At the end of 2018, Law 11/2018 of 28 December, transposing the Directive on the disclosure of non-financial information and diversity by certain large companies and groups, entered into force. This law obliges the directors of such business entities to prepare a non-financial information statement (NFIS), which will be a document attached to the annual accounts and will be subject to verification by an independent third party.
For financial years beginning on or after January 1, 2018, the consolidated entities or groups required to prepare the NFIS are those that meet the following two conditions:
- The average number of employees during the financial year exceeds 500.
- They are entities of public interest (i.e. banks, insurance companies, etc.) or entities that meet two of the following three requirements during two consecutive financial years:
- total assets exceeding 20 million euros;
- net turnover exceeding 40 million euros; or
- average number of employees exceeding 500.
For years beginning on or after 1 January 2021 (inclusive), the requirement relating to the number of employees is reduced to 250.
In general, the NFIS summarizes the entity’s corporate social responsibility policies. Specifically, the document should contain information on at least (i) environmental, (ii) social and personnel issues, (iii) respect for human rights, and (iv) the fight against corruption and bribery. In addition, it should include information on the company’s commitments to sustainable development, subcontracting and suppliers, consumers, tax information and any other information that is significant. A set of key indicators should be provided for each subject of the NFIS.
The NFIS should be formulated by the directors of the entity in question and is subject to verification by an independent expert, such as a Statutory Auditor.
In consolidated groups, Spanish subsidiaries are not required to prepare this document provided that the group’s NFIS contains all the information required by the Directive. However, the Spanish subsidiary (or Spanish subgroup) will be obliged to publish the NFIS in accordance with Spanish regulations. It should be noted that the Spanish regulations include more information obligations than those provided for in the aforementioned Directive. Consequently, in the case of consolidated groups with parent companies located abroad, the Spanish subsidiary (or Spanish subgroup) must prepare (i) a complete individual NFIS that complies with Spanish regulations or (ii) a partial individual NFIS that includes the complementary information required by Spanish regulations in comparison with the Directive.
Bové Montero y Asociados can assist you in solving any questions you may have on this matter as well as carrying out the verification of the NFIS.
Authors:
Francisco Ocaña
Auditor, Madrid
focana@bovemontero.com
+34 91 561 54 14
Andreu Bové
Tax advisor, Madrid
above@bovemontero.com
+34 91 561 54 14
