Who has to prepare annual financial statements?
Mit dem Jahresabschluss wird die Buchführung eines jeden Geschäftsjahres abgeschlossen. Der Jahresabschluss hat große Relevanz, unter anderem, weil er die gesamtwirtschaftliche Situation eines Unternehmens repräsentiert. Ein Jahresabschluss kann jedoch auch nichtig sein. Wir von der Steuerkanzlei Martin Bleckmann in Köln erklären Ihnen, ab wann das der Fall ist und welche rechtlichen Folgen ein nichtiger Jahresabschluss mit sich bringt.
In accordance with the requirements of the Commercial Code (HGB), an official annual financial statement must be prepared as part of accounting and after the end of the financial year. This must include at least the generated balance sheets and the profit and loss statement.
Depending on who has to create it, additional attachments are also required. Although there are a number of exceptions to the preparation requirement, it can generally be said that Basically every businessman and businesswoman, regardless of whether as a natural or legal person, is required to prepare annual financial statements.
The obligation to set up
Section 242 of the German Commercial Code states that all merchants and traders, in most cases simultaneously corporations, must prepare annual financial statements. In Principle, This Applies to Three sizes of the corporation: The small, the middle and the large.
This is justified by the necessary economic transparency for investors, creditors and state authorities. Joint Stock Companies (AG) and Limited Liability Companies (GmbH) are also required to submit a supplementary appendix and a management report in accordance with Section 264 HGB.
These should correctly reflect the course of business, including business results and the position of the company, in order to allow participants an insight. In the event that several independent companies are part of a larger group or merger, their individual annual financial statements are combined into one consolidated financial statements for a correct overall picture.
Exemptions from the obligation to prepare annual financial statements
The HGB describes a number of cases where Especially individuals Are exempted from the obligation to make annual financial statements. According to Section 241a of the German Commercial Code, this applies primarily to individual traders whose sales of two consecutive financial years did not exceed 600,000 euros in each case and did not have a net profit of 60,000 euros.
Furthermore, the obligation to create does not apply to freelancers or small business owners. On the other hand, they are asked to prepare a surplus income statement in order to be able to determine their respective economic profit.
The various deadlines to be met
For timely disclosure of the annual financial statements, for example in Sections 242 and 264 HGB, the legislator provides for a number of deadlines. These include:
- Within the first three months In the New Financial Year, Large and Medium-Sized Corporations Must Their Have prepared annual financial statements.
- Six-month deadline On the other hand, we have small corporations.
- Nine to a maximum of twelve months (only in the event of unforeseen events), non-corporations have time to present their transactions.
