Part 16Audit
Chapter 1Requirement for audited accounts
Exemption from audit: small companies
477Small companies: conditions for exemption from audit
(1)
A company that F1qualifies as a small company in relation to a financial year is exempt from the requirements of this Act relating to the audit of accounts for that year.
(2)
F2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(3)
F2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(4)
For the purposes of this section—
(a)
whether a company qualifies as a small company shall be determined in accordance with section 382(1) to (6), F3. . .
(b)
F3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(5)
This section has effect subject to—
section 475(2) and (3) (requirements as to statements to be contained in balance sheet),
section 476 (right of members to require audit),
section 478 (companies excluded from small companies exemption), and
section 479 (availability of small companies exemption in case of group company).
478Companies excluded from small companies exemption
A company is not entitled to the exemption conferred by section 477 (small companies) if it was at any time within the financial year in question—
(a)
a public company,
(b)
a company that—
(i)
(ii)
carries on insurance market activity, or
F6(iii)
is a scheme funder of a Master Trust scheme within the meanings given by section 39(1) of the Pension Schemes Act 2017 (interpretation of Part 1), or
(c)
a special register body as defined in section 117(1) of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (c. 52) or an employers' association as defined in section 122 of that Act or Article 4 of the Industrial Relations (Northern Ireland) Order 1992 (S.I. 1992/807 (N.I. 5)).
479Availability of small companies exemption in case of group company
(1)
A company is not entitled to the exemption conferred by section 477 (small companies) in respect of a financial year during any part of which it was a group company unless—
F7(a)
the group—
(i)
qualifies as a small group in relation to that financial year, and
(ii)
was not at any time in that year an ineligible group, or
(b)
subsection (3) applies.
(2)
F8. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(3)
A company is not excluded by subsection (1) if, throughout the whole of the period or periods during the financial year when it was a group company, it was both a subsidiary undertaking and dormant.
(4)
In this section—
(a)
“group company” means a company that is a parent company or a subsidiary undertaking, and
(b)
“the group”, in relation to a group company, means that company together with all its associated undertakings.
For this purpose undertakings are associated if one is a subsidiary undertaking of the other or both are subsidiary undertakings of a third undertaking.
(5)
For the purposes of this section—
(a)
whether a group qualifies as small shall be determined in accordance with section 383 (companies qualifying as small: parent companies);
(b)
“ineligible group” has the meaning given by section 384(2) and (3);
(c)
F9. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(d)
F9. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(e)
F9. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(6)
The provisions mentioned in subsection (5) apply for the purposes of this section as if all the bodies corporate in the group were companies.