Selected Q&A for forwarding financial statements to the collection of documents of the public register by a tax administrator.
We have already reported on the possibility of publishing the financial statements for 2021 by a tax administrator in this article.
Due to the high number of questions and uncertainties, the Financial Administration has published Selected questions regarding the amendment to the Accounting Act in connection with forwarding financial statements to the collection of documents of the public register by an income tax administrator on its portal. Let's briefly summarise the most important points:
- The obligation to publish financial statements by a tax administrator can be met while filing a tax return for corporate income tax, specifically as an attachment to item 11 of Section I.
- If, when filing the tax return, a taxpayer forgets to request forwarding of the financial statements to the collection of documents of the public register, and the deadline for filing the tax return has not expired yet, the request can be filled in using a corrective tax return. If this period has already expired, it is not possible to request forwarding of financial statements separately. However, a supplementary tax return can be submitted. It is especially useful in cases where there have been some changes to the financial statements that should be reflected in the published data. The supplementary tax return must include not only the completed application for forwarding the financial statements but also the financial statements.
- A micro accounting entity requesting the publication of the balance sheet and notes hereto in the collection of documents of the public register only must also attach a profit and loss statement to the tax return. It has the option to choose and check specific accounting statements in the application that will be forwarded to the collection of documents of the public register in this way.
- The tax administrator will not check the scope of the application when submitting the financial statements to the Commercial Court. The accounting entity is responsible for the publication of all mandatory data.
- The request for forwarding financial statements for publication can also be used in cases where the financial statements are prepared according to the International Accounting Standards. The application form contains a separate designated field – No. 06 – and also a separately defined part of the e-attachment.
- A tax entity can be notified by the tax administrator about forwarding the financial statements to the Commercial Court if its e-mail is filled in in the application.
- Financial statements that have not been approved yet can also be forwarded by the tax administrator. In this case, this information should be checked in the box "Data is based on the financial statements that have not been approved".
In conclusion, we would like to point out that failure to comply with the obligation to publish financial statements is an offence under the Accounting Act for which a fine of up to 3% of the value of assets (net) in total may be imposed pursuant to Section 37a(4)(b). Relatively recently, the Commercial Court can take actions to erase a business corporation from the public register, if a corporation has failed to store at least two consecutive financial statements in the collection of documents of the public register and does not accept the request from the Commercial Court to complete it.
