A series of events has resulted in the unfortunate situation that any entity applying for a QBCC License or applying for an increase in their maximum revenue amount will now be required to submit General Purpose Financial Statements with their accountant-reviewed MFR Report.
This is the case regardless of turnover (so applying for a maximum revenue of $801,000 will need the same statements as applying for a maximum revenue of over $240 million). Self-certifiers with maximum revenue under $800,000 are not impacted.
Currently, special purpose financial statements are allowed if the statements are prepared to the date of 30 June 2022 or earlier. However, any statements after this date will need to be general purpose. General purpose statements are much more complicated, with a lot more disclosure and Australian Accounting Standards that must be complied with and are usually prepared for stockmarket Listed Entities. There is huge detail included in them that is almost certainly not required for most licensees, and they are expensive to produce.
The QBCC has sought advice from CPA Australia and CPA has confirmed it is their view that there is no discretion under the legislation for the QBCC to continue to accept special purpose statements. As the Regulator, they need to enforce the law and a legislative solution is required, but so far the Queensland Government has shown no interest in any changes.
The short of it is that licensees should seriously consider increasing their maximum revenue now while they can still use 30 June 2022 statements (the MFR would need to be complete by 31 October 2022) or else be prepared that future MFR Reports will be more costly and time-consuming to produce.
We encourage you to reach out to your accountant at Hoffman Kelly who can assist you in making sure the changes are managed as best as possible for your business.
