Business Register Germany

What obligations do UK Limited companies operating in Germany have regarding the disclosure of their annual financial statements in the German commercial register?

The account (annual financial statement) filed with the Companies House UK for the LTD must also be disclosed at the business register if the LTD is active in Germany. This article provides guidance and information for Limiteds regarding this disclosure at the business register.

If your Limited is active in Germany, the account (annual financial statement) must generally be disclosed in Germany as a relieving statement according to § 325a HGB. For this, the account filed in the UK needs to be published or deposited. For financial statements of English LTD companies with the fiscal year beginning after December 31, 2021, this is usually done by publication in the business register. Since the account is published and not deposited in the UK, you should also publish and not deposit in the business register (see § 325a para 3 HGB). In case of doubt, use the balance sheet navigator on the business register's website.

The actual publication in the business register is done via the publication platform.

You can find the links below.

On the publication platform, you will also find further guidance on one-time identification during the first disclosure.

Note: it is not the German financial statement that needs to be disclosed, but the one filed in the UK at Companies House. You can download this from Companies House. To do this, use the link to Companies House below, click on your company name in the results list, and then click on the "FilingHistory" tab in the detail view of your Ltd to download the relevant account as a PDF