Public reports

Statutory reporting obligation for extractive sector companies (BilRUG)

  1. Balance sheet total of €20 million.
  2. Net turnover of €40 million.
  3. An annual average of 250 employees.

Similarities and differences in the reporting obligation as per EITI

In addition to the reporting obligations pursuant to §§ 341q et seq. HGB, certain financial flows of the extractive industries are also disclosed via the EITI (see chapter 9). The reporting requirements under commercial law largely correspond to those of the EITI. However, there are also differences.
One fundamental difference between the reporting obligations stipulated by the HGB and the EITI lies in the extent of the reporting. EITI stipulates that the participating companies from the natural resources extractive sector publish all material payments they make to government agencies. In contrast to the HGB, the material payments are not exhaustively listed by the EITI and must be clarified in the course of the EITI process (see chapter 9). The EITI standard does not provide for a distinction between payments above or below the limit of at least EUR100,000 annually. The stakeholders of the German EITI have agreed to adopt the materiality threshold of § 341t (4) HGB.
In contrast to the HGB provisions, EITI relies on the mutual disclosure of the payment flows for quality assurance as standard. The Federal State previously also had to grant an insight into its income from the natural resources sector in the form of payment reconciliation.
At the request of the EITI Board and the international EITI secretariat, D-EITI is taking part in a pilot project as part of the 4th D-EITI report involving the alterna- tive method of quality assurance for the disclosed payments that dispenses with disclosure from both parties. As has been the case to date, the data is col- lected in addition from publicly available information on payments by extractive companies for presenta- tion in the D-EITI report. This makes provision for one of EITI’s main concerns, which is to make the payment flows available in the form of open data, thereby supporting the public debate. Quality assur- ance is then applied to this data instead of the pay- ment reconciliation through systematic analysis of the state processes and systems on which royalties and tax collection is based and a subsequent risk assess- ment (cf. the Independent Administrator’s report in chapter 9 for this).

D-EITI

HGB

materiality threshold

€100,000 per payment

€100,000 per payment

Company size criteria*

Total assets: €20 million Net
sales: €40 million
250 employees

Total assets: €20 million Net
sales: €40 million
250 employees

Overview of how the resource sector works
 

About context report
 

x

Cross-interest dialogue on the contribution of the raw materials sector in Germany
 

About multi-stakeholder group

x

Is reporting mandatory?
 

No, no sanctions for
companies; possibly jeopardizing the EITI status

Yes. Disclosure can be enforced by fines.
 

* A company is considered “large” by the legislator if it exceeds at least two of the three criteria stated in the table on two successive balance sheet dates (section 267(3) sentence 1, (4) sentence 1 HGB).