Ireland · Financial statements, the annual return and audit

Notes on related undertakings, off balance sheet arrangements, staff, capital and financial assistance

the Companies Act 2014 · sections 314, 316 to 319 and 321 to 323

The related undertakings note is long, and it is the one most often carried forward unchanged from the previous year. Where at the end of a financial year a company has a subsidiary undertaking, or holds an interest of the kind section 314(1) describes, the information that section requires must be given, subject to section 314(2A) and the other provisions of the section. A group that acquired or disposed of an undertaking during the year has a new note to write, not an old one to reprint.

Staff numbers are calculated, not estimated. The information section 317(1) lists must be given in the notes with respect to the employees of the company, and in respect of all persons employed during the year who are taken into account in determining the relevant annual number under section 317(1)(a), the further particulars in section 317(2) must be given. The same method feeds the size classification under section 280A, so an inaccurate figure moves the company into the wrong regime.

Section 314 requires information on related undertakings and section 316 provides the exemption that shifts part of that information to the annual return. Sections 317 and 318 require disclosure of staff particulars and of share capital and debentures. Section 319 requires the entity financial statements to show the aggregate amount of financial assistance provided by the company in the financial year (section 319(1)), and requires the same information for the group where group financial statements are prepared (section 319(2)).

Sections 321 to 323 require disclosure of accounting policies, of the remuneration of the statutory auditors and of the other matters the sections list. These notes are read together with the Schedule 3 note requirements, so a company using the small companies regime answers the Schedule 3A version rather than the Schedule 3 version of the same point.

Working files 50, 51 and 52 of the IE-COMPANY agent toolkit cover this situation. Working file 50 works through related undertakings and off balance sheet arrangements. Working file 51 works through staff particulars, share capital and debentures. Working file 52 works through financial assistance, accounting policies and auditors' remuneration. Each file asks where the underlying figure comes from and who checked it, so the note can be evidenced rather than asserted.

• Working file 50 · Information on related undertakings and off balance sheet arrangements
• Working file 51 · Disclosure of staff particulars and of share capital and debentures
• Working file 52 · Disclosure of financial assistance, accounting policies and auditors' remuneration

ComplianceSME tracks the Companies Act 2014 and updates the toolkit on your account through the Compliance Complete account, so that you are never working from a superseded version. Compliance Complete

• Company size, the financial year and accounting records
• Preparing entity and group financial statements
• Disclosing directors' remuneration, loans and other transactions
• Approving and signing the financial statements and the directors' report
• The audit requirement, the audit exemption and the dormant company exemption
• Circulating the financial statements and delivering the annual return
• Revising defective financial statements and reports
• Appointing, removing and replacing the statutory auditor

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