Who must draw up and file a social balance sheet?
April 2021 – In principle, companies that are required to draw up annual accounts are also required to draw up a social balance sheet and file it with the National Bank of Belgium. In this social balance sheet, you as a company must include information on the number of employees: staff turnover, training, etc.
Social balance sheet: who?
A social balance sheet is primarily mandatory for companies that have to publish their annual accounts. The social balance sheet is an integral part of the annual accounts model.
The model annual accounts for large and very large associations also contain such a social balance sheet and must therefore be completed as soon as the association employs at least twenty people. Companies and associations that do not use the standardized model must include a social balance sheet.
Some companies, associations and foundations that do not have to publish annual accounts via the National Bank of Belgium (NBB) must still draw up a social balance sheet (and submit it to the NBB within seven months of the end of their financial year). These are hospitals and certain legal persons under public law when they employ at least twenty people. Two models (one complete and one abridged) are available to them depending on the number of persons employed (fifty or less).
Natural persons do not have to file a social balance sheet.
Social balance sheet: what?
In a social balance sheet you will find :
the status of the persons employed ;
a table of staff movements;
information on the training courses taken by the workers.
The number of employees includes "all persons who, by virtue of a contract, provide work services under the authority of another person as well as persons who provide work services under the authority of a person other than their employer".
This includes employees registered in the personnel register, but also temporary workers and persons placed at the disposal of the company. Directors, managers and active partners are only mentioned if they have concluded an employment contract with the company and are registered in the staff register for this reason.
Personnel movements include new entries in the personnel register on the one hand and terminations of contracts during the financial year on the other. The reason for the dismissal must also be included in the social balance sheet.
Finally, since 2017, as an employer you must also provide information on the training courses you offer at your expense to staff:
continuing vocational training: training that has been planned in advance and is intended to broaden the knowledge or improve the skills of employees; and
initial vocational training: training provided to employed persons in the framework of systems alternating training and work in the enterprise and aiming at the acquisition of an official diploma or certificate.
Social balance sheet: publication ?
The Central Balance Sheet Office integrates the individual data from these social balance sheets into its statistics. The individual data of the social balance sheets of companies, associations and foundations which are not required to file their annual accounts with the National Bank of Belgium are not published. The filing of the social balance sheet is therefore free of charge for the latter.
