Annual financial statements

The rendering of accounts represents the basis for the annual financial statements. This covers the respective transactions and matters that are needed to set out the asset, financial and earnings situation of the company.

Disclosure obligation

If a company is obliged to disclose its annual financial statements, the statutory representatives are required to submit the following documents to the Office of Justice by the end of the 15th month following the balance sheet reporting date:

• The properly approved (consolidated) annual financial statements. These consist of the balance sheet, the income statement and the notes.
• The annual financial statements and the consolidated financial statements must be audited by an auditor or an audit company. This audit report must be submitted.
• Proposal for the utilisation of the results and the resolution concerning the utilisation thereof. If the annual profit or loss is not included in the financial statements, this must be specified.

The following companies are obliged to disclose their annual financial statements:

• Companies limited by shares (AG)
• Companies with limited liability (GmbH)
• Partnerships limited by shares
• European companies

Subject to certain preconditions, general partnerships and limited partnerships are also obliged to disclose this information. On the one hand, if all their partners with unlimited liability are organised in the legal forms of companies limited by shares, limited liability companies or partnerships limited by shares. On the other hand if all their partners with unlimited liability are companies that are not subject to the law of an EEA member state, although if their legal form is comparable to one of the legal forms mentioned in the introduction. General partnerships and limited partnerships that are obliged to disclose this information may alternatively, subject to certain preconditions, keep the documents available for inspection by any interested party at the registered domicile of the company, instead of submitting these to the Office of Justice. In this case, a copy of the annual financial statements must be made available in response to a simple request.

If the branch office of a company that is domiciled abroad is organised in Liechtenstein as a company limited by shares, a limited liability company, partnership limited by shares or a comparable legal form, its statutory representatives must submit annual and consolidated reports as well as the audit report to the Office of Justice that have been prepared, audited and disclosed in accordance with the law that is applicable to it.

Banks and securities companies are also obliged to submit the following reports to the Office of Justice at the latest before the end of the fifth month of the financial year following the balance sheet reporting date:

• the properly approved annual financial statements
• the audit report drawn up in accordance with company law
• the proposal concerning the utilisation of the result
• the resolution concerning the utilisation of the result, specifying the annual profit or annual loss, insofar as the annual financial statements do not contain this information
   

While the annual report and the consolidated annual report do not have to be submitted to the Office of Justice, these documents do need to be available at the registered domicile for inspection by any interested party.

Consolidation obligation

A company domiciled in Liechtenstein that is organised in the form of a company limited by shares, a company with limited liability, a partnership limited by shares as well as under certain circumstances as a general partnership or limited partnership must, subject to certain conditions, prepare a consolidated annual report consisting of the consolidated annual financial statements and a consolidated annual report. The preconditions for this are set out in Art. 1097 of the Persons and Companies Act (“PGR”) (German only).

Subject to certain conditions, companies such as investment or holding companies are exempted from the obligation to prepare up a consolidated annual report. The exemption from the consolidation obligation must be approved in advance by the Office of Justice. Further grounds for exemption are set out in Art. 1098 PGR (German only).

Special concessions relating to the size of companies

The scope of the supplementary accounting rules depends on the size of the company. A company may be classified as a very small company, a small, medium-sized or large company, if two of the three criteria are exceeded or undercut during two consecutive financial years. In the initial assessment, the threshold values on the first balance sheet reporting date are relevant. Distinctions are drawn between the following company sizes: