Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent)
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236. To ask the Minister for Trade, Enterprise and Employment if a derogation of the standing sanction of mandatory audit of accounts for two years to SME businesses that fail to file their annual returns to the Companies Registration Office on time has been considered for those companies that had to file for 31 October 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33754/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Companies, which meet specific criteria, may, under the terms of Chapter 15 Part 6 Companies Act 2014, avail of an exemption from the requirement to have the financial statements which are appended to its annual return audited. A company must qualify as a small company (or micro company). As such, it is statutory provision and I would have no discretion in the matter.

It should be noted that the Registrar of Companies has taken a number of decisions, in light of the Covid-19 situation, to assist companies with the filing of annual returns. In March, the Registrar announced that all annual returns, where the deadline for filing fell between 18th March 2020 and 30th June 2020 (both dates inclusive), would be treated as received on time if all elements were submitted by 30th June 2020. In May, this arrangement was further extended until 31st October 2020. At that time, the Registrar indicated her reluctance to providing any further extension later in the year, being mindful of the need to balance the public interest in having up to date company information available against the difficulties caused by Covid-19.

The Registrar did commit to keeping the situation under review and on 12th October announced a decision that any company with an Annual Return Date of between 30th September 2020 and 31st December 2020 (both dates inclusive) will be deemed to have filed on time if all elements of the annual return are completed and filed by 26th February 2021.

For those companies with an Annual Return Date prior to 30th September, the Registrar has announced that the Form B1 must be filed online by 31st October and the remaining elements of the annual return will be accepted if delivered by the date indicated on the signature page.

In a further response to the challenges being experienced by companies due to the Covid-19 situation, the Companies (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Covid-19) Act 2020 was enacted over the Summer and came into operation on 21st August 2020. Section 6 of that Act provides that a company may opt to hold its Annual General Meeting on a date that is not later than 31st December 2020. Companies that need to avail of this provision can file annual returns up to 26th February 2021. The CRO has advised that this should only be a necessity on an exceptional basis, where company rules require the financial statements to be laid before an AGM prior to filing an annual return, and such companies should get in touch with the CRO.

I understand that significant numbers of companies have managed to file their annual returns and have not needed to avail of the full extended filing period. The CRO has indicated that, as of 28th October, over 71% of companies who are due to file by end October have already completed their filing while a further 22% of companies have partly filed.