Germany e-Bilanz electronic balance sheet annual filing Jan 2012

Germany’s Ministry of Finance has imposed the obligation for annual balance sheet electronic filings, e-Bilanz from 2013. This covers the balance sheet submitted as part of income tax filings.

Read more about German VAT in our national guide.

German e-balance sheet

This requires all accounts and general ledgers to be mapped to the German tax authority’s taxonomy or schema of accounts which follows German generally accepted accounting principles. This applies to any taxpayer, incorporated or not, that must submit a balance sheet for income tax reporting. This includes non-residents – although a non-resident VAT registration alone does not trigger this requirement. They will be presented with particular implementation challenges since they may follow International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and not German GAAP.

The reporting format is eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL). Most accounting software packages have now been adapted for the Germany e-balance sheet format.

The obligation started from 1 January 2012, although paper-based versions will still be accepted for 2012 financial reporting. Non-residents are mandated from 1 January 2015.

OECD’s Standard Audit File for Tax SAF-T

Whilst not as detailed as the Organisation for Economic Development’s SAF-T format, Germany’s e-balance sheet is a similar standard electronic format for the exchange of tax transactional data. Check which countries have implemented SAF-T.

Standard Audit File for Tax SAF-T countries