Accounting duty: who has to draw up a balance sheet in Austria

Always subject to the duty

Regardless of revenue, section 189 (1) UGB covers:

• Companies with limited liability: GmbH, FlexCo and AG
• Trading partnerships without a natural person as unlimited partner, such as the GmbH & Co KG

From 700,000 euros of revenue

All other businesses become subject to the duty when revenue exceeds 700,000 euros in two consecutive financial years. The duty then starts with the second following year.

If revenue exceeds 1,000,000 euros in a single year, the duty starts with the following year. When revenue stays below 700,000 euros for two consecutive years, the duty ends from the following year.

Exceptions

Section 189 (4) UGB exempts certain groups from the revenue threshold. The UGB accounting duty does not apply to them, whatever their revenue:

• Liberal professions such as doctors, lawyers or tax advisers
• Farmers and foresters
• Businesses with income from letting or other non-trade income

Accounting, disclosure, size class

The three terms are easily mixed up. Accounting duty means a balance sheet under the UGB exists. Disclosure means the annual accounts are filed with the company register and can be inspected there. The disclosure duty of section 277 UGB applies only to companies with limited liability and the GmbH & Co KG, not to a partnership or sole trader that keeps accounts.

The size class of section 221 UGB decides how much a company discloses: micro companies file an abridged balance sheet only, large ones the full accounts with a management report.

What you see on firmenbuchdaten.at

For every registered company we list the annual accounts filed with the register, with balance sheet date, filing date and size class. A missing set of accounts can mean there is no disclosure duty, as with a partnership, or a late filing.

This is not tax or legal advice. Whether your own business must keep accounts is a question for your tax adviser, based on actual revenue.