The Government already has on the table the draft law that modifies the criteria for company size or groups of companies for corporate information purposes. The text, which was passed by the Commission of Undersecretaries on Thursday and to which ABC has had access, raises the thresholds by 25%. assets and turnover from which companies are obliged to present a complete accounting report, another on sustainability and audit the accounts. So that the criteria that determine the possibility of formulating abbreviated balance sheets and statements of changes in net worth.
With this rule, the Government transposes a European directive that aims to “adjust the thresholds for the effects of inflation as a consequence of the trend in the euro zone in recent years.” This increase will reduce bureaucratic requirements and obligations in smaller companies. Thus, only companies that, for two consecutive years, do not exceed at least two of these three requirements will be allowed to prepare abbreviated balance sheets: assets less than five million euros, less than ten million euros of turnover and not exceed 50 workers. Which represents a minimum increase compared to what is allowed in the range of the directive.
Of course, the rule establishes that if these limits are exceeded for two consecutive years, they will have to present the documentation that corresponds to large companies. These same requirements will be those that must be met in order to apply the General SME Accounting Plans.
It is worth remembering that accounting reporting requirements are not limited to providing information to investors in the capital market, but also account for past transactions and improve corporate governance. This is why the European Commission considers it necessary to simplify these requirements to ensure that they meet the purposes for which they are intended and limit administrative burden.
Retroactive to January 1, 2024
The new regulations, which will come into force the day after their publication in the BOE, will now apply to the financial years that have begun since January 1 of this year. The Ministry of Economy points out in the explanatory statement the need to accelerate the approval of this draft law since the deadline for transposing the directive is twelve months and ends on December 24, 2024.
Despite the increase in thresholds, Cepyme believes that this will only free a handful of companies from having to prepare certain accounting information or be able to benefit from abbreviated procedures. Likewise, they point out that it is a transposition of minimums since it does not apply to all regulatory obligations nor does it cover the maximum thresholds allowed in the directive. In the economic memorythe Government estimates savings due to this flexibility of bureaucratic obligations of just over one million euros.
«Given that the legislator’s objective with the current thresholds to establish the obligation to audit accounts seems in line with the desire to establish a reinforced requirement with respect to European regulation in order to minimize the risk of accounting problems, the most viable option is the updating of thresholds (…) according to the impact of the inflation of the last 17 years», Cepyme claims in its allegation, asking for a greater increase in the limits of assets and turnover from which the more aggravated accounting information requirements are activated and arguing that the proposed exercise implies the assumption of a position «similar to which was considered acceptable for almost two decades.
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