Reporting period for companies and associations
May 2021 – Determining the reporting deadline for non-profit organisations, resident companies, non-resident companies and dissolved companies used to require some mathematical thinking. From this year onwards, it will be much simpler.
Old system
The old system was actually based on two extreme dates, namely
at the earliest the last day of the month following the statutory general meeting; and
at the latest six months after the end of the financial year.
The deadline for a financial year ending on 31 December 2018 was therefore always 30 June 2019. However, each year the tax authorities adopted a general measure to extend the deadline for filing, for example to 14 October 2019 for the 2018 financial year.
But let's imagine that your financial year ends on 30 June 2019. If, in that case, you held your annual meeting in October, you would have until 2 December 2019 to submit your return, i.e. one month after the month of the general meeting.
Corona system for financial years ending on 30 December 2019
If your financial year ended in October, November or December 2019, you probably had to hold your general meeting somewhere in February. This means that you had to file your return in the middle of the coronavirus crisis.
In order to overcome the practical problems this caused (general meetings could be postponed and accountants could not be visited...), the procedure for these declarations has been simplified. Assuming that your financial year ends in October 2019 or later, you have seven months to submit your declaration.
The seven-month period begins on the first day of the month following the financial year-end. If the year-end is 30 October 2019, this means seven months from 1 November 2019, which means 31 May 2020 (a Sunday), followed by 1 June (a public holiday).
If the deadline for introduction falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, the deadline for introduction is the next working day. In the example above, the deadline for introduction was therefore 2 June 2020.
Corona system for financial years ending from 31 December 2019 to 30 December 2020
Why 31 December 2019 and why 30 December 2020?
The declaration of a company or association is linked to a tax year. And the tax year depends on the year-end.
If your financial year ends on 31 December, the tax year is the following year.
If your financial year ends on another date, the tax year is the current year.
For financial years ending from 31 December 2019 to 30 December 2020, the tax year is therefore 2020.
For financial years ending on or after 31 December 2020, the tax year is 2021 and is subject to new legal rules.
The financial years ending from 31 December 2019 to 30 December 2020 are therefore still subject to a "corona" system. The reporting period for these companies and associations also runs until seven months after the end of the financial year. The previous corona system is therefore simply maintained.
In concrete terms: if your financial year ends on 1 October 2020, you have until 31 May 2021 (which this year is a Monday) to submit your return. If your financial year ends in November (30 November included), you have until 30 June 2021 at the latest to submit your return.
Reporting deadline as from the 2021 tax year
If you have closed your financial year on 31 December 2020 or later, you are subject to the new legislation.
This new system is once again the seven-month rule after the financial year-end. However, the new system is now enshrined in law, so you can forget about the one-month rule after the general meeting.
But how will this work in practice?
In the past, the tax authorities always communicated the deadline for submitting the various declarations in the spring. For companies and associations, a date of late September/early October was usually set.
This tradition of a general postponement has been respected again this year.
In mid-March, the tax authorities announced that the deadline for legal entities with a financial year ending between 31 December 2020 and 28 October 2021 (inclusive) was 28 October 2021. However, you should bear in mind that if the deadline for filing is so late, you are unlikely to get an individual extension.
