Portugal
The Portuguese government completed implementation of the EAR on 9 September 2015, when the Portuguese legislators adopted Law 140/2015 on the reform of the Decree on Statutory Audit and Law 148/2015 on supervision of the audit profession. The new rules will become effective on 17 June 2016.
The main elements of Portugal’s audit law are the following:
- Mandatory audit firm rotation must take place every 8 or 9 years.
- Portugal does not allow the extension of this period by tender or joint audit.
- Key audit partners must rotate after 7 years.
- No additional items have been added to the EU list of prohibited non-audit services.
- Portugal has not made use of its option to allow certain tax and valuation services at the same time that audit services are being provided.
- The fee cap for non-audit services is placed at 30 %, stricter than the EU baseline proposal.
For a more detailed overview of Portugal’s implementation measures, please consult our information sheet.