ICAI Calls For Increase In Statutory Audit Exemption Level

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

03 November 2004

Speaking at a recent accounting conference in Dublin, President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI), Terence O'Rourke urged the government to increase the exemption level for statutory audits.

According to reports, Mr O'Rourke told those attending the conferring ceremony for new chartered accountants at University College Dublin that:

"The audit exemption threshold in the Republic of Ireland is EUR1.5m as against an EU average of around EUR7m. In the UK the figure is EUR5.6m. Comparatively speaking, small and medium sized Irish companies are being put at a disadvantage as against their continental, UK and Northern Ireland competitors."

The ICAI chief went on to suggest that EU plans to introduce stricter accounting and auditing standards may have an adverse effect when applied in Ireland "to companies for whom they were neither designed nor are appropriate".

However, he went on to add that despite these concerns:

"I am wholly convinced that an audit is a useful and worthwhile experience for companies, even small companies. We need to consider how companies with turnover or balance sheet figures, that in future will not require a full statutory audit, can benefit from the rigours an audit imposes."

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