New annual accounts schemes for new companies

The New Companies Code (NCC) foresees some new publication obligations, at least for new companies. As from 2020 you can choose between 6 extra schemes. However ... choose is maybe not the correct word.

Author: National Bank

The National Bank of Belgium (BNB) collects and publishes the annual accounts of the Belgian companies: this is one of her most important missions. You can there consult the annual accounts of almost any Belgian legal person and these are also used for statistical and financial analyses.

In order to assure the smooth processing of this information you should use the schemes which are prescribed by the BNB. Therefore the BNB publishes the scheme to be used annually.

New companies

Companies established as from 1 May 2019 and 'old' companies which have opted for the application of the NCC (the so-called opt in-companies) should report information which was not foreseen in the current scheme of the annual accounts. So a new scheme was necessary.

On 30 June 2019 the 6 new possible schemes were published in the Belgian Official Journal.

As from 2020

3 schemes (full, abbreviated and micro) are necessary for companies without capital (bv, cv) and for companies with capital (nv).
This results in a total of 6 schemes:

a full scheme for capital companies (VOL-kap)

an abbreviated scheme for small capital companies (VKT-kap)

a micro scheme for micro capital companies (MIC-kap)

a full scheme for companies without capital (VOL-inb)

an abbreviated scheme for small companies without capital (VKT-inb)

a micro scheme for micro companies without capital (MIC-inb).

The BNB accepts the new schemes in pdf as from 1 January 2020. Filing as a structured data format (xbrl) is possible as from 1 April 2020. Associations and foundations have to wait until 2021.

Big, small, smaller

Big companies should file a full scheme, small companies can opt for the abbreviated scheme. The difference between big and small is now stable for quite some time: a company is considered big when it exceeds 2 or 3 of the following thresholds:

total workforce: 50 FTE

turnover: 9.000.000 euro

balance sheet total: 4.500.000 euro

Listed companies should always use the full scheme.

A micro company is a small company exceeding maximum one of the following thresholds:

total workforce: 10 FTE

turnover: 700.000 euro

balance sheet total: 350.000 euro

Micro companies can use the micro scheme.

For companies falling under the old rules, the three existing schemes (full, abbreviated and micro) remain in place until the new legislation also applies to them.

Please note that the NBN as from 1 January 2020 no longer accepts annual accounts of companies, associations and foundations on paper.

https://www.nbb.be/en/central-balance-sheet-office/drawing/models