Announcement of annual financial statements

The preparation of an Annual Financial Statement (AFS) and its publication in the Commercial Register is an obligation of most of the companies registered in Bulgaria. All economic structures are obliged to maintain proper accounting and, with small exceptions, to announce the results of the annual balance sheet in the system of the Commercial Register or to publish them in certain economic publications or websites.

Which of the companies are subject to mandatory disclosure of their financial statements?

As a rule, the companies entered in the Commercial Register have the obligation to publish their reports for the previous financial year there. This obligation applies to all types of capital and personal companies. Exceptions are some of the sole traders and the enterprises that have not performed activity during the reporting period. The sole traders exempted from the obligation to declare their financial balance should not have been operating during the reporting period or meet at least two of the following conditions:

The balance value of their assets should not exceed BGN 2 million as of December 31 of the previous reporting year;
The net income from trade operations within the past year should not exceed BGN 4 million;
The number of the hired employees during the period under review should be average up to 50 people.

The obligation for publishing annual financial statements does not apply to the companies, the non-profit legal entities and the other enterprises without activity during the past financial year. This circumstance should be declared once for the first reporting period in which no activity has been carried out, with a declaration in a form approved by an order of the Minister of Finance. The declaration should be published by June 30 of the following year as follows:

in the Commercial Register and the register of non-profit legal entities - for all the traders within the meaning of the Commercial Law and for the non-profit legal entities;
through an economic publication or through the Internet - for the rest enterprises.

The deadlines for publishing annual financial statements are different from the deadline for submitting a declaration of inactivity. The publication of annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and annual reports should be carried out by the various structures by September 30 of the following calendar year. For example, the sole traders, the limited liability companies, all the other traders, the non-profit legal entities and the other enterprises publish their annual financial statements by September 30 of the following calendar year.

The ways for publishing annual financial statements are also through the Commercial Register, the register of non-profit legal entities, an economic publication or via the Internet, depending on the obliged entity.

Which enterprises are considered to be inactive?

Enterprises which have not performed activity during the reporting period are enterprises for which the following conditions are simultaneously met:

during the reporting period they have not performed any of the following deals - purchase of goods or other articles for the purpose of reselling them in their original, processed or finished form; sale of one's own manufactured goods; purchasing securities for the purpose of reselling them; commercial agency and brokerage; commission, forwarding and transportation transactions; insurance transactions; banking and foreign-exchange transactions; bills of exchange, promissory notes and cheques; warehousing transactions; licence transactions; supervision of goods; transactions in intellectual property; hotel operation, tourist, advertising, information, entertainment, impresario and other services; purchase, construction or furnishing of real property for the purpose of sale; leasing;
during the reporting period no conditions for revenue have been recognized in accordance with the Accounting Act and the applicable accounting standards;
they have not carried out any activity related to investments, production and / or sales;
they have not purchased goods and services for the purpose of receiving income and profits.

Who is responsible for preparing an annual financial statement?

The financial statements for the past calendar year cannot be prepared by the owners of the enterprises. They are prepared by their own accounting department or by an accounting firm. For the enterprises subject to an independent financial audit, there is an obligation for providing their financial statements for audit by a licensed auditor before being announced. These enterprises are:

Small enterprises, which as of December 31 of the current reporting period exceed at least two of the following indicators:

balance value of the assets - BGN 2,000,000;
net revenues from sales - BGN 4,000,000;
average number of the staff for the reporting period - 50 people;

Medium and large enterprises;
Enterprises of public interest;
Medium and large groups and groups in which there is at least one enterprise of public interest;
Joint-stock companies and limited partnerships with shares;
Companies issuing securities on the commodity exchange;
Companies with a specific scope of activity - insurance companies, credit institutions, social security funds, investment companies, etc.;
Non-profit legal entities whose book value of assets exceeds BGN 1 million, the amount of their income from economic and non-profit activities exceeds BGN 2 million or the amount of their financing (including unspent) exceeds BGN 1 million.

How is the annual financial statement published?

There are two options for publishing the annual financial statement - on site at a branch of the Commercial Register by submitting an application or electronically, for which purpose an electronic signature is required. The state fee for this procedure is BGN 40 when submitting the application on site and BGN 20 when submitting the application electronically.

The persons engaged in this activity are:

Manager;
Compiler - with a notarized power of attorney;
Trusted person (a lawyer) - with a simple power of attorney.

The application with which the annual financial statement has been published should be accompanied by additional documents regarding the legal status of the enterprise, such as: minutes of the General Meeting at which the report has been adopted, minutes of the sole owner of a single-member company, as well as a declaration of validity of the stated circumstances and a document for paid state fee. When the documents are entered by a proxy, a declaration confirming that the documents originate from the signatories is attached. In this case, the power of attorney is also presented.