Irish annual return

Annual Return Form B1

We can complete and submit your Annual Return online to the Companies Registration Office.

Your Irish company, whether trading or not, is obliged to file an Annual Return every year at the Companies Registration Office not later than 28 days from its statutory annual return date.

We also provide a company secretarial service and look after the filing of your company’s annual returns on a yearly basis.

The annual return is a document B1 which, shows details of the registration number, registered office address, authorised and issued share capital, members, their shareholding and any share transfers in the preceding year, directors and their details and the company secretary.

The annual return is made up to fourteen days after the AGM and must be filed with the Registrar with the accounts. An annual return is required to be delivered by an Irish company, whether trading or not, to the CRO once at least in every calendar year.

The signature page must be submitted to the CRO with original signatures within 28 days of having been submitted online. Failure to do so will result in the document submitted online being deemed never to have been filed.

A new company’s ARD is the date six months from its date of incorporation. Although not statutorily required to do so, the CRO has a policy of sending an ARD reminder to each company at its registered office in advance of the company’s ARD every year.

Where accounts are required to be attached to the annual return, the return filing deadline is either:

  • The company’s ARD plus 28 days
  • Company’s financial year end plus 9 months and 28 days – whichever is the earlier

Company Secretarial Service

As your company secretary we can also offer the preparation and submission of the annual return, showing the details of the directors, secretary, shareholders and any share transfers that occurred during the previous year.

Failure to File Annual Return

Should a company fail to file its annual return and accounts, the Registrar of Companies may have the company struck- off the register. Then the company ceases to exist and any assets become the property of the State. Where a company fails to do so, the company, every officer of the company (including every director) who is in default and any person in accordance with whose directions or instructions the directors of the company are accustomed to act and to whose directions or omissions the default is attributable, is in breach of their obligations under the Companies Act 2014.

The penalties for failure to file an annual return on time are late filing penalties and the loss of audit exemption, prosecution and the striking off the register of the company.

Irish Annual Return includes:

  • Company Name
  • Company registration number- provided by the Registrar on incorporation
  • Date that the return is made up to
  • Financial period covered by the return
  • Registered office address
  • Other addresses are required if statutory registers are not kept at the registered office
  • Company secretary’s name and address
  • Details of any political donations made by the company
  • Authorised share capital
  • Issued share capital
  • An analysis of issued share capital between shares paid for in cash and shares paid for otherwise than in cash
  • List of members
  • List of persons who have ceased to be members since the last return
  • Details of shares transferred since the last return
  • Directors’ names
  • Directors’ dates of birth
  • Directors’ nationality
  • Directors’ residential address
  • Directors’ occupations
  • Details of directors’ all other directorships

The following information must be annexed to the annual return by companies:

  • Profit and Loss account
  • Balance Sheet
  • Notes to the financial statements
  • Directors’ report

Where a company does not qualify for audit exemption the following additional accounting information is required:

  • An auditor’s report
  • Certification that the financial statements and the auditor’s report submitted are a true copy of those presented to the members of the company

Audit Exemption

Certain exemptions from these audit requirements are available to small and medium-sized companies as defined by the Companies Act 2014. If an annual return is filed late, the company, as a matter of Irish law, loses its entitlement to claim the audit exemption, not just in the current year but in the following year as well.