Due to the increasing thresholds of the Companies Acts most Private Limited Companies in Ireland do not require a statutory audit. However there are some exceptions to this rule. These are:

Group structures

Although all companies within the group may satisfy the audit exemption limits , they must nonetheless carry out a statutory audit if they are formed  part of a group structure.

Late Filing Companies

All companies in Ireland receive an Annual Return Date (ARD) which determines when their accounts are due to the Companies Registration Office (CRO).  Up to 15th July 2025 if a company who is audit exempt fails to submit their accounts on time to the CRO, they will not be entitled to claim audit exemption for the current year’s financial statements or the next year’s financial statements.  Effective from 16th July 2025 if an Annual Return is filed late more than once in any five year period the company loses the entitlement to claim the Audit Exemption in the following two years - Section 22 of the Companies (Corporate Governance, Enforcement & Regulatory Provisions) Act 2024.

Example:

Company A has an ARD of the 30/09/2026 for their financial statements year ending 31/12/2025. Under the current rules these accounts would be due to the CRO by the 25/11/2026 at the latest.  If the accounts are not received by the CRO on that date then the accounts are late and if this the second time that the CRO returns are late within the last 5 years then the directors will have to engage an auditor to perform a statutory audit on their 31/12/2025 financial statements and their 31/12/2026 financial statements before they could avail of the audit exemption again.