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Chapter 2: Formation, Administration and Dissolution of Companies
Part C: Transparency, accountability and integrity of companies

s29: Financial statements

(1) If a company provides any financial statements, including any annual financial statements, to any person for any reason, those statements must:

(a) satisfy the financial reporting standards as to form and content, if any such standards are prescribed;

(b) present fairly the state of affairs and business of the company, and explain the transactions and financial position of the business of the company;

(c) show the company's assets, liabilities and equity, as well as its income and expenses, and any other prescribed information;

(d) set out the date on which the statements were published, and the accounting period to which the statements apply; and

(e) bear, on the first page of the statements, a prominent notice indicating;

(i) whether the statements;

(aa) have been audited in compliance with any applicable requirements of this Act;

(bb) if not audited, have been independently reviewed in compliance with any applicable requirements of this Act; or

(cc) have not been audited or independently reviewed; and

(ii) the name, and professional designation, if any, of the individual who prepared, or supervised the preparation of, those statements.

(2) Any financial statements prepared by a company, including any annual financial statements of a company as contemplated in section 30, must not be:

(a) false or misleading in any material respect; or

(b) incomplete in any material particular, subject only to subsection (3).

(3) A company may provide any person with a summary of any particular financial statements, but:

(a) any such summary must comply with any prescribed requirements; and

(b) the first page of the summary must bear a prominent notice;

(i) stating that it is a summary of particular financial statements prepared by the company, and setting out the date of those statements;

(ii) stating whether the financial statements that it summarises have been audited, independently reviewed, or are unaudited, as contemplated in subsection (1)(e);

(iii) stating the name, and professional designation, if any, of the individual who prepared, or supervised the preparation of, the financial statements that it summarises; and

(iv) setting out the steps required to obtain a copy of the financial statements that it summarises.

(4) Subject to subsection (5), the Minister, after consulting the Council, may make regulations prescribing:

(a) financial reporting standards contemplated in this Part; or

(b) form and content requirements for summaries contemplated in subsection (3).

(5) Any regulations contemplated in subsection (4):

(a) must promote sound and consistent accounting practices;

(b) in the case of financial reporting standards for public companies, must be in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards of the International Accounting Standards Board or its successor body; and

(c) may establish different standards applicable to;

(i) profit and non-profit companies; and

(ii) different categories of profit companies.

(6) Subject to section 214(2), a person is guilty of an offence if the person is a party to the preparation, approval, dissemination or publication of:

(a) any financial statements, including any annual financial statements contemplated in section 30, knowing that those statements;

(i) fail in a material way to comply with the requirements of subsection (1); or

(ii) are materially false or misleading, as contemplated in subsection (2); or

(b) a summary of any financial statements, knowing that:

(i) the statements that it summarises do not comply with the requirements of subsection (1), or are materially false or misleading, as contemplated in subsection (2); or

(ii) the summary does not comply with the requirements of subsection (3), or is materially false or misleading.

Related Sections

s30: Annual financial statements
s214: False statements, reckless conduct and non-compliance

Related Regulations

R27: Financial Reporting Standards

Related Notes

Notice to Customers: Lodging of financial statements
Notice to Customers: Filing of financial statements for 2012 - 2013

Related Forms

No related forms.