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Flash News
Update of the Accounting1 and
Commercial2 Laws
The Chamber of Deputies has adopted on 9 December 2015 the draft bill 6718
(the “New Law”) modifying various provisions relating to accounting and
annual accounts of certain types of companies.
With this New Law, Luxembourg has implemented the European Directive
2013/34/UE which aims to merge and replace the IVth and VIIth Accounting
Directives related, respectively, to the stand-alone and the consolidated
accounts.
9 December 2015
In detail
The Luxembourgish legislator decided to implement the new Accounting Directive in
two steps. The first step, corresponding to this New Law, is implementing the
mandatory changes brought by the Directive 2013/34/UE, whereas a second law – to
be issued at a later stage – will focus on the options available for EU member states.
There is a new provision that will oblige, to a certain extent, large and public interest
entities active in some specific industries to report on the payments made to
governments in order to fight against bribery. Other changes concern the
presentation of the annual accounts, introduction of the materiality concept as well
as some modifications in the notes to the annual accounts.
1
Law of 19 December 2002 (as amended) on the register of commerce and companies and the accounting
and annual accounts of undertakings.
2
Law of 10 August 1915 (as amended) on commercial companies.
Major changes
New report on payments made to government
In the context of the EU fight against bribery, large and public interest entities
involved directly or through their subsidiaries in the extractive industry and loggers
of primary forest will have to prepare a separate (consolidated) report to be issued
and published to the Trade Register detailing the amounts over EUR 100.000 paid to
the government, on a yearly basis. Some exceptions may apply.
Modifications of the balance sheet and profit and loss account layout
The balance sheet and profit and loss account presentation have been aligned with
the layout of the European Directive. As part of the main changes, the Luxembourg
legislator has opted for the presentation of the profit and loss account as a list. New
templates for the 2016 statements are already available on the eCDF platform.
Modifications of the thresholds for medium and large-sized companies
The thresholds to determine large sized entities have been increased to EUR 20
million for the total balance sheet and EUR 40 million for the turnover (instead of,
respectively, EUR 17.5 million and EUR 35 million).
Disclosures modifications
The main changes related to the notes to the annual accounts are the following:
 Introduction and definition of the materiality concept;
 Obligation to present the notes to the annual accounts in a specific order;
 Obligation to describe the accounting policies in addition to the valuation
rules;
 Disclosure of gross amounts in case of compensation/netting;
 Nature and financial impact on post balance sheet events for medium and
large entities;
 Disclosure requirement of exceptional items;
 Additional disclosure requirement for small-sized entities related to the
average number of staff by category;
 New disclosures exemptions for small-sized entities relate to:
o information regarding the investments in which they hold at least
20% of the share capital, except when this information is so
important that it could alter the true and fair view of the annual
accounts;
o information on the fair value of financial fixed assets in case the
latter is below the book value of the asset.
Valuation method
Goodwill and developments costs which useful life are not reliably estimated cannot
be depreciated over more than 10 years.
Date of application
The provisions of this New Law shall apply for the first time to the annual and
consolidated accounts for financial years beginning 1st January 2016 or during the
calendar year 2016.
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For further information, please consult our training solutions
on: www.pwcacademy.lu
For more information, please contact us:
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Anne-Sophie Preud’homme
Partner, Technical Accounting Leader
+352 49 48 48 2126
anne.sophie.preudhomme@lu.pwc.com
Véronique Tinel
Partner, Global Compliance Services
+352 49 48 48 2448
veronique.tinel@lu.pwc.com
Alexandre Leleux
Director, Global Compliance Services
+352 49 48 48 2884
alexandre.leleux@lu.pwc.com
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