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Finance
Guidance note

Guidance on the implementation and interpretation of Directive 2013/34/EU on accounting rules

Details

Publication date
8 March 2022 (Last updated on: 21 December 2023)
Author
Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union

Description

Interaction between EU accounting rules and IFRS reporting

These documents illustrate the interactions between IFRS and non-IFRS financial reporting under EU rules. Please note that these documents are not a definitive interpretation of EU law, which only the European Court of Justice can provide.

Thresholds defining micro, small and medium-sized companies

The accounting directive allows a simplified reporting regime for small and medium-sized enterprises and a very light regime for micro-companies. The thresholds for these categories are periodically updated.

Current thresholds:

  Micro Small Medium-sized
Balance sheet total ≤ € 450,000 ≤ € 7,500,000 ≤ € 25,000,000
Net turnover ≤ € 900,000 ≤ € 15,000,000 ≤ € 50,000,000
Average number of employees during the financial year ≤ 10 ≤ 50 ≤ 250

The thresholds for small and medium-sized enterprises were first proposed by the 4th and 7th Council Directives in 1978 and subsequently updated in 1984, 1990, 1994, 1999, 2003 and 2006. The thresholds were modified in 2013, with the adoption of Directive 2013/34/EU repealing the 4th and 7th Directive, then updated by delegated act in 2023.

Other documents

You can find below 2 recommendations and one interpretative communication related to earlier versions of the EU accounting directive. The 2 recommendations are still in force. The first one concerns the definition of micro, small and medium-sized companies, whereas the second one provides guidance to improve the quality, transparency and comparability of environmental data available in companies' annual accounts and reports.

Financial reporting

Files

8 MARCH 2017
Decision tree on the rules to be applied when preparing financial statements
English
(346.32 KB - PDF)
Download
8 MARCH 2017
Additional EU accounting rules to be applied when preparing IFRS financial statements
English
(147.43 KB - PDF)
Download