Having or becoming a subsidiary

Co-operative and community benefit societies should be aware of several factors when deciding to set up, or become, a subsidiary.

Conditions for registration

You are registered to either:

• Be a co-operative society.
• Conduct your business for the benefit of your community For co-operatives, we provide further details from paragraph 4.17 of our guidance[1]. For community benefit societies, the guidance is set out from paragraph 5.18[1].

Accounting and audit

Setting up or becoming a subsidiary affects the type of accounts you produce, and the need to have those accounts audited.

Group Accounts

Societies with one or more subsidiaries must produce group accounts unless we grant a request to not do so. We set out further details from paragraph 7.10 of our guidance. You can apply for a group account exemption[2].

Auditing accounts

Societies who have a subsidiary must appoint a qualified auditor to audit the accounts and balance sheet. You cannot disapply this requirement. The same applies to societies who are subsidiaries. This may mean, for example, that a society who was eligible to disapply the audit requirement previously is no longer able to do so once they set up a subsidiary.

Read more about submitting accounts[3].