by John McCarthy Consulting Ltd. | Jun 3, 2023 | News
The public consultation by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment on proposals to enhance the Companies Act 2014 officially closes this week at 5:00 PM on Friday 9 June 2023. Submissions are invited from stakeholders and interested parties no later than this date.
There are several areas being consulted upon, which are too many to cover in this blog, but some of them include the:
- Companies (Miscellaneous Provisions) (COVID-19) Act, 2020;
- Corporate Governance;
- Obligations on examiners and interim examiners;
- Provisions to do with enhancing company law administration;
- Investigation of companies affairs by court appointed inspectors on the application of the company;
- Miscellaneous Company law administration matters to do with the Companies Registration Office.
Change the Audit Exemption Rules
In this blog, we want to concentrate on the proposals to change the audit exemption rules.
The proposal is that the audit exemption regime for small and micro companies should be amended to provide for a two-step graduated regime to deal with late filing, rather than automatic loss of audit exemption for two years, under the current rules.
The two step regime would operate as follows:
On the occasion of the first instance of late filing, and there would be no loss of audit exemption.
If there was a further instance of late filing within the following five years, late filing fees would be incurred and the entitlement to audit exemption would be lost for the following two financial years, with the company required to file audited financial statements for these years.
The consultation also includes a potential provision to enhance the deterrent effect for failure to deliver an annual return in time to allow that the court can request a contribution to a charity be made.
Another proposal allows for a strike off a company for failure to file details of the company secretary with the CRO.
There’s also provision to provide additional grounds for involuntary strike-off of companies by permitting the RBO Registrar to request that the CRO strike off a company for its ‘failure to comply with its obligation to file its beneficial owner details with the RBO
Make your voice heard and send your submissions. to the Department by 5:00 PM on 9 June 2023.
Please go to our website to see our:
- Letters of Engagement and similar templates. Please visit our site here where immediate downloads are available in Word format. A bulk discount is available for orders of five or more items if bought together.
- ISQM TOOLKIT or if you prefer to chat through the different audit risks and potential appropriate responses presented by this new standard, please contact John McCarthy FCA by e-mail at john@jmcc.ie.
We typically tailor ISQM training and brainstorming sessions to suit your firm’s unique requirements. The ISQM TOOLKIT 2022 is available to purchase here.
by John McCarthy Consulting Ltd. | May 19, 2023 | News
One of the biggest problems that people face is that the legislation, which is the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Acts 2010 to 2021, does not define the term ‘suspicion’.
When it comes to reporting people that they think may be suspicious they feel that they’re not quite certain whether what they’re feeling is actually a suspicion. The very nature of a suspicion is that it is an emotion and therefore very personal, and it can be difficult to give any hard definitions of the word.
It may be helpful to look at a spectrum of potential definitions of the word, which may range in order of certainty from:
- Curiosity
- Unease
- Doubt
- Concern
- Suspicion
- Belief
- Knowledge
One should also be careful to remember that thanks to the personal nature of suspicion, it doesn’t have to be shared. So just because person X is suspicious doesn’t mean that person Y should also be. And just because person Y is not suspicious doesn’t mean that person A should not be.
For example, you might be uneasy about something that a client does, and so you discuss it with a colleague. The tipping-off offence does not necessarily stop you doing this because it’s only relevant once you know or suspect that a report of money laundering suspicion has been made, and if you do not know or suspect this, you cannot tip off.
After the chat with your colleague, you find that you have now moved up the scale from unease to suspicion. Your colleague, on the other hand, is not worried. It would be very foolish, not to say potentially criminal, of you not to report your suspicion on the basis that your colleague is not suspicious.
You should have confidence in your own interpretation of a situation and not be put off taking the correct action just because no one else seems to share your concerns.
Having a suspicion of money laundering or terrorist financing and not reporting it is a serious offence. The legal obligation is quite simple: if you’re suspicious, you must make a report to your MLRO.
‘if you’re suspicious, you must make a report to your MLRO*’
(From the book ‘Anti-Money Laundering – What You Need to Know UK Banking Edition’ by Susan Grossey (Thinking About Crime Ltd.)’
Please go to our website to see our new ISQM TOOLKIT or if you prefer to chat through the different audit risks and potential appropriate responses presented by this new standard, please contact John McCarthy FCA by e-mail at john@jmcc.ie.
We typically tailor training and brainstorming sessions to suit your firm’s unique requirements.
Publications and AML webinars:
- The ISQM TOOLKIT 2022 is available to purchase here.
- See our latest Anti-Money Laundering Policies Controls & Procedures Manual (March 2022) – View the Table of Contents click here.
- Also we have an updated AML webinar (March 2022) available here, which accompanies the AML Manual. It explains the current legal AML reporting position for accountancy firms and includes a quiz. Upon completion, you receive a CPD Certificate of attendance in your inbox.
- To ensure your letters of engagement and similar templates are up to date visit our site here where immediate downloads are available in Word format. A bulk discount is available for orders of five or more items if bought together.
by John McCarthy Consulting Ltd. | Mar 7, 2022 | Blog, News
On Friday 4 March 2022 the Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies in Ireland (CCAB-I) issued updated guidance applicable to accountants in practice for immediate use.
The Guidance is a widely respected and hugely valuable document among accountants as it sets out the minimum criteria that must be adhered to in order to comply with the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Acts 2010 to 2021 (‘the Act’) in the Republic of Ireland.
Key changes in the legislation are reflected in additional guidance in areas such as:
- Greater emphasis on identification of beneficial owners of businesses;
- Expanding the definition of tax adviser, letting agent and intermediaries at art auctions;
- The definition of a Politically Exposed Person (PEP) to include any individual performing a prescribed function;
- There is a specific list of enhanced due diligence measures that the designated person is required to apply when dealing with a customer established, or residing, in a High-risk third country;
- The new requirement in place since 23 April 2021 that prior to commencing a business relationship is established, reasonable steps must be taken to verify the beneficial ownership of corporate clients including confirming the beneficial ownership with the relevant Central Register. Where a Designated person identifies a ‘discrepancy’ (as defined) in the Act, i.e. where the entry is inconsistent or incorrect between its own records and those maintained by the Central Register, it must notify the relevant Registrar.
- There is a similar requirement to notify the relevant Registrar where there is evidence of ‘non-compliance’ (as defined) in the Act, i.e. where the register is blank, it must notify the relevant Registrar.
A copy of the guidance may be accessed here.
Specially tailored up to date AML Training that meets the requirements of the legislation is available on request, on Zoom, in person or as a hybrid event, with a free video recording supplied afterwards, for future viewing. Contact john@jmcc.ie for further details.
To ensure your letters of engagement and similar templates are up to date visit our site here where immediate downloads are available in Word format. A bulk discount is available for orders of five or more items if bought together.
For our latest Audit Quality Control Manual (October 2021) (implementing the latest Irish Audit & Accounting Supervisory Authority standards including ISQC1 on audit quality control) click here. View the Table of Contents here.
We also have an up to date Anti-Money Laundering Procedures Manual (September 2021) – View the Table of Contents click here.
by John McCarthy Consulting Ltd. | Feb 21, 2022 | Blog, News
Have you checked what companies are registered at your office address, lately? Well, maybe now is a good time!
Police sometimes describe the practice by which drug dealers take over someone’s home (often a vulnerable person) as a base for their activities as ‘cuckooing’. It now appears that this phenomenon has ‘come home to roost’ in some accountancy firms – at least in the UK.
According to a 2021 report in the SARS in Action magazine of the National Crimes Agency the new style of cuckoo uses an accountancy firm’s address as a registered office address without the knowledge or consent of the firm.
The most likely explanation for using the accountancy firm’s address is that it provides credibility which may be used to facilitate fraud. In many cases, the company will combine using the address with a Post Office redirection arrangement so the accountancy firm will not receive any mail which might trigger an investigation.
And it gets worse. Sean Kavanagh from leading company formation agency, Company Formations International in Ballsbridge explains that it is impossible to have a fraudulent Registered Office removed from your address as the CRO do not have any legislative basis for doing so, and therefore don’t.
CRO personnel went before the Oireachtas Committee for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to discuss this and other anomalies including full blown identity theft in December 2021. We still await some positive developments from this meeting.
You have been warned!
To ensure your letters of engagement and similar templates are up to date visit our site here where immediate downloads are available in Word format. A bulk discount is available for orders of five or more items if bought together.
For our latest Audit Quality Control Manual (October 2021) (implementing the latest Irish Audit & Accounting Supervisory Authority standards including ISQC1 on audit quality control) click here. View the Table of Contents here.
We also have an up to date Anti-Money Laundering Procedures Manual (September 2021) – View the Table of Contents click here.
by John McCarthy Consulting Ltd. | Feb 21, 2022 | Blog, News
There is currently no specific modern legislation dealing with co-operatives in Ireland. The Industrial and Provident Societies (IPS) Acts 1893-2021 come from another century and do not mirror up to date company law principles. Currently there are 960 Industrial and Provident Societies registered, comprised mainly of various agricultural co-operatives, group water schemes and housing co-operatives.
There are many aspects of good practice set out in company law (in the Companies Act, 2014) that are applicable to co-operatives, either directly or with adaptation.
Consequently the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment commenced a consultation on 28 January 2022 on proposals to update the IPS legislation.
Amongst the proposals, it is intended that:
- The legislation will cross apply six parts of CA 2014, with amendments needed to adapt to the particular circumstances of co-operatives, relating to:
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- Examinership and
- Winding up (both of these are already cross-applied in the current IPS Acts);
- Investigations;
- Compliance and Enforcement,
- Receivers and
- Financial Statements.
- The legislation will generally replicate, with some amendments, provisions from other Parts of the Companies Act, 2014 i.e.
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- Directors’ Duties;
- Charges and Debentures and
- Functions of the Registrar.
- The legislation will also use the relevant parts of Companies Act, 2014 to give assurance to stakeholders in areas dealing with
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- Registration;
- Corporate Governance
- Mergers and
- Strike-off and Restoration.
There are just 12 questions in this consultation and the response deadline is 5pm this Friday 25 February 2022 and responses must be sent to coopconsultation@enterprise.gov.ie.
The full consultation (and response template) is available here.
To ensure your letters of engagement and similar templates are up to date visit our site here where immediate downloads are available in Word format. A bulk discount is available for orders of five or more items if bought together.
For our latest Audit Quality Control Manual (October 2021) (implementing the latest Irish Audit & Accounting Supervisory Authority standards including ISQC1 on audit quality control) click here. View the Table of Contents here.
We also have an up to date Anti-Money Laundering Procedures Manual (September 2021) – View the Table of Contents click here.
