It's that time of year. Your tax return form (CT1) has just been filed, and if your Year end is December 31 st, the chances are your Annual Return is also due. This is much better left to an accountant you can trust, but if like me, you want to do it yourself, this article will help you. I thought it was an easy process, ‘till I did it, so I decided to write out the key steps, along with links as to where you can get the appropriate information.It is also worth noting, that late filing, removes small companies from the Audit Exemption.

An annual return is required to be delivered by a company, whether trading or not, to the CRO once at least in every calendar year. This can be done manually or electronically. This date is normally fixed, based on when you registered the company initially, unless you had requested a change. It is important to also note that you have 28 days from the Annual Return Date (ARD) in which to file the accounts, or else you will incur rather nasty penalties.

It is also worth noting, that late filing, removes small companies from the Audit Exemption.

Before you start it is important that you have the following information to hand, as it can be a real pain, looking for it one you have started.

A set of accounts, where the year end was no more than 9 months ago

A copy of your company register that has been kept up to date.

In addition to filling your B1 form, which can be downloaded from the CRO as “Form B1 Version 3” or filled in online at Form B1 V3 Fillable. If you are a small audit exempt company, you will also need to supply, in a prescribed format:

An abridged copy of the balance sheet. (This format is available as a template)

A copy of the Director's report;

Many small businesses are exempt from filling the auditors; the 4 key criteria are as follows;

The company is a company to which the Companies (Amendment) Act 1986 applies;

The company has turnover of less than €317.434.52 during its financial year, save that where the current financial year commences on or after 1 July 2004, the requirement is that the company's turnover be less than €1,500,000 during its financial year;

The assets of the company are less than €1,904,607.10 at the end of its financial year; and

The company has an average of less than 50 employees for the year.

A company must satisfy each of the foregoing conditions, in the current year and also the preceding year, in order to qualify for the exemption. This exemption is limited to small private companies. There are also other types of companies that may not avail of this exemption. For a full list of criteria, see the CRO Information Leaflet 10.

As I mentioned, most accountants have software to format and create these reports. If like me you want to do it yourself, you may be interested in knowing that I created a template in Microsoft word.

This satisfies the abridged accounts, reporting requirements, if you have got an audit exemption. With this form, you just drop in your own information, and it will all be formatted correctly. If you are interested, contact us, and we will send you a copy.