Federal Gazette: How to publish the annual financial statements

The financial year is over and the next obligation comes: the annual financial statements must be published in the Federal Gazette. But that raises many questions: Who is obliged? What has to go in? And how is it sent? You can read the most important answers to the Federal Gazette here.

Table of contents:

1. What is the Federal Gazette?
2. What deadlines apply?
3. Who has to deposit what?
4. How do I file the annual financial statements?
5. Easily create annual financial statements with GetMyInvoices

Frequently asked questions about the Federal Gazette:

Many founders would probably like to avoid publishing their annual financial statements in the Federal Gazette. However, if you ignore the publication requirement, you risk high fines! In addition, it is not enough to just submit the annual financial statements: there is a lot to consider, from the scope of mandatory information to threshold values and relief for certain company sizes. The Federal Gazette attaches particular importance to completeness and does not grant any extension of time.

What is the Federal Gazette?

The Federal Gazette is an electronic announcement and announcement organ of the German federal authority. Companies that are required to publish are obliged to submit their annual financial statements and other reports to the Federal Gazette. This then forwards the information to the company register, where the annual financial statements are published and made freely accessible. The purpose of the publication is to give all your stakeholders – customers, suppliers, employees, investors, etc. – a detailed insight into your company’s finances.

Obligation to publish – too Obligation to disclose - means nothing more than the obligation to submit your annual financial statements to the Federal Gazette in a timely manner.

Disclosure deadlines

If you run a company that requires publication, you should definitely observe the deadlines of the Federal Gazette: All documents must be submitted within twelve months Closing date of the annual financial statements to submit. The legislature takes this obligation very seriously! If you don’t follow it, you risk costly fines of 2,500 euros and more!

Who has to disclose?

Not every company is obliged to disclose. The Publicity law (PublG) as well as that Commercial Code (HGB) regulates the publication obligation for companies. It applies to:

• All corporations according to § 325 HGB
• Commercial partnerships without personally liable partners (e.g. a GmbH & Co. KG)
• Additional companies as soon as a certain size is exceeded

Of course, the legislature also defines “a certain size”. Loud § 1 Publication Act This applies to all companies that meet two of the following criteria in three consecutive financial years:

• The balance sheet total is 65 million euros
• Sales revenue is over 130 million euros
• On average, your company employs over 5,000 people every year

Accordingly, partnerships (OHG, KG, GbR) and sole traders are also obliged to disclose if they exceed a certain size.

The disclosure requirement differs in two forms: micro-enterprises only have to submit their annual financial statements; it is not freely accessible to everyone. For all other sizes, the information is publicly visible on the Federal Gazette portal.

Who has to publish what?

The publication requirement sounds complicated at first - and admittedly, the different rules are not entirely without problems. Basically, the larger your company, the more detailed the reports. To do this, companies are divided into four different size classes based on threshold values. To give you a simple overview, we have summarized all boundaries and regulations:

category	Threshold	Obligation to disclose	Required Documents
Micro-enterprises	• Total assets are less than 350,000 euros  • Sales revenue less than 700,000 euros • a maximum of 10 employees on an annual average	No	shortened balance sheet
Small businesses	• Total assets are less than 6 million euros  • Sales revenue less than 12 million euros • a maximum of 50 employees on an annual average	partially	abridged balance sheet and abridged appendix
Medium-sized companies	• Total assets are less than 20 million euros  • Sales revenue less than 40 million euros • a maximum of 250 employees on an annual average	Yes	Condensed balance sheet including profit and loss statement (P&L), appendix and management report Further reports depending on the legal form (e.g. supervisory board report or information on the appropriation of profits)
Large companies	• Total assets are over 20 million euros  • Sales revenue higher than 40 million euros • Over 250 employees on average per year	Yes	Balance sheet including income statement, appendix and management report Further reports depending on the legal form (e.g. supervisory board report or information on the appropriation of profits)

This is how you file your annual financial statements in the Federal Gazette

The Federal Gazette also has it digitalization Held: The annual financial statements are submitted there electronically. This then forwards the documents independently to the respective company registers. Whether you collect the data yourself or through your Tax Consultants submitting is entirely up to you. If you decide to go it alone, you can publish your data as follows:

**Step 1:**visit https://www.bundesanzeiger.de/ and register under the menu item “Register”.

Step 2: Once registration is complete, go to https://publikations-plattform.de/ . You remember: Depending on the size of the company and its legal form, you have to publish or just submit various documents. Here you choose the right procedure.

Step 3: Then just upload the required reports as a file (Word, Excel, PDF, RTF, XML and XBRL). Micro-enterprises and small businesses can also fill out a web form provided by the Federal Gazette.