Australian Securities & Investments Commission seeks further feedback on consolidating 17 financial reporting and auditing relief instruments into two

The Australian Securities & Investments Commission has launched a further consultation on draft instruments that would consolidate 17 existing financial reporting and auditing relief instruments into two. The proposal would replace the current set of separate legislative instruments with one instrument for annual and half-year reporting relief and one for auditing relief, with the stated aim of making available relief easier to understand and reducing the number of instruments in these areas. The draft Financial Reporting Instrument would consolidate 14 instruments covering matters including stapled entities, parent entity financial statements, natural person licensees, foreign-controlled company reports, rounding, disclosing entities, synchronisation of financial years, directors’ report relief, electronic lodgment, post balance date reporting, non-reporting entities, related scheme reports and stapled group reports. The draft Auditing Instrument would consolidate relief relating to CCIV auditors, auditor independence and audit relief, and would remove the requirements in section 6(i), (s) and (v) of ASIC Corporations (Audit Relief) Instrument 2016/784. ASIC said the changes respond to stakeholder feedback from its consolidation pilot in Report 813 and the progress update in Report 830. Feedback is due by 10 July 2026.