 | | | Increase in Audit Threshold for SMEs | | | | | Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton TD has announced that he is increasing the number of businesses exempt from the requirement to hire external auditors to the maximum level permitted under EU law, a move that is expected to save Irish SMEs up to €5million per year.
The Minister also announced that the Government at its last meeting approved his proposal to begin a process which will ensure that a reduction of 25% in the red tape imposed by Government on business can be achieved by the end of next year, resulting in savings of €500million to Irish businesses.
The increase in the audit exemption thresholds will mean that companies with a turnover of less than €8.8million and a balance sheet of less than €4.4million will be exempt from the statutory requirement to engage independent external auditors to examine their accounts, if they have 50 or fewer employees. This represents a 20.5% increase from the current thresholds of €3.65 and €7.3million respectively. It is estimated that a minimum of 1000-2500 small and medium-sized businesses will benefit from the move every year.
It is expected that the necessary procedures to give effect to the new audit thresholds will be in place by 30 April 2012. | | | | |
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