Financial Statements 2019 – Extension of the publication period to April 6, 2021

The Federal Office of Justice has extended the deadline for the publication of the annual financial statements with the balance sheet date of December 31, 2019 to April 6, 2021.

Shortly before Christmas 2020, the Federal Office of Justice agreed with the Federal Office of Finance that, due to COVID-19, due to the fact that annual financial statements with a balance sheet date of December 31, 2019 and before March 1, 2021, were not published by the deadline by December 31, 2020, no payment proceedings are initiated.

On Friday, February 26, 2021, the Federal Office of Justice published that companies whose statutory period for the publication of accounting documents for the financial year ends on December 31, 2020 with the balance sheet date of December 31, 2019, will not be subject to a payment order in accordance with Section 335 of the Commercial Code (HGB) before April 6, 2021. In this way, the Federal Office of Justice, in renewed coordination with the Federal Ministry of Finance, wants to adequately take into account the interests of those involved in view of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

When publishing annual financial statements, in addition to the deadline for the publication, there are a few things that need to be observed in terms of content. In particular, since the Accounting Law Modernization Act (BilMoG), published or stored provisional accounting documents are no longer considered exempting. In addition, it is important to pay close attention to what information and items e.g. be published in the balance sheet. The publication of incorrect positions, e.g. at the term of liabilities can have a significant negative impact on the credit rating of the company. Credit institutions often check the creditworthiness of a company by fully automatic checking of the published accounting documents.

The obligation, content and deadline for the publication of annual financial statements must be carefully reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Please contact us as your experts for corporate tax law. Please find futher information to corporate tax law here on our website. In case of any questions to corporate tax law please do not hesitate to contact us.

Christian Dobner | TLI Steuerberater