We’ve almost arrived at the moment thousands of companies have been waiting for: the filing of their annual accounts. It’s a good idea to file these, especially if you want to avoid fines of up to €300,000. But … should I just file them in Spanish or is it helpful to translate these annual accounts ? It all depends. Keep reading to see more details that might help you avoid some nasty fines!
What are a company’s annual accounts?
Annual Accounts, as their name suggests, are accounting documents produced by companies. They contain the company’s financial information for that year. Every company must file their annual accounts in the Commercial Registry since this provides information on their balance sheet for the last 365 days. All commercial companies are required to file them.
Do I need to translate the annual accounts?
Multinational companies, to show their transparency, might find it helpful to translate their annual accounts. This is also the case when companies have foreign subsidiaries.
In these cases, it’s important to translate the annual accounts as it improves the company’s transparency in the different markets in which it operates.
Steps involved in translating annual accounts
You might ask how you can go about translating your company’s annual accounts. The first and most important thing is to know is that there are translators who specialise in financial information and these are the professionals who should perform this task.
When looking for a translator specialised in the financial field, it’s best to use a translation company, since they have a wide range of professionals in the field.
In addition, a translation agency will follow the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), which are the international standards governing accounting used in many parts of the world.
Don’t forget that a translation company works like so-called “translation memories”, creating a linguistic database that stores all translated content. In this way, previous translations can be leveraged when performing successive translations on the same topic.
