District Court application to extend Annual Return date – Companies Act 2014

court application when you miss your annual return deadline

Annual Return date – extending

A company which has missed the deadline for filing its Annual Return and Accounts with the Companies Registration Office, may make an application to the District Court for an Order to extend its annual return date.

If you have missed your Annual Return filing deadline with the Companies Registration Office (CRO) your company will be incur a late filing fee of €100 with a further €3 per day for every day thereafter, up to a maximum of €1,200.

Your company will also lose its audit exemption and will be obliged to have its financial statements audited, for two years.  This results in higher accounting costs around €2000 per year.

We can apply to the District Court on your behalf for an Order to extend the time for submission of the Annual Return.

Fees

The application service is only €1200 plus VAT and outlays of €120, this includes Barrister and Court fees.

Please note filing of any outstanding Annual Returns is not included in the above but we can certainly assist with this also.

  • Providing a detailed reason for the failure to file the Annual Returns and Accounts.
  • Supplying support documentation to appear as exhibits to the Affidavit
  • That the outstanding Annual Returns and Accounts are ready to file when the Order is granted.

District Court Application procedure:

We then serve an Affidavit and Notice of Motion on the Companies Registration Office who in turn, will release their Letter of Consent

The Affidavit and Declaration of Service is then filed with the Court.

When the Order is granted, we file it with the Registrar of Companies and your company will then have 28 days to deliver the Annual Return/s and Accounts to the Registry.

When you submit your company’s Annual Return to the CRO within the extended time, the Annual Return will be deemed to have been delivered on time and the late filing penalties will not apply and your company will avoid losing its audit exemption.

The application eliminates the need to pay late filing penalties and more importantly, retains the company’s Audit Exemption which is otherwise lost for two years.

The company cannot represent itself and must engage a Solicitor or Barrister to make the application to the Court.

The company must make the application to the District Court where the location of the Registered Office is situated. However, in order for the application to be heard in the Dublin District Court, the company may change its registered office to avail of the familiarity of the Dublin District Court.

Cost of service: A company should consider the cost of the Late Penalty Fees and Audit Fees for two years against the cost of the application to the District Court.

When you submit your company’s annual return to the CRO within the extended time period specified by the Court, the annual return will be deemed to have been delivered on time and the late filing penalties will not apply and your company will avoid losing its audit exemption.