From 31 December 2011, the exception in respect of amalgamated accounts has been discontinued and will not be accepted by the CRO. This refers only to instances where the one or same set of accounts are filed with more than one annual return.
Therefore, from 1 January 2012, a separate set of accounts is required to be filed in respect of each financial year of a company. The effect is that each annual return received by the CRO is required to be accompanied by a set of accounts for a financial year ending not earlier than nine months before the effective date of the return.
It should be noted that the above has no impact on the existing requirements under the Companies Acts as to the minimum or maximum length of time that accounts can be prepared for.