2018 Technical Round Up

 

As 2018 draws to a close, Practice Plus brings you details of the topics that kept CPA members and the technical staff at CPA Ireland busy!

Micro Entities and the audit

A guidance document, Technical Alert 01/2018 - Illustrative auditor’s report for the audit of financial statements prepared in accordance with the Micro Companies Regime of the Companies Act 2014 and FRS 105, was issued in 2018 to provide guidance in relation to matters to be considered by an auditor in the circumstances where an auditor is forming an opinion on the financial statements of a micro company adopting the MCR and applying FRS 105.


ISQC1 guidance issued

Guidance issued in 2018 highlighted the changes made to ISQC (Ireland) 1, from ISQC (UK and Ireland) 1. Firms should review their systems of quality control and, where appropriate, their individual audit procedures and update where necessary to ensure that their policies and procedures comply with the revised requirements of ISQC (Ireland) 1.


New legislation amends “public auditors” and the audit exemption

The Companies (Statutory Audits) Act 2018 (the Act) was signed into law in September 2018 and introduced the following changes;
  • The term “public auditor” has been removed from a number of acts, including the Credit Union Act, 1997 the Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1893 and the Friendly Societies Act 1896. The term “statutory auditor” has been inserted in its place and a body corporate may, from the commencement of the Act, audit Industrial & Provident and Friendly Societies.
  • Audit exemption changes - should a company not file on time and not avail of the District Court option it will lose its entitlement to audit exemption for the two financial years immediately succeeding the financial year where they failed to deliver the return on time. Prior to the Act, the loss of audit exemption impacted the year of late filing and the following year, resulting in the need for a retrospective audit.
  • The Act inserts a new Part 27, Sections 1461 to 1584, titled “Statutory Audits” into the Principal Act being the Companies Act 2014.
  • The Act is designed to enhance the system of public oversight of statutory audits and auditors and introduces some new measures which impact on the internal workings of IAASA and the Recognised Accountancy Bodies.

GDPR

The GDPR came into force on the May 25th 2018 and CPA Ireland launched its GDPR Resource to assist members.


Brexit

CPA Ireland launched its Brexit Resource, gathering together useful  guidance and information on the topic.


PAYE Modernisation

The PAYE Modernisation Project involves the most significant reform of the PAYE system since its introduction in 1960. Employers will need to calculate and report their employees’ pay and deductions as they are being paid from January 2019.