2014 Ezine Newsletter


Email Newsletter
The CRO newsletter facility allows subscribers to receive regular news updates from the office by email. These emails are delivered in text format:

1. CRO E-Zine
This is an electronic bulletin published once a month. It informs all subscribers of the current developments within the Office and also notifies subscribers of future events.

2. Interim Messages
The email newsletter service is effectively split in two (though only one subscriber list is used). Every subscriber receives delivery of the CRO E-Zine once every month. In the interim subscribers may receive further updates if necessary from the Office (urgent or time sensitive messages).

ANNUAL RETURNS - OCTOBER PEAK

Companies with an annual return date of 30 September and a filing deadline of 28 October are requested to file early and preferably to file on-line.

If you file on-line you will have an extra 28 days from the date of filing to deliver your paper attachments to the CRO andthe filing fee is only €20.

You can now also file your return fully on-line by uploading PDF accounts, signing using ROS signatures and paying by credit/debit card. See article below.

If an annual return is filed late, late filing penalties apply and, where applicable, the company also loses its entitlement
to claim audit exemption (which cannot be appealed) 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 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.

TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

Taking Care of Business will take place in the Conference Centre, Dublin Caste on 16th October, 2014 from 8.30am to 1.30pm. This unique event has been specifically designed to help small and start-up businesses
understand and benefit from the services provided by many of our State offices and agencies. Register on-line at www.takingcareofbusiness.ie or you can email info@takingcareofbusiness.ie. Attendance is free.

AUDIT EXEMPTION

Following enquiries from companies in the insurance industry, the CRO wishes to confirm that the Second Schedule to the Companies (Amendment)(No.2) Act 1999 continues in full force and effect in relation to the filing of annual returns with the CRO. This Schedule lists the classes of companies for the purposes of Section 32 of that Act that are NOT eligible for audit exemption - see Second Schedule 

 http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1999/en/act/pub/0030/sched2.html#sched2

 It should be noted that these provisions have been carried forward to the Companies Bill 2012 which is expected to be enacted before the end of 2014 and commenced in mid-2015.

The full list of conditions attaching to claiming audit exemption can be viewed on the CRO website at Audit Exemption 

https://www.cro.ie/Annual-Return/Accounts-Requirements/Audit-Exemption

The main conditions are:

  • the company must be a Private Limited Company,
  • the annual return must be filed on time in the current year and have been filed on time in the most recent year when an annual return with accounts attached was filed by the company,
  • the company must meet ALL of the following 3 conditions in the financial year for which accounts are being filed and have met them in the previous financial year:

     - Balance Sheet total does not exceed €4.4m,

     - Turnover does not exceed €8.8m,

      - Average number of Employees does not exceed 50,

  • the company must NOT be a Parent company or a Subsidiary company,
  • the company must NOT come within one of classes of excluded companies listed in the Second Schedule to the Companies (Amendment)(No.2) Act 1999,
  • the company must NOT be a company to which the EC (Insurance Undertakings: Accounts) Regulations 1996 apply.

NEW AREA ON CRO WEBSITE FOR COMPANIES BILL

The Companies Act 1963-2013 will shortly be replaced by a new Companies Act.  The legislation is currently passing through the Oireachtas. It is expected to be enacted before the end of 2014 and commenced in mid-2015.

On foot of this CRO has added an area to the website, this tab being called Companies Bill. Strike-off information has now been added to this tab.

ANNUAL RETURNS FILED IN 2014 FOR 2015

The Companies Acts state that a company must file an annual return at least once in each calendar year.  A company with a 2015 ARD date must file an annual return with an effective date made up to, at minimum, 1st January 2015  in order to meet this requirement and move their next ARD on to 2016.

 FULLY ELECTRONIC FILING OF ACCOUNTS NOW AVAILABLE - REMINDER

The Companies Act 2013 commenced in March 2014 and removed the requirement for accounts documents filed with the CRO to include the handwritten signatures of Directors and Auditors etc. Instead the signatures now only need to appear
in TYPED form on each document.

Where accounts with typed names only are delivered to the Registrar, the Act requires them to be certified by a Director and Secretary of the company, in either electronic or written form, stating that each of the accounts documents annexed to the annual return is a true copy of the original.

If filing on-line, this certification can now be done on the e-B1 form.

For more information, including information on account types which may be annexed to an annual return, go to:

https://www.cro.ie/Services/E-Filing/File-Accounts-Electronically

 CHECKING THE STATUS OF ANNUAL RETURNS FILED DURING PEAK

The CRO has put in place a number of methods by which customers can monitor the status of annual return filings (both on-line and paper) using CORE (the CRO online registration environment) and the CRO website.
Customers are asked where possible to use these methods to monitor the status of filings and to only contact CRO if the status of a submission does not appear as "received" after 10 working days
of being posted or delivered to CRO.

https://www.cro.ie/en-ie/Publications/Publications/Newsletter/2014-Ezine/ArtMID/1245/ArticleID/836/2014-07-08-Issue-133

 FILING DOCUMENTS WITH CRO DURING THE PEAK

If posting an annual return to the CRO it should be sent to CRO,O’Brien Road, Carlow. The office in Carlow is for receipt of
postal lodgements only and is not a public office.

Alternatively, presenters can hand deliver to the CRO's Public Office in Parnell Square where you will be provided with a
receipt for your documents.

The Public Office is open from 9.30am to 4.30pm. Personal callers are reminded that the queues can be shorter in the Public Office in the morning time and should consider lodging their documents as early as possible to ensure they can be checked and receipts issued on the day.

Account holders should ensure that there is enough money in the account to cover the transaction before submitting their
documents.

ANNUAL RETURNS LOST OR DELAYED IN THE POST

CRO receives regular requests from companies to treat annual returns lost or delayed in the post as received on time.

Section 127 of the Companies Act 1963 places the responsibility for prompt delivery of documents to the Registrar of Companies on the companies themselves. Therefore, under the law, the CRO cannot grant any concessions in respect of documents which are not delivered to the Registrar on time as a result of being lost or delayed in the ordinary post.

The only circumstances in which such an application will be considered is where the company can provide independent documentary evidence of having posted or dispatched the documents using a form of time guaranteed service, on a date which, under the guarantee, should have resulted in on-time delivery to the CRO, AND where the service requires the collection of a signature as proof of delivery.

There are a number of service providers offering time guaranteed delivery services with proof of delivery. For example, An Post's Express Post service offers a guarantee of next working day delivery and requires a signature to be obtained on delivery at its destination.  Please note that a "certificate of postage" does not meet the criteria as it does not provide proof of delivery.

 

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