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Accounting

The Companies Act 2014 Ireland

By 2nd June 2015January 27th, 2022No Comments

 

Ten years in the making, the Companies Act 2014 came into effect on June 1st and standing at 1,448 sections and 17 schedules, and covering more than 1,100 pages of text, it was the largest single piece of legislation ever to come before the Dáil.

The purpose of today’s blog is draw your attention to the Act and also to point out that it will affect all companies incorporated under Irish law, in particular private limited companies.

The new Act does not present an entirely new set of laws as many of the provisions are merely a restatement of the current law. However, there are a number of changes and some new provisions.

According to the CRO office the new Act is being introduced to:

  • Modernise and simplify company law
  • Reduce administrative burden on business
  • Ensure good corporate governance

With that said, what actually does this mean for small businesses? The CRO lists the following:

  1. It will bring changes in legislation which will affect every company
  2. All existing Private Companies Limited by Shares will be required to change to a new Company Type
  3. All CRO forms will change from 1st June 2015
  4. Old forms will no longer be accepted after this date
  5. New forms should not be submitted prior to 1st June 2015
  6. Draft forms are available on the CRO website – www.cro.ie
  7. Conversion forms will be free of charge

One of the key requirements of the Act is the change of company type. Private limited companies as presented in previous company law are to be phased out with immediate effect. The Act presents three choices:

  1. To convert to the new simplified type of private company – Company Limited by Shares (LTD)
  2. To convert to the new company most like existing private limited companies – Designated Activity Company (DAC)
  3. to convert to another type of company

The main differences between LTD and DAC are listed below.

chart

Please check with your accountant to choose the company type most suitable to your particular situation. The new Act allows 18 months from 1 June 2015 until 31 December 2016 to make the required change to either a LTD or DAC. As mentioned above, there is no charge for the conversion process but it is recommended that you make the regulatory change as soon as possible.

Please note: As a company director you should have received a written communication from the CRO detailing the effects of the new Act. Please find the a copy of that communication here.

Marc O'Dwyer

Marc O'Dwyer

After completing a Graduate program in Marketing, Marc’s impressive sales career began at Allied Irish Banks, Pitney Bowes and Panasonic where he received numerous Irish and European sales performance awards and consistently exceeded targets and expectations. In 1992, Marc’s entrepreneurial spirit led him to set up his own business, Irish International Sales (IIS). Initially, this company was a reseller for Take 5 Accounts and Payroll software. Within four years, IIS became the largest reseller of Take 5 in Ireland, acquiring four other Take 5 resellers. He also found time to set up two mobile phone shops under the Cellular World brand and a web design company offering website design services for small businesses. In 2001, he bought the majority share in a small Irish software business, Big Red Book. At that time, the company was losing money. The company became profitable within two months, and Marc then acquired a payroll company to compliment Big Red Books Accounting products. In 2003, IIS were appointed as Channel Partners with SAP for their new SME product, SAP Business One. Marc sold his Take 5 business and concentrated on developing this new market for SAP As a result, by 2007, IIS was recognised as the largest Channel Partner for SAP in EMEA (Europe Middle East and Africa). In 2008, the IIS Sales Manager bought the Company from Marc in an MBO. He launched Big red cloud in June 2012, the online version of big red book, to date the company successfully converts 59% of trials into sales and the number of customers is growing rapidly. Marc continues to run both Big Red Book and Big Red Cloud which now support 75,000 businesses. He is a very keen sportsman, having played rugby for 20 years, represented Leinster at under 16 and under 20 levels, and league squash with Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club for 10 years. Marc has competed in 11 Marathons, including the London and Boston Marathons, and has completed several Triathlons and Half Ironman races. He has also completed six Ironman Races in Austria(x2), Frankfurt (Germany), Nice (France) , Mallorca (Spain) and Copenhagen (Denmark)

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