CRO will still accept a manual list of directorships with the signature page. Q: How will I sent in Shareholder lists? A: Shareholder lists continue to be taken in on CD’s.