Who is required to keep financial accounts?
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.
Financial accounting includes all matters of a company that deal with economic figures, i.e. all income, expenditure and bookings. It serves as a means of proof for internal and external reviews of balance sheets, by management, shareholders or state authorities. For a range of types of companies and companies Is comprehensive financial accounting required by law.
Accounting review
Every company that is subject to accounting requirements must meet various accounting requirements of the authorities and legal standards:
- The Finances must be organized and listed in such a way that they can provide an expert third party with a complete overview of the financial situation of the company, within a reasonable period of time.
- They must be available to tax authorities at any time upon request.
- They must be stored or archived for several years for verifiability.
The correctness of accounting is carried out by the state Established by tax audits, which are carried out at irregular intervals or when irregularities have already been identified.
Many companies, especially small and medium-sized companies, either have their books regularly checked by us as an external tax advisor or generally hand over the entire accounting into our hands in order to be protected against errors.
Medium-sized and large companies are generally required to keep financial accounts
The statutory accounting obligation is generally borne by commercial and tax law. In commercial law, the legal basis is the obligation to financial accounting Specifically from Section 238 (1) of the Commercial Code (HGB).
This shows that every businessman is required to keep books on his or her trading transactions and financial position. This legal basis also applies For traders of all sizes, excluding small businesses.
A business owner is anyone who, as a company, requires a business process set up in a commercial man, or is entered directly in the official commercial register.
The Exceptions — Small Businesses, Freelancers and Sole Traders
Small Businesses, Just Like Freelancers, Have the Option of Using a regular income surplus statement to establish their balance sheets. Freelancers generally have no obligation to carry out official financial accounting.
Unless they exercise their profession in the form of a capital or trading company and therefore count them as formworkers in accordance with Section 6 HGB. In addition, smaller sole traders are exempted from financial accounting requirements in accordance with Section 241a HGB. A smaller sole trader is someone who, in two consecutive financial years, generates revenue of less than 600,000 euros and has a net income of less than 60,000 euros.
Self-managed businesses in the agricultural and forestry sectors are exempted from the accounting requirement if the economic value of their land is less than 25,000 euros or they have a profit margin of less than 60,000 euros per year. This standard also applies to sole traders in agriculture and forestry.
