The Companies (Amendment) Bill 2019 has just been published – its only purpose is to amend section 343 of the Companies Act 2014 with respect to the time periods allowed for filing a company's annual return.
At present, a company must file its annual return together with its statutory financial statements with the CRO within 28 days of its annual return date.
Where the annual return is filed electronically, section 344 of the 2014 Act grants companies an extra 28 days to deliver the accompanying financial statements to the CRO. Given that all annual returns must now be filed electronically, this section has become redundant and will be deleted.
Once enacted, companies will have a straight 56 days after their annual return date to file both their annual return and financial statements and will no longer have to e-file the return on Day 28 to have the additional 28 day period to complete the filing.
The Bill will now move through the Houses of the Oireachtas before it becomes law.
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