{"id":52,"date":"2017-08-30T08:45:36","date_gmt":"2017-08-30T08:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/?p=52"},"modified":"2026-01-09T15:24:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T15:24:03","slug":"the-companies-accounting-act-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/the-companies-accounting-act-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"5 things you need to know about the Companies (Accounting) Act 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header has-dark-background-color entry-header--has-illustration entry-header--has-illustration--generic\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__row row align-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col col-lg-7 col-xlg-6 entry-header__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"component component-single-header\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__misc text--subtitle text--uppercase text--small\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/category\/growth-customers\/\" class=\"entry-header__link\">Growth &amp; Customers<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-title-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"entry-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t5 things you need to know about the Companies (Accounting) Act 2017\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"entry-header__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"single-post-details container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"posted-on \"><time class=\"entry-date published\" datetime=\"2017-08-30T08:45:36+01:00\">30 August, 2017<\/time><\/span><span class=\"reading-time\"> min read<\/span>\n\t\t<button\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"social-share-button button button--icon button--secondary js-social-share-button\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-title=\"5 things you need to know about the Companies (Accounting) Act 2017\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-url=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/the-companies-accounting-act-2017\/\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-text=\"Please read this interesting article\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__share-label\">Share<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-label\" hidden>Copy Link<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\" hidden>Copied<\/span>\n\t\t<\/button>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/header>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-post-author has-dark-background-color alignfull\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"co-authors\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-author-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<a class=\"entry-author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/author\/keirthomasbryant\/\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2025\/04\/Keir-350x350.jpg\" class=\"entry-author__image\" alt=\"Keir Thomas-Bryant\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2025\/04\/Keir-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2025\/04\/Keir.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 40px) 100vw, 40px\" \/>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"entry-author__name\">Keir Thomas-Bryant<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"lead-para\">The Companies (Accounting) Act 2017 (the \u201c2017 Act\u201d) is a substantial piece of legislation that made several amendments to the Companies Act 2014 \u2013 notably the form, content and filings of annual and consolidated financial statements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"lead-para\">We\u2019ve summarised the top five things you need to know about the 2017 Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-1-accounting-changes\"><strong>1: Accounting changes<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2017 Act redefined the thresholds for what qualifies as a micro, small, medium and large company, which in turn dictate financial reporting requirements. It introduced less burdensome accounting compliance requirements for companies that fall into the \u201cmicro\u201d bracket, while medium-sized businesses are now required to prepare financial reports in full.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-2-non-filing-structures\"><strong>2: Non-filing structures<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2017 Act reduced the scope for unlimited companies to avoid filing financial statements with an amended and much broader definition of what constitutes a \u201cDesignated Unlimited Company\u201d. It also required ULCs with a limited liability subsidiary to file financial statements for financial years beginning on or after 1&nbsp;January 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-3-expanded-branch-definition\"><strong>3: Expanded branch definition<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Previously, unlimited foreign companies could not register a branch in the State. Under the 2017 Act, the definition of what constitutes a branch was expanded to \u201cEEA company\u201d and \u201cNon-EEA company\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That meant an unlimited non-Irish entity that is a subsidiary of a limited liability corporate must register as a branch if it is operating in Ireland \u2013 bringing significantly more ULCs within the Companies Registration Office financial filing regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-4-unlimited-companies-names\"><strong>4: Unlimited companies\u2019 names<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2017 Act required that all unlimited companies must use the words \u201cunlimited company\u201d in their names, and can&#8217;t apply for exemption to the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. Companies that have already been granted an exemption will retain it until the period specified in the exemption letter has elapsed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-5-extractive-industries-and-logging\"><strong>5: Extractive industries and logging<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2017 Act introduced mandatory reporting requirements for large companies, groups and \u201cpublic interest entities\u201d involved in oil and gas exploration or extraction, mining or the logging of primary forests.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"single-cta\">\n\t<div class=\"single-cta__positioner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__wrapper has-dark-background-color\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"single-cta__title h3\">Subscribe to the Sage Advice newsletter<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Join 1.5 million subscribers and get the best business admin strategies and tactics, as well as actionable advice to help your company thrive, in your inbox every month.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"#gate-53abbdcc-410c-4c8c-bf97-ca5c6982eebd\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"single-cta__button button button--primary\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t>Subscribe now<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"999\" height=\"666\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2021\/04\/z.5E3A0481_All-Uses.jpg\" class=\"single-cta__image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2021\/04\/z.5E3A0481_All-Uses.jpg 999w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 48em) 33vw, 100vw\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Companies (Accounting) Act 2017 (the \u201c2017 Act\u201d) is a substantial piece of legislation that made several amendments to the Companies Act 2014 \u2013 notably the form, content and filings of annual and consolidated financial statements. We\u2019ve summarised the top five things you need to know about the 2017 Act. 1: Accounting changes The 2017 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":280,"featured_media":4337,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"sage_hide_published_date":false,"sage_hide_read_time":false,"sage_hide_share_buttons":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162,165],"tags":[105,111,124],"business_type":[4,2],"lilypad":[],"context":[],"industry":[],"persona":[247,211],"imagine_tag":[177,193,212],"coauthors":[393],"class_list":["post-52","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-growth-customers","category-strategy-legal-operations","tag-bookkeeping","tag-cloud","tag-financial-education","business_type-medium-sized-business","business_type-accountants"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-ie","author_name":"Keir Thomas-Bryant","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2018\/05\/5E3A0928_All-Uses.jpg","imagine_tags":{"177":"Accountants","193":"Enterprise business","212":"Mid-sized business"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice Ireland","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/280"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/4337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}