Brown wants to increase audit threshold
Chancellor Gordon Brown will review the statutory audit threshold this summer with the intention of increasing it from £1m revenue, potentially to the European level of £4.8m.
Link: Audit threshold probe finally underway
In 2000 the audit threshold was increased from £350,000 to £1m. Brown during his budget speech on Wednesday said the increase had freed 150,000 companies from the obligation of an independent audit.
The Government is currently reviewing the impact of that change and will consult in the summer on increasing the threshold further ‘to ease the burden on more companies’. Brown intends to set out his plans in the pre-budget report in November.
The ICAEW will conduct a survey to collate information about cost savings for companies compared to any evidence of deterioration in the accounts where and audit is not performed.