Currently, a company is exempted from having its accounts audited if it is an exempt private company with annual revenue of $5 million or less. This approach is being replaced by a new small company concept which will determine exemption from statutory audit. Notably, a company no longer needs to be an exempt private company to be exempted from audit.
A company qualifies as a small company if:
(a) it is a private company in the financial year in question; and (b) it meets at least 2 of 3 following criteria for immediate past two consecutive financial years:
(i) total annual revenue ≤ $10m;
(ii) total assets ≤ $10m;
(iii) no. of employees ≤ 50.
For a company which is part of a group:
(a) the company must qualify as a small company; and
(b) entire group must be a “small group”
to qualify to the audit exemption.
For a group to be a small group, it must meet at least 2 of the 3 quantitative criteria on a consolidated basis for the immediate past two consecutive financial years.
Where a company has qualified as a small company, it continues to be a small company for subsequent financial years until it is disqualified. A small company is disqualified if:
(a) it ceases to be a private company at any time during a financial year; or
(b) it does not meet at least 2 of the 3 the quantitative criteria for the immediate past two consecutive financial years.
Where a group has qualified as a small group, it continues to be a small group for subsequent financial years until it does not meet at least 2 of the 3 the quantitative criteria for the immediate past two consecutive financial years.
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