Headline Company Law Developments In 2017

2017 has seen numerous changes to the laws affecting Irish companies. The majority of the changes derive from EU law. We highlight some of the main changes introduced last year.

Companies (Accounting) Act 2017 (CAA 2017)

The most significant piece of legislation affecting companies in 2017 was the CAA 2017. The CAA 2017 both amended and inserted new sections into the Companies Act 2014 (CA 2014). We discuss some of the main changes made under CAA 2017:

• The main purpose of the CAA 2017 was to transpose into Irish law a 2013 EU Accounting Directive which aims to reduce the financial reporting obligations burden of smaller companies. The CAA 2017 introduced a new regime for 'micro undertakings' which are a subset of 'small undertakings'. In addition, CAA 2017 introduced mandatory requirements for large companies, large groups and ineligible companies that are active in the mining and extractive industries or logging of primary forests to prepare and file annual