EFAA: Accountants instrumental to micro-entities simplifying their accounting

16 May 2019

EFAA's survey report ‘Acceptance Of The Micro-Entities Accounting Option In Europe’ reveals that accountants are instrumental in the decision of micro-entities to take-up the option for simplified accounting.

EFAA were motivated to investigate the take-up of the micro-entities option – the extent and the reasons for promoting it or otherwise – by way of a survey of accountants in practice conducted in conjunction with its member organisations in 2017 and 2018 once the option had become established. The European Commission has long been committed to easing the administrative burden on small and medium-sized entities (SMEs), especially very small companies that are commonly referred to as micro entities. In the accounting arena this commitment manifested itself in the European Commission’s revision of the Accounting Directives in order to make them less demanding for micro-entities. This is known as the micro-entities option or regime.

Over 700 practitioners from 7 countries responded to the survey.  The key findings include:

• The level of awareness of the existence of the micro-entities option varies significantly from country to country;
• A clear majority of accountants recommended their eligible clients to take-up the micro-entities option and actual rates of take-up closely mirror this;
• The main reasons accountants gave for recommending the micro-entities option were cost savings and greater privacy from reduced disclosures; and
• While most accountants did not expect to change their view of the micro-entities regime most did expect the take-up to increase in the future.

Full press release

Full report

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