The new Law on Accounting, applicable starting from financial statements that are to be compiled as at 31 December 2021, prescribes some of the following novelties: financial statements and documentation shall be submitted separately and within different deadlines; new financial statements and notes to the financial statements are introduced depending on the size of the obliged entity; documentation shall be filed only by entities that have a duty to audit their financial statements; new documentation is introduced for certain groups of obliged entities; so-called corrected financial statements are introduced and shall be filed by obliged entities that have a duty to audit their financial statements.
31 March 2022 is the first submission deadline and it applies to 2021 regular annual financial statements.
Milan Lučić, Director of the Serbian Business Registers Agency, has announced that the Serbian Business Registers Agency is designing a new, Special Information System, compliant with the regulations governing the new financial reporting model, according to which the size of an obliged entity determines the type of financial statement to be filed and compiled on completely new forms prescribed for all groups of obliged entities, as well as that the Special Information System will be open to users by the end of January 2022.
He has reminded that it has been seven years since business entities have been submitting their financial statements electronically, adding that it is expected that SBRA will receive around 300,000 financial statements next year.
As Lučić explained, statements would be processed and published on the SBRA website (www.apr.gov.rs) within the deadlines prescribed by the new law, i.e. no later than 30 September 2022. Not only correct financial statements will be published but also the inaccurate ones, including documentation that obliged entities failed to correct within the stipulated deadline.
The SBRA Director has emphasized: “Publication of all submitted financial statements and documentation ensures full transparency of financial reporting”.
Given that financial statements can be submitted only electronically, legal representatives of obliged entities are advised to check the correctness of qualified electronic certificates in due time to ensure their validity.
Before the commissioning of the Special Information System, the Agency is conducting preparatory activities aimed at establishing the records of obliged entities, without which it will not be possible to submit financial statements and prescribed documentation.
Along with the commissioning of the Special Information System, which will enable easier compiling and filing of computationally and logically accurate statements, the Agency will publish a technical manual, as well as user and video instructions.
“Legal entities and sole proprietors who keep business books according to the double-entry bookkeeping system should get acquainted with the new rules on time, ensuring successful compiling and filing of financial statements for 2021”, said Milan Lučić, Director of the Serbian Business Registers Agency.