The filing had to be made by: 30-01-2025
The annual accounts must be filed within 30 days after they have been approved by the general at the meeting and no later than 7 months after the closing date of the financial year, are deposited with the Central Balance Sheet Office.
Companies that do not submit their annual accounts on time will be charged a rate surcharge.
From the first day of the 9th month after the closing of the financial year:
- 120 euros for small companies (= abbreviated scheme)
- 400 euros for the other companies
The reason may be of an organizational or administrative nature.
If the company has other negative signals, this may indicate a serious negative signal.
Companies in difficulty often withhold their annual accounts because they wish to hide their bad figures.
One quarter of those which fail have a general indebtedness > 100% (*)
A general indebtedness of < 50% is absolutely healthy.
General indebtedness = debt/total assets
This shows what percentage of a company's total funds is being provided by third party funds, or debt.
Being > 100% indebted means a company's equity assets are negative, due to carrying over major losses:
so its liabilities exceed 100% of its total assets.
Such a situation is unsustainable in the long term (cf.
alarm bell procedure).
= A very bad sign!
Businesses do benefit from having a certain level of debt, however, as interest on debt capital is tax-deductible, for example.
Deducting notional interest also plays a major role in choosing between debt and equity in Belgium.
(*) Source: Companyweb: results based on our own study into causes of bankruptcies.
