Small Capital Companies Accounting Law Amendment Act

Basic data
Title:	Law for the implementation of Directive 2012/6 / EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of March 14, 2012 amending Directive 78/660 / EEC on the annual accounts of certain legal forms of companies with regard to micro-enterprises
Short title:	Small Capital Companies Accounting Law Amendment Act
Abbreviation:	MicroBilG
Type:	Federal law
Scope:	Federal Republic of Germany
Issued on the basis of:	Art. 74 (1) No. 11, 19a GG
Legal matter:	Commercial law , accounting law , company law
Issued on:	December 20, 2012 ; ( BGBl. I p. 2751 )
Entry into force on:	December 28, 2012
GESTA :	C134
Weblink:	Text of the MicroBilG
	Please note the note on the applicable legal version.

The provisions of Directive 2012/6 / EU are implemented in German law with the Small Capital Corporations Accounting Law Amendment Act ( MicroBilG ).

content

Small businesses are currently subject to extensive accounting requirements , provided that they are organized in the legal form of a corporation or a partnership in which no natural person is fully liable. While sole proprietorships could already be exempted from bookkeeping and the obligation to prepare annual financial statements with the Accounting Law Modernization Act ( BilMoG ) , the relief of the small capital companies was prevented by mandatory European legal requirements.

With the MicroBilG, the legislator is pursuing the goal of relieving more than 500,000 small companies in Germany in the preparation of the annual financial statements , without neglecting the information interest of equity and debt capital providers of the companies concerned as well as the general public with regard to the relevant annual financial statements data. The legislature hopes that the MicroBilG will save the companies concerned a total of 36 million euros. The planned savings should be offset by a one-time conversion expense of 9 million euros.

Size criteria

A small capital company within the meaning of Section 267a HGB exists if the company in question does not exceed two of the three following characteristics in two consecutive financial years (cf. Section 267a Paragraph 1 HGB in conjunction with Section 267 Paragraph 4 HGB) (For Start-ups etc. see also Section 267 (4) HGB):

350,000 EUR balance sheet total
EUR 700,000 in sales
An annual average of ten employees

Planned relief

If a corporation is classified as a small capital company according to the size criteria listed above, the MicroBilG provides the following relief for the companies concerned:

Foregoing the preparation of an appendix if certain information is given below the balance sheet
Preparation of a simplified balance sheet (only the letter positions)
Abbreviated presentation of the income statement with eight lines
No disclosure of the annual financial statements - instead just filing the balance sheet

After the MicroBilG has come into force, it is sufficient for micro- corporations to meet their disclosure obligations under commercial law to only file the balance sheet with the company register in electronic form. It is then no longer necessary to publish the annual financial statements in the Federal Gazette .

In principle, everyone is still allowed to inspect the stored balance sheets, but after the MicroBilG has come into force, this is only possible for third parties upon request and is also subject to a charge. The MicroBilG does not completely prevent the publication of company data. However, there are additional barriers for the interested balance sheet reader to be able to access the desired balance sheets.

The envisaged simplifications are opposed to practical requirements. Tax bookkeeping and, for example, the creation of the e-balance sheet require a certain level of detail. In addition, banks will continue to request meaningful information on the annual financial statements, so that small capital companies may not be able to implement all of the simplifications provided for in the MicroBilG in practice.

Come into effect

In the Introductory Act to the Commercial Code (EGHGB), Art. 70 EGHGB contains transitional regulations to the MicroBilG. According to Art. 70 Paragraph 1 EGHGB, the simplifications for micro-corporations in terms of accounting under Section 264 Paragraph 1, Section 266 Paragraph 1, Sections 267a, 275 Paragraph 5, Section 325a Paragraph 2, Section 326 Paragraph 2 and the amendments to Sections 8b, 9, 253, 264 paragraph 2, §§ 264c, 276, 328, 334 and 335 of the Commercial Code in the version of the Small Corporations Accounting Law Amendment Act for the first time for annual and consolidated financial statements that relate to a reporting date after December 30, 2012 Respectively. The corporations affected should be able to benefit as quickly as possible from the relief provided by the MicroBilG. Most of the reliefs are therefore applicable for the first time for the 2012 financial year.

literature

Schiffers: The draft of the MicroBilG - deregulation of accounting for micro companies. In: GmbHR 19/2012 / R257-R258.

Hoffmann: The deregulated annual financial statements of the small capital company

Schellhorn: Comments on the Small Capital Corporations Accounting Law Amendment Act. In: DB 2012, pp. 2296–2299.

Theile: Simplified annual financial statements for small capital companies - A short commentary on the government draft of a MicroBilG-, in: GmbHR 2012, pp. 1112–1117.

Haller / Groß: The MicroBilG-RegE - simplification of accounting for small capital companies in a hurry. In: DB 2012, pp. 2412–2414.

Zwirner / Zimny: MicroBilG: The draft law hardly brings changes to the ministerial draft. In: BC 2012, pp. 432-433.

Zwirner / Zimny , Small Capital Companies - Accounting Law Amendment Act - MicroBilG - draft bill by the Federal Ministry of Justice (status: July 17, 2012), in: BC 2012, pp. 378–387.

Oser: Farewell to an "unloved child". In: BB 2012, issue 36, p. 1.

Zwirner: MicroBilG: Accounting and disclosure relief for small capital companies questionable. In: BB 2012, pp. 2231-2236.

Zwirner / frog hammer. EU accounting reform, changes to EU accounting guidelines. In: StuB 2012, pp. 419-424.

Zwirner: Implementation of the EU Micro Directive by the MicroBilG - simplification of commercial law accounting for small businesses. In: StuB 2012, pp. 617–618.

Küting / Eichenlaub / Strauß: MicroBilG-E: Planned changes to the law to facilitate accounting and disclosure of micro-capital companies. In: DStR 2012, pp. 1670–1674.

Fockenbrock / Metzger: Balance sheets, short and sweet . In: Handelsblatt. August 7, 2012, p. 17.

Sabine Hutter, Stanley Hinz: MicroBilG: What entrepreneurs should know about the law amending the law on accounting law for small capital companies. BoD, Norderstedt 2013, ISBN 978-3-7322-3842-2 .