The parliament has approved an amendment to the Act on Accounting, which will affect primarily large companies that are required to review financial statements by a certified auditor.

As of January 1, 2020, the obligation to audit individual financial statements and extraordinary individual financial statements by an auditor will extend beyond limited liability companies, cooperatives, joint stock companies, simple joint stock companies and will also apply to limited commercial partnerships as well as general commercial partnerships if they meet the “size criteria”.

At the same time, under the new amendment, the “size criteria” in two of the three conditions have been increased by 100%. Companies and cooperatives are required to verify financial statements by an auditor if, as of the date of financial statements and for the immediately preceding accounting period, they meet at least 2 of the following conditions:

1/ The total amount of property exceeds EUR 2,000,000 (EUR 1,000,000 applies until December 31, 2019).

2/ Net turnover exceeds EUR 4,000,000 (EUR 2,000,000 applies until December 31, 2019).

3/ The average number of employees in one accounting period exceeds 30 (this condition remains unchanged).

Other changes brought by the amendment include, for example, a change to the group of entities required to disclose a diversity policy description in their annual report; introduction of the obligation for auditors to verify whether selected data from the financial statements of an accounting unit which has the obligation to prepare financial statements in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), are consistent with the data provided in the financial statements prepared in accordance with the IFRS.