Section 392 Companies Act 2014, requires auditors to file a notice with the Registrar of Companies when they form the opinion that a company has failed to keep adequate accounting records. The form used to make such a filing is called a H4. The average number of H4 reports filed with the CRO in the last 6 years is 4 per year.
Unfortunately, the latest CRO Annual Report, that for 2024, does not publish the statistics for the numbers of H4s filed in prior years. All it gives is the numbers filed for 2024 itself, but in 2020 and prior years the CRO report names the companies for which H4s were filed, but it has since discontinued that practice.
The numbers of H4s filed in recent years is as follows:
| Year | No. of H4 Reports | Year | No. of H4 Reports |
| 2024 | 5 | 2021 | 0 |
| 2023 | 3 | 2020 | 7 |
| 2022 | 4 | 2019 | 5 |
In recent memory the best known H4, has to be the first one that was filed in 2019 which was for the Cumann Peile na hEireann, (otherwise known as the Football Association of Ireland). It was filed in April 2019 and over five years later, the investigation by the Corporate Enforcement Agency (CEA) into the situation at the FAI is still ongoing at the time of writing.
Auditors who fail to file such a note face a Category 3 penalty which is either up to six months in prison or a fine of up to €5,000 or both.
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- Our latest CPD Webinar on The Main Changes in Irish GAAP (recorded July 2024)
- Anti-Money Laundering Policies Controls and Procedures Manual (March 2022) — View the table of contents
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- Letters of engagement and similar templates—Please visit our website here where immediate downloads are available in Word format. A bulk discount is available for orders of five or more items bought together.
ISQM TOOLKIT, or if you prefer to chat through the different audit risks and potential appropriate responses presented by this new standard. We typically tailor ISQM training and brainstorming sessions to suit your firm’s unique requirements. Please contact John McCarthy FCA by email at john@jmcc.ie.
