New B1 & Auditor Registration Number

The CRO introduced the new Form B1 with effect from 1st April 2011. From 4th October, the old version of the B1 will no longer be accepted by the CRO in respect of returns delivered to the CRO.

If you manually file Annual Returns (please consider using CORE!) ensure that you are using the new B1 form otherwise the return will be rejected by the CRO which may result in the return being late resulting in the loss of audit exemption and imposition of late filing penalties.

The new B1 Form includes a new field for the Auditor Registration Number “ARN”. An ARN must be inserted when an audited set of accounts is being filed at the CRO. The purpose of the ARN is to notify the registered auditor that their number has been used to file an Audit Report at the CRO.  The CRO will send an email once a month to these Auditors and they should check to ensure that their ARN has not been used incorrectly.

Amalgamated Accounts

The CRO have advised that from 31st December 2011 the CRO will not accept amalgamated accounts in any circumstances. Up to this date, if you are restoring a company, the CRO will accept individual accounts for the most recent 3 years accounts and then amalgamate the previous years into 1 set of accounts.

If you are in the process of restoring or considering restoring a company to the Register of Companies, I would encourage you to act quickly in preparing the audit accounts and starting the restoration process. If you require assistance in restoring a company to the Register, please contact John Murphy on 053 910 0000, [email protected]

ROS Signatures & PDF Accounts

The CRO’s online facility CORE allows Directors to sign B1 Annual Returns and Financial Statements using their ROS digital certificates. Using a ROS Digital Certificate instead of generating a signing page allows Directors to satisfy their filing requirements without having to manually file signature pages with the CRO.

There is also a facility to file financial statements through PDF.

Should you have any questions in relation to this article or should you have any Company Law or Company Secretarial queries please contact John Murphy on 053 910 0000, [email protected]