The Irish government is planning to increase
the number of businesses exempt from mandatory audit to the maximum
level permitted under European law.
The new thresholds will allow companies with a
turnover of less than €8.8m ($12.5m), a balance sheet of €4.4m and
fewer then 50 employees to be exempt from the statutory audit
requirement.
The previous threshold was 20% less, with
€7.3m for the turnover and €3.65m for the balance sheet.
The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and
Innovation Richard Bruton expects to save Irish SMEs up to €5m per
year, with an estimated minimum of 1,000-2,500 companies benefiting
from the move.
Bruton said the total cost of
Government-imposed regulation on Irish business has been estimated
at €2bn per year and the change “will mean that a minimum of 1,000
extra businesses will not have to spend the money and time
necessary to engage auditors”.
As of yet the ministerial regulations are
still to be drafted and there is currently no company
implementation date.
