With the adoption of the new Accountancy Act, promulgated in SG № 95/08.12.2015 was changed the terms for announcement of the annual financial statements in the Commercial Register, as follows:
- for all commercial entities under the Commercial Act – through application for submission of the annual financial statements for announcements in the Commercial Register by 30 June of the following year (respectively the Annual Financial Statements for 2015 should be submitted not later than 30.06.2016).
- for the non-profit legal persons, established for socially useful activity – through application for submission of the annual financial statements in the Central Register of the Non-profit Legal Persons at the Ministry of Justice not later than 30 June of the following year.
- for the other enterprises – announcement via economic issue or via internet – by 30 June of the following year.
After the expiry of the deadline – 30 June, the Registry Agency will provide to the National Revenue Agency (briefly NRA) a list of commercial entities and other enterprises which failed to submit annual financial statements on time. These persons will be imposed with a fine by the NRA or the PFIA (Public Financial Inspection Agency) in accordance with articles 74 and 78 of the Accountancy Act.
The penalties for the persons failed to submit annual financial statements on time are as follows:
- for the manager of the respective enterprise – a fine in the amount of BGN 200 to BGN 3,000;
- for the enterprise – property sanction from 0.1 % to 0.5% of net revenues for the reporting period to which the unpublished financial statements are related, but not less than BGN 200.
There is no sanction in case, when the financial statements are submitted for announcement in time, but the publication is refused by the Registry Agency’s officials and subsequently within 14 days of its entry into force is submitted a second application for announcement. In this case the financial statements are considered submitted on time.
The rules for announcement of the financial statements are not applicable for the budget enterprises and the sole traders, who are not subject to mandatory independent financial audit.
The changes affect mainly the sole traders and the commercial entities under the Commercial Act, with the exception of the limited liability companies, for which and at present the term for announcement of the financial statements is until 30 June of the following year. Up until the present change the sole traders were liable to submit for announcement their financial statements by 31 May of the following year, while for all other commercial entities under the Commercial Act (except limited liability companies) the term was until 31 July of the following year.
In addition the new Accountancy Act also provides for changes in relation to the documents which are subject to announcement in the Commercial Register – Joint Stock Companies (JSC), Limited Partnership with Shares (LPS) and Limited Liability Companies (LLC), which are medium or large enterprises or are enterprises with public-interested activity, submits for announcement together with their annual financial statements and information on the proposal of the management body for the distribution of the profit or for covering of the loss from the previous year and the decision of the General Meeting of the shareholders on the way for distribution of the profit or for covering of the loss from the previous year.