Sanctions for not submitting financial statements – limited liability company and joint stock company

In the field of financial reporting, in accordance with the current regulations remaining in force from October 1, 2018, the management boards of capital companies (i.e. limited liability companies and joint-stock companies) have an obligation consisting of on:

1. preparing the financial statements for the previous financial year within 3 months of the balance-sheet date (i.e. in principle until March 31 each year, assuming that the financial year coincides with the calendar year),
2. submitting the financial statements to the Register of Entrepreneurs of the National Court Register, within 15 days from the date of its approval by the shareholders in the form of a resolution.

These responsibilities are described in more detail in one of our earlier articles.

Failure to submit and untimely submission of the financial statements is a crime described in art. 79 point 4 of the Accounting Act threatened with a fine (from 10 to 540 daily rates of fine, while the amount of one rate may amount from 10 zlotys to 2,000 zlotys) or a penalty of restriction of freedom (from 1 month to 2 years).

It is worth noting that according to the regulations in force – starting from October 1, 2018 – the management boards of joint-stock companies are, as a rule, not obliged to submit financial statements to the competent tax office. Such an obligation has been introduced so far by art. 27 §2 of the Act on Corporate Income Tax. Moreover, failure to submit the financial statements to the tax office has so far been subject to sanctions for fiscal offenses. The current change in regulations means that any failure to submit financial statements to the tax office (required in accordance with the regulations effective before October 1, 2018) has ceased to constitute a fiscal offense, according to the lex mitior retro agit rule expressed in art. 2 § 2 of the Fiscal Crimes Code.