Financial reporting thresholds doubled for ‘large’ proprietary companies

This is a significant financial reporting development as it relieves many growing small and mid-sized Australian businesses from the requirement to prepare and lodge audited financial statements with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Based on Government forecasts, approximately one third of proprietary companies who currently lodge audited financial statements with ASIC will no longer have that obligation under the increased financial reporting thresholds.

We welcome these changes as the increased reporting thresholds will help relieve the compliance burden on many growing small and mid-sized businesses in Australia. We note that the Regulations make no changes for ‘grandfathered’ proprietary companies. Accordingly, grandfathered entities that become ‘small’ as a result of the increased thresholds should consider continuing to have an audit in order to maintain their grandfathered status should the business grow and become ‘large’ again in future.

It’s important to note that a significant amount of entities will still be subject to reporting obligations as a result of their banking or stakeholder agreements outside of Corporations Law.  These reporting obligations may be ensuring that an audit still takes place.

The Amendments

Following the public consultation process, the Commonwealth Government issued the final amendments in the form of Corporations Amendment (Proprietary Company Thresholds) Regulation 2019. The new requirements are consistent with the proposals in the Exposure Draft issued in late 2018.

The Regulations adjust the thresholds by doubling them as follows:

The increase in thresholds is intended to ensure financial reporting obligations are targeted at economically significant entities while reducing compliance costs for relatively smaller proprietary companies.