Reducing bureaucracy: higher thresholds for accounting and financial reporting

The German federal government has passed a draft law to raise the thresholds for financial reporting and accounting. This is intended to reduce bureaucratic costs for SMEs by €650 million.

This article is part of the special topic Bureaucratic madness in the craft industry

Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) announced it to the NRW craft industry, now it has the Federal government decided: The monetary thresholds for determining the company size classes in commercial accounting law should be increased by around 25 percent. "Raising the thresholds leads to less paperwork and more entrepreneurial freedomto devote themselves to the actual work and value creation," says Buschmann.

This will particularly benefit small and medium businesses (SMEs). According to Buschmann, the increase in the thresholds for accounting and financial reporting will relieve 52.000 companies by around 650 million euros Bureaucratic costs annually. "That's an average of 12.500 euros per company." According to Federal Ministry of Justice In the future, almost 11.200 small businesses will be classified as micro-enterprises. These companies would thus benefit by over 93 million euros per year relieved.

Significantly fewer obligations

The thresholds determine the Company size within the meaning of commercial accounting law There are three categories: "micro-enterprise," "small enterprise," "medium-sized enterprise," and "large enterprise." The scope of accounting and reporting obligations depends on the size of the company: A small business has significantly fewer obligations than a large company. Due to the increase, many companies are slipping into a lower size class.

"Raising the legal thresholds for accounting and financial reporting is a right step" explained Holger Schwannecke. Crafts businesses that are subject to comprehensive accounting and reporting obligations as GmbH or GmbH & Co. KG would thereby be relieved, said the Secretary General of the Central Association of German Crafts. "Less bureaucracy and cost burden are the correct answer on the current stress situation of the craft businesses."

Relieve all craft businesses

Schwannecke demands: "The adopted draft law must therefore Model for further measures be that all craft businesses The Bureaucracy Reduction Act provides the right framework for this. There are plenty of suggestions from the trades. Now it is time to implement these to be implemented consistently."

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