Chart of accounts
Description
There is no mandatory chart of accounts which is binding for companies in Germany.
The German Association of Tax Consultants (DATEV) has issued several kinds of chart of accounts that are regarded as "standard". The chart of accounts are subject to the size of the enterprise or the sector.
Sage X3 provides a short version of "DATEV Standardkontenrahmen 03" (DATEV SKR03) according to the German Accounting Law Modernisation Act (BilMoG).
Besides the general accounts, the chart of accounts contains the following:
- Predefined structures for the financial data extraction (balance sheet, P&L statement)
- Accounting codes
- Tax codes for commonly used taxes
German accounting principles and fiscal law differentiates strictly between VAT on sales and VAT on purchases (sales VAT and input VAT), although tax rates usually are the same. Therefore, the German chart of accounts and the tax codes have been set up accordingly with, for example, different tax codes for sales tax regular rate and input tax regular rate, tax accounts for sales tax regular rate and input tax regular rate etc.
Setup
Modification or extension of the chart of accounts is possible but beware of adjusting the financial data extraction structures or accounting codes.
See also Balance Sheet and P&L Statement.