Under the current legislation, in order to avail of an audit exemption , a company must meet two of the following criteria:

• Turnover does not exceed €8.8m
• Balance Sheet total does not exceed €4.4m (gross assets not net balance sheet total)
• Average number of employees does not exceed 50

At present there are a variety of companies who cannot avail of an audit exemption even though they may meet the above requirements. These include:

• Unlimited Companies
• Non – Profit Organisations
• Charities
• Companies Limited by Guarantee
• Companies who are late filing annual returns.

However following amendments by the Minister of Finance to the Companies Acts , all of the above will not require an audit  (except  for Companies who miss their Annual Return Dates)  once the amendments are enacted which is due to be the 01st of June 2015.