Section 301Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)

Audit of annual financial report

(1) A company, registered scheme, registrable superannuation entity or disclosing entity must have the financial report for a financial year audited in accordance with Division 3 and obtain an auditor’s report.

Small proprietary companies

(2) A small proprietary company’s financial report for a financial year does not have to be audited if:

(a) the report is required only because of:

(i) paragraph 292(2)(c) (about having CSF shareholders); or

(ii) a direction under section 293; or

(iii) both paragraph 292(2)(c) and a direction under section 293; and

(b) in a case where subparagraph (a)(i) or (iii) applies—as at the end of the financial year, the company has raised a total less than the CSF audit threshold from all the CSF offers it has ever made; and

(c) in a case where subparagraph (a)(ii) or (iii) applies—the direction did not ask for the financial report to be audited.

Companies limited by guarantee

(3) A company limited by guarantee may have its financial report for a financial year reviewed, rather than audited, if:

(a) the company is not one of the following:

(i) a Commonwealth company for the purposes of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013;

(ii) a subsidiary of a Commonwealth company for the purposes of that Act;

(iii) a subsidiary of a corporate Commonwealth entity for the purposes of that Act; and

(b) one of the following is true:

(i) the company is not required by the accounting standards to be included in consolidated financial statements and the revenue of the company for the financial year is less than $1 million;

(ii) the company is required by the accounting standards to be included in consolidated financial statements and the consolidated revenue of the consolidated entity for the financial year is less than $1 million.

(4) A small company limited by guarantee’s financial report for a financial year does not have to be audited or reviewed if:

(a) the report is prepared in response to a member direction under section 294A; and

(b) the direction does not ask for the audit or review.

(5) A company need not comply with subsection (1) if:

(a) it is covered under section 738ZI at the end of the financial year mentioned in subsection (1); and

(b) as at the end of that financial year, the company has raised less than $3 million from all CSF offers that it has made at any time.

Registrable superannuation entities

(6) The following reports relating to:

(a) a registrable superannuation entity; and

(b) a financial year;

may be set out in the same document:

(c) an auditor’s report obtained by the entity under subsection (1);

(d) an auditor’s report provided in relation to the entity under a provision of the RSE licensee law.

Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation at 17 May 2026. For the latest information on Australian Government law please go to https://www.legislation.gov.au. Verify the current text against the official source before relying on it.

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