Suspension of administrative fine proceedings in the event of late disclosure until 1 April 2025

The Federal Office of Justice (BfJ) has announced that no administrative fine procee­dings pursuant to Section 335 HGB will be initiated before 1 April 2025 against companies whose statutory deadline for the disclosure of accounting documents for the financial year ending on the balance sheet date of 31 December 2023 is 31 December 2024. As a result, the statutory disclosure period of 12 months remains unchanged, but companies can publish their annual and consolidated financial statements as at 31 December 2023 until 1 April 2025 without having to expect sanc­tions in the form of administrative fines. The temporary suspension of administrative fine proceedings is intended in particular to take into account the ongoing after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which can lead to delays in the preparation or auditing of annual and consolidated financial statements, for example. Small and medium-sized companies are often affected by this.

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The BfJ's general information can be found here: BfJ - Jahresabschlüsse (in German)