In the spanish Official State Gazette (BOE) of 30 May 2023, the resolutions approving the new Annual Accounts forms were published. These, issued by the Directorate General for Legal Certainty and Public Faith, contain a series of changes and new features in the forms for the presentation of consolidated annual accounts and individual annual accounts.
In this article, we explain the main modifications introduced in these new forms.
- Consolidated Annual Accounts
The Resolution of 18 May 2023 introduces significant changes to the consolidated Annual Accounts form. Firstly, modifications have been made to the general identification sheets; it is now necessary to provide detailed information on direct shareholdings between companies along the chain of control. In addition, reporting entities must report on entities accounted for by the equity method, specifying whether they are associates or jointly controlled entities.
Another relevant new feature is the content of the consolidated Notes to the financial statements, where the reference to the transitional provisions of Royal Decree 1/2021 of 12 January, included in the previous year’s forms, has been removed.
It has also been established that, in the case of applying the international accounting standards IAS/IFRS, groups that are required to file consolidated annual accounts may do so in a single European electronic form. For this purpose, they must generate the corresponding file that complies with the rules and specifications of the XBRL Taxonomy of the ESEF format.
- Individual Annual Accounts
The first of the modifications in the individual annual accounts is that the Covid sheet is removed from the standard, abridged and SME forms. Instead, a new requirement has been included: to report the percentage of women in the Governing Body.
In addition, modifications have been made to the beneficial ownership sheet, by introducing additional fields to better identify natural persons. The country of issuance and the type of document must now be indicated. Tables I and III have been split into two in order to provide information according to whether control is exercised through shareholding or through voting rights. Tables IV.a and IV.b have also been added, where the percentage of direct participation through capital shares or through voting rights has to be reported on a company-by-company basis in order to identify the chain of control.
To enhance comparability of information, it has been considered relevant to allow companies to voluntarily report five key indicators related to the environment. These include data on CO2 emissions in its three scopes, as well as water and electricity consumption.
- Other Changes to the Forms
In addition to the updates mentioned above, specific modifications have been made to the Standard, Abridged and SME forms. In the Standard Form, the reference to the transitional provisions of Royal Decree 1/2021 in the notes to the financial statements has been removed. Likewise, adjustments have been made in note number 9- Financial instruments, in the nomenclature of the category “Financial liabilities at amortised cost” and certain items in note number “24-Other information” have also been adjusted. Furthermore, in the Abridged Form, a reference to the transitional provisions of Royal Decree 1/2021 has been eliminated and the error tests in the beneficial ownership sheet have been modified. Finally, in the SME Form, changes are introduced in the correspondence between the concepts of the SME balance sheet and the General Chart of Accounts for small and medium-sized enterprises. Additionally, the error tests in the beneficial ownership sheet have been modified and those corresponding to the Covid sheet have been eliminated.
The new features described above aim to promote greater transparency, improve the comparability of information, and adapt to international standards.
The use of the approved forms will be mandatory for accounts filed with the Commercial Registry from 30 May 2023.
If you have any doubts or queries, please contact the usual contact person in our office.
