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Thomas Westphal
Accounting in Germany
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Inhaltsverzeichnis
Titel
Nature and delimitation of the term
Objectives and tasks of financial accounting
Duty to keep accounts
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GOB)
Double-entry bookkeeping - basics
Balance sheet
Profit and loss account
Posting record
Books
General ledger
Subsidiary ledgers
History of accounting
New possibilities of accounting organisation
Impressum neobooks
Accounting is to be understood as reporting required by law. The accounting regulation on which this article is based follows the HGB. However, other accounting regulations are also fulfilled with the bookkeeping in Germany (for example IFRS and US-GAAP). This then requires parallel accounting from which several financial statements (according to the different accounting regulations) can be prepared.
It is expedient to subdivide the generic term "accounting" into the Financial accounting, from which annual financial statements (balance sheet, profit and loss account) are developed, and
the company accounts, which are used for internal cost recording and cost accounting (price calculation).
Bookkeeping is a component of business accounting. In addition to financial and operational accounting, this includes business statistics and comparative accounting as well as planning accounting (estimates for future income and expenditure).
Accounting" is often used as a synonym for "bookkeeping". This does not seem appropriate, since
the term "accounting" is mostly used in laws,
in practice, "accounting" is often understood to mean only the organisational unit of a company in which bookkeeping is carried out.
This article explains financial accounting and in particular the methodology of double-entry bookkeeping. This is the method of keeping proper books of account generally used in the private sector and required by law for merchants. Small traders and freelancers can account for their business according to the simpler revenue surplus statement.
Since the end of the 20th century, public administration has been supplementing cameralistic accounting with elements of the double-entry accounting method known in this field as Doppik. In Germany, the first pilot tests for the application of double-entry accounting systems at the municipal level took place in the 1990s. Since 1 January 2010 (entry into force), there has been a general legal basis for the application of double-entry accounting (Doppik) in the administrations of the Federation and the Länder (§ 49a HGrG) in the form of the amended Budget Principles Act (§ 1a, § 7a HGrG). The regional and local authorities were given the opportunity to independently organise the process of introducing other accounting systems in addition to cameralistics through their own legislation. The partially applied "state double-entry accounting" was subsequently supplemented with "municipal double-entry accounting". In this way, the basic rules of commercial accounting and balancing found their way into public budgeting and accounting. In the municipal sector, double-entry accounting led to a greatly changed structure of the budget statutes.
Objectives and tasks of financial accounting
an overview of the company's assets and liabilities at all times. At least once a year, the asset and debt situation must be documented in the balance sheet and evidenced by an inventory.
Identify and systematically record all transactions that change assets and liabilities.
Determination of success by comparing income and expenses. This is done at least once a year in the profit and loss account.
Provision of the legally required information on the basis of which the tax authorities carry out the taxation of the company, as well as further information for authorities, courts, banks or other external addressees in the prescribed form.
Addressees of results from financial accounting
internal addressees:
the entrepreneur himself: He cannot keep all transactions in his head. He needs a constant overview for his commercial decisions.
Investors participating in the enterprise: Many enterprises are organised in the form of a company. Participating shareholders demand - constantly or at least periodically - meaningful, verifiable information about the situation of the company.
Employees and their representatives
external addressees:
External capital providers, especially banks
Creditor
Tax office
Public
If different addressees require different standards for reporting from the financial accounts (balance sheet, profit and loss account, cash flow statement, among others), this may require parallel accounting.
Duty to keep accounts
In addition to the entrepreneur's own interest, there are legal regulations in which the obligation to keep accounts is laid down. The accounting regulations of the German Commercial Code (HGB) apply to merchants and those voluntarily preparing accounts:
According to commercial law
"Every merchant [as defined in § 1-7 HGB] is obliged to keep books of account and to show in them his commercial transactions and the situation of his assets in accordance with the principles of proper accounting."
- Section 238 (1) sentence 1 HGB
Tradesmen whose companies require a business operation set up in a commercial manner according to their type and scope or who are entered in the commercial register are merchants and thus obliged to keep accounts.
Section 241a HGB (inserted by the Accounting Law Modernisation Act (BilMoG)) stipulates the exemption of small sole traders from the obligation to keep accounts.
According to the EU regulations for stock exchange financed corporations
According to the Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council of 19 July 2002, listed companies in the European Union must prepare their consolidated accounts in accordance with International Accounting Standards (IAS) or International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) from 2005 (comparative figures for 2004). This was the EU's reaction to the requirements of international stock exchanges, which demand financial statements in accordance with the legal provisions of their country as a prerequisite for admission to trading. In the meantime, the original regulation has been replaced by Regulation No. 1126/2008. The application of the IAS / IFRS of the EU is today regarded as equivalent to the national financial statement requirements at the stock exchanges of almost all countries. In its catalogue of measures published on 25 February 2003, the German government reacted to the demands of the EU Commission. In addition, non-listed companies were granted an option to apply IAS / IFRS in their consolidated financial statements. With the Accounting Law Reform Act, the obligation to apply IFRS was also extended to those companies whose securities are not yet traded but are in the process of being admitted (cf. § 264d HGB).
According to tax law
Derivative (derived) accounting obligation
"Any person who is required by any law other than the Tax Acts to keep books and records relevant to taxation shall perform the obligations incumbent on him under the other laws also for taxation."
- Section 140 of the German Fiscal Code (AO)
Original accounting obligation
"Commercial entrepreneurs as well as farmers and foresters who, according to the findings of the tax authority for the individual enterprise
Turnover, including tax-exempt turnover, with the exception of turnover pursuant to section 4 no. 8 to 10 of the Turnover Tax Act, of more than 600,000 euros (until the end of 2015: 500,000 euros) in a calendar year or
(omitted)
Self-managed agricultural and forestry land with an economic value (...) of more than 25,000 euros or
a profit from commercial operations of more than 60,000 euros (until the end of 2015: 50,000 euros) in the business year or
a profit from agriculture and forestry of more than 60,000 euros (until the end of 2015: 50,000 euros) in the calendar year
are obliged to keep accounts for this business and to prepare financial statements on the basis of annual inventories, even if an obligation to keep accounts does not result from section 140 [see above]".
- Section 141 (1) sentence 1 AO
However, this does not apply to the so-called liberal professions, such as lawyers, tax advisors or doctors, for whom there is basically no obligation to keep accounts. The only exception to this is if the business in question is operated in the legal form of a corporation or trading company, for example a tax consultancy firm run as a limited liability company (GmbH) - in this case, Section 6 (1) of the German Commercial Code (HGB) (Formkaufleute) would apply and require bookkeeping.
However, the original obligation to keep accounts only applies from the business year following the notification by the tax office that the limits have been exceeded. It does not end until the end of the business year following the determination of the underrun.
Nature of the accounts
Section 238 HGB stipulates:
"The bookkeeping must be such that it can provide an expert third party with an overview of the business transactions and the situation of the enterprise within a reasonable period of time. The business transactions must be traceable in their origin and processing.
An "expert third party" can be a tax official who checks the accounts as part of an external audit. However, an expert third party can also be a family member or a donor who wants to convince himself that his money is well invested on the basis of the books of account.
In the Fiscal Code, these provisions are also supplemented from a tax perspective. If the bookkeeping does not meet the requirements, for example because documents are missing, the tax authorities can estimate the bases of taxation according to § 162 AO.
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