The filing calendar for the current financial year

The filing deadline is not negotiable, and an audit can only be compressed so far. Companies that start in April end up signing in a hurry, and haste in an audit means questions asked late, when the answer can no longer change anything.

The legal deadline

Annual financial statements are filed with the territorial units of the Ministry of Finance within 150 days of the end of the financial year. For a financial year matching the calendar year, that means 30 May. Non-profit entities, associations and foundations have 120 days. The legal basis is Accounting Law no. 82/1991, article 36.

When the deadline falls on a non-working day it moves to the next working day. Check the current year, because a day or two matters when the calendar is tight.

Counting backwards

From the filing date, a statutory audit at a mid-sized company needs four stages:

• Planning and understanding the business, one to two weeks. This is where we request documents and decide what to test.
• Fieldwork, two to four weeks, depending on size and on how orderly the records are.
• Discussing the findings, one week. Corrections appear here, and if they change the figures, the statements are redrawn.
• The report and the letter to management, a few days.

Six to eight weeks in total. To file on 30 May without pressure, the audit has to start in early April at the latest.

Stock counts happen earlier

Something many companies learn too late: where inventory is material, the auditor has to attend the physical count. The count happens at the year end, not in spring. If you call us in April, we cannot attend the count for 31 December, and that shows in the report.

Companies with significant inventory contact us in November, so we can be there.

Interim reporting

Entities above the turnover threshold set each year also file accounting reports as at 30 June. That deadline is fixed by order of the Minister of Finance, usually published in spring, so check it for the current year.

Tax returns

Tax return deadlines change more often than accounting ones, and several have moved in recent years. We deliberately do not reproduce them here as a fixed list, so that you do not rely on text that may fall behind. Confirm them with your accountant or in the calendar published by the tax authority.