Serious big Mistake with my ARD

Oh yes it seems Im in a bad place at the moment and would appreciate any good advice, I set up a company, a work from home internet marketing company, the incorporation date was 22/03/2010, I didnt really do anything with it until the begining of this year , where i started building sites, i have made around 40 sites, and made to date $500, its a tough bussiness, but its starting to look promising now , I hope for 2012. any way I filed my returns on ros.ie 2 months ago and all was fine there as there was no money made in 2010, but then i just got a letter before xmas from cro informing me that my last ard was due on september 23, my 2nd one, so you see the trouble Im in now , Im so late, i Have no accounts as all I have is a list of exspenses, I had made $230 up to 23 september, I know I have to pay late fees and I cant get a audit exemption, as Im far to late, so since I have no accounts , no profit, no money, what can be audited, any suggestions would be much appreciated. just cant believe this is happening. I know what a stupid mistake I made, just hope I can survive it.

Well you need to get your first annual return in (23/09/10), although at this point you already owe the maximum penalty of €1,200. No accounts need to be filed with that return.

Your second annual return, dated 23/09/11, is late and accruing €3 per day since 21/10/11 (plus €100), so that's running at €328, and will continue to increase by €3 per day until it reaches €1,200...

You will need to get a set of accounts drawn up in accordance with Company Law requirements, and get these accounts certified by a registered auditor. If there were very few transactions and the accounts are very basic, then the cost of this will be substantially less than the amount you owe to the CRO in filing fees & penalties.

So, you need to get some recommendations from friends / family for a good accountant, and get it sorted asap, as it's costing you €21 a week until you do.

Excellent advice, just to clarify one point, the OP needs to have their accounts audited by a registered auditor, not just 'certified'.

There is a lot more to auditing (and a lot more risk for the auditor) than just signing an audit report. And companies with relatively few recorded transactions can actually be more difficult to audit as it can be difficult to establish 'completeness of income' with any certainty.

Thats unfortunate and very expensive. It is a very severe penalty for being late.

I'm with T on this one. People say it will only take a few minutes to do a set of accounts and they charged me €1200 have no idea the amount of information that an auditor has to have on file to back up an audit opinion.

CRO should make people take a 2 hour online course before allowing them to form companies. Its a very simple course.

DO NOT MISS YOUR ARD!!!!
ITS 6 months after the date of incorporation and every 12 months after that.
DO NOT MISS YOUR ARD!!!!

Joe_90 said:

DO NOT MISS YOUR ARD!!!!
ITS 6 months after the date of incorporation and every 12 months after that.
DO NOT MISS YOUR ARD!!!!

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We might make a Key Post out of that.

In practice many "self employed" companies just don't have the discipline to do it. It's very easy to get distracted by other things or to try to do the ARD and fail and decide to come back to it , but forget about it.

Brendan

What is ARD? Is it annual return deadline?

Is there any way the OP can get around the penalties as it was a genuine mistake?

Thanks So much to everyone for youre informative responses. I rang CRO this morning and they told me what I expected to hear, I need to prepare a balance sheet and supply an auditors report, I have a friend who is a trainee accountant going to prepare the balance sheet, and then I will find a registered auditor, any tips on that , I wonder how long the process takes once the auditor receives what he needs, I know I have been naive to my responsibilities as a director of a company. Yes Joe 90, I agree Cro should make people do an online course. As a start up, I need every penny I can get to make this work, just to put it back in to get the company to move forward, Even with these new additional massive fees, I wont give up, I'll find a way and not let this stupid system push me back to a dole que, as some one once said " I have a dream" , Mandelbrot thanks for the advice I did submit the first ARD on time, and T Mc Gibney , I had a look at youre blog ( very Informative) especially about CRO and its policies.

Bronte said:

What is ARD? Is it annual return deadline?

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Yes, ARD is Annual Return Date (if you ever want to baffle yourself have a look through the CRO website..! http://www.cro.ie/ena/annual-return-annual-return-date.aspx)

Bronte said:

Is there any way the OP can get around the penalties as it was a genuine mistake?

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Unfortunately not...

http://www.cro.ie/ena/annual-return-penalty-waiver.aspx

Circumstances which DO NOT constitute grounds for late penalty waiver:

The CRO receives a constant stream of requests for waiver of late filing penalties from companies and presenters which do not meet the criteria specified at A, B or C above and therefore must turned down.



The CRO wishes to point out that NONE of the following grounds constitutes a reason for the Office to waive late filing penalties and the Office never waives penalties on the basis of any of these grounds:

• The company has not traded and will not trade;
• Delays/non-receipt of letters in the post, either to or from CRO; including Annual Return reminders/notifications (please see C above);
• The company cannot afford the penalty;
• The company has an excellent previous filing record;
• Communication breakdown between company and agent/presenter;
• The company is a management company (managing apartment blocks etc.), as these companies, are not for the benefit of the community as a whole;
• The company presenter/accountant failed to file on time;
• There is a dispute between presenter/accountant and the company and its officers;
• Officers of the company did not realise/understand their legal requirement to file;
• e-filed annual returns captured late (outside the 28 day period allowed from the ARD);
• e-filed annual returns captured on time but patch/signature page/accounts delivered late to the CRO (outside the second 28 days allowed after capture);
• Errors/inability to file electronically, unless the problem is a CRO error and this can be shown/proven;
• B73 form filed in error or B1 filed with accounts and B73 form, changing ARD;
• Disputes/communication breakdown within the company;
• Forgot to file, or was unavailable to file on time.

If the company has already received a waiver previously, a second waiver cannot be granted.

So waivers do exist? In what circumstances would the OP get a waiver?

Bronte said:

In what circumstances would the OP get a waiver?

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If the late filing can be attributed to personal difficulties arising from death, incapacity, illness or bereavement suffered by a director, then the late filing fee can be waived. However the CRO have now restricted such concessions and they never waive the loss of audit exemption.

Mick,

Even if company did not trade from the day of its incorporation and no return was filed on time, audit for two years is required.
Did you find the auditor?