Section 22 of the Companies (Corporate Governance, Enforcement and Regulatory Provisions) Act 2024 provides for a change to the current audit exemption regime, whereby small and micro sized companies will not, in future, automatically lose the privilege of audit exemption on a first occasion, in a five year period, of late filing of an annual return with the Companies Registration Office (CRO). This will ease the burden on small and micro sized companies and is considered appropriate, bearing in mind the importance of timely filing of annual returns with the CRO and having a proportionate penalty regime for late filing.
CRO IT development work was required to facilitate the amended audit exemption regime. This work is now complete and I expect that this section will be commenced in the coming weeks.