Under Irish law, a company has a maximum of nine months after its financial year-end to prepare an annual return and associated financial information for filing with the Companies Registration Office (whereupon such documents will be publicly available).

The Companies (Amendment) Act 2019 (the "2019 Act") has been signed into law and amends the Companies Act 2014. Currently, there is a potential two-step procedure for a company to file an annual return whereby it must file its annual return within 28 days of its annual-return date but, if it does so electronically, the company has a further 28 days to submit its financial statements. The 2019 Act has amalgamated these two time periods and provides for a single-step process whereby a company will now have 56 days to file both its annual return and financial statements.

It is expected that the 2019 Act will be generally commenced towards the end of Q4 of 2019.

The 2019 Act is a welcome step to simplify the process for filing annual returns and financial statements in Ireland and to ease the administrative burden on companies.

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