A number of changes were recently made to the Companies Act as a
result of the transposition of the EU's Accounting Directive.
Some of the amendments introduce new requirements relating to the
format of accounts and certain reporting by Maltese companies (new
Third and Fourth Schedules).
Below are the key elements of the changes:
1. Removal of Financial Holding Company
Exemption
It will no longer be possible for any Maltese parent companies
to claim the benefit of the "financial holding company"
exemption in respect of annual accounts for accounting periods
beginning on or after 1 January, 2016.
Therefore, if the Maltese parent company cannot make use of the
other exemptions for consolidation of accounts (i.e. Size Exemption
under article 173 or Inclusion in Accounts of Foreign Parent under
article 174), the Maltese parent company will have to prepare and
file Consolidated Accounts for the whole group apart from its
stand-alone accounts.
