Part 16Audit

Chapter 1Requirement for audited accounts

Exemption from audit: small companies

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—

F1(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)

F2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(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)

F3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(d)

F3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(e)

F3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(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.