Ireland · Financial statements, the annual return and audit

Voluntary revision of defective financial statements and reports

the Companies Act 2014 · sections 366 to 369, 371 and 374 to 377

A company that finds an error after filing cannot simply file a corrected set. Where copies of the original statutory financial statements or the original directors' report have already been laid before the members in general meeting or delivered to the Registrar, section 366(2) governs what the revision may do and how it must be effected, by replacement or by supplementary note. The route chosen changes what has to be sent and to whom.

The deadlines that follow the revision are short and they are separate. The auditors' report made in accordance with section 371(2) must be delivered to the Registrar within 2 months after the date of the revision (section 371(3)). The directors must send the copies section 374(2) requires to the persons it names, and must also send a copy of the revised financial statements or revised directors' report to the further persons section 374(3) names not more than 28 days after the date of revision.

Sections 366 to 369 govern the voluntary revision of statutory financial statements and of the directors' report, the form the revision may take, the effect of a revision on the original documents and the auditors' involvement in it. Sections 371 and 374 to 377 govern the reporting, publication, laying and delivery that follow a revision.

The revision regime exists so that a defective set can be corrected without waiting for the next financial year. The price of that is a fixed set of consequential steps, and each of those steps carries its own recipient list and its own period. A revision that is prepared but not circulated leaves two versions in circulation at once.

Working files 61 and 62 of the IE-COMPANY agent toolkit cover this situation. Working file 61 works through the decision to revise, the defect identified, the route chosen and the documents produced. Working file 62 works through publication, laying and delivery: who received the revised documents, on what date, when the auditors' report reached the Registrar and whether the 2-month and 28-day periods were met.

• Working file 61 · Voluntary revision of defective financial statements and reports
• Working file 62 · Publication, laying and delivery of revised financial statements

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
• Notes on related undertakings, staff numbers, capital and financial assistance
• 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
• Appointing, removing and replacing the statutory auditor

The Irish library holds all 75 situations →