0009 Reports

Version 0.1, draft. Implemented in the reference library (ReportMapping, EventSet::account_report, EventSet::period_report).

Books end in national reports: a balance sheet, a profit and loss account, a VAT return, a tax return. Each country prescribes their positions, and many change every year. A report mapping says how the harmonised chart (part 0004) and the tax codes (part 0001) fall into the positions of one version of one report.

The protocol publishes the mappings, per country, in a new version whenever the report changes – for most tax forms every year. A mapping is a draft until tax advisers of its country have reviewed it.

Report mappings

A report mapping is a root object of type report_mapping:

Reports from accounts

• An account falls into the position of its own mapping or of the nearest account it refines. One entry for a group covers every account below it – of the chart and opened in the books – unless one of them has its own.
• The side can follow the balance. Where credit_accounts names a position for an account, a credit balance falls there: a bank account in overdraft is a liability to a credit institution, not cash.
• A report on a date – a balance sheet – takes the balances (part 0004) of the accounts that fall into a position, for one owner (part 0008), in base units, debit positive. Presenting it – signs, totals, subtotals – is a matter of the report.

Reports over a period

A report over a period – a profit and loss account, a VAT return, an income statement on a cash basis – takes the postings of one owner in the bookings dated within the period, one by one:

1. With a tax code that has a rule (below): its field, and nothing else – unless the rule has no base and the posting is on no VAT account; then the posting falls to 3.
2. Without a tax code, on a VAT account: the field of vat_settlement for its side – a payment to the tax office on the debit, a refund on the credit.
3. Otherwise: the position of its account. Its amount counts positive on the normal side of the account’s kind – income credit, expenses debit; where credit_accounts distinguishes the sides of an account, on the side mapped.

Tax codes

A VAT return depends on the tax treatment of each posting, not on the account alone. A rule in taxes is tax – a tax code – and the fields it fills:

An account holds VAT if it is one of vat_accounts or refines one. A reverse charge purchase fills all three: the net amount, the VAT the recipient owes, and the same VAT deducted.

The German reports of 2026

• Positions of the HGB are written as their place in the law: aktiv.B.II.1 is § 266 Abs. 2 B. II. 1. (receivables from trade), passiv.C.2 § 266 Abs. 3 C. 2., gkv.6.a § 275 Abs. 2 Nr. 6 Buchst. a. Positions the HGB does not list, which a French account may still carry – formation expenses, regulated provisions, investment grants – are written aktiv.extra.… and passiv.extra.…; a German set of books does not use those accounts.
• Fields of the VAT return are its Kennzahlen (81, 66, …). The fields the form computes or asks for directly – the totals, the advance payment (Kz 83), the special advance payment (Kz 39), the yes/no questions – are not part of the mapping.
• Fields of the Anlage EÜR are its section and Kennzahl (1.112, 2.280, 5.122): the same Kennzahl appears in more than one section. Income falls into its line by its tax code – taxable, exempt or zero-rated, small business –, expenses by their account; VAT received and deductible VAT by tax code, VAT paid to and refunded by the tax office by vat_settlement; withdrawals and contributions of the proprietor by the side of their account. The EÜR counts receipts and payments when they occur (§ 11 EStG), so a set of books that determines its profit this way dates its bookings when paid. The lines the form computes – totals, the profit, its corrections – are not part of the mapping.
• Every account of the harmonised chart 0.1 that is an asset, a liability or equity has a position of § 266; every account of income or expense one of § 275 Abs. 2; every account of expense a line of the Anlage EÜR.

Open points

• Review of the German mappings by tax advisers; until then they are drafts.
• The profit and loss account by function of expense (§ 275 Abs. 3), which needs costs by function, not by account.
• The notes the HGB requires on positions (§ 268 Abs. 4 and 5: remaining terms; “davon” items), and the shortened balance sheets of small and micro companies (§ 266 Abs. 1, § 267, § 267a) – the latter follow from the positions by dropping levels.
• The Anlage EÜR: the annex for depreciation (Anlage AVEÜR), which the lines of depreciation are carried from; the split of business entertainment into its deductible and non-deductible part (§ 4 Abs. 5 Satz 1 Nr. 2 EStG), which the books record on two accounts; the 10-day rule for regular payments (§ 11 Abs. 1 Satz 2, Abs. 2 Satz 2 EStG).
• The E-Bilanz (§ 5b EStG, taxonomy 6.9 for financial years from 2026, 6.10 from 2027): positions by element identifier only, until the conditions for reusing the taxonomy (© XBRL Deutschland e.V.) are clarified.
• The recapitulative statement (§ 18a UStG), which needs the customer’s VAT identification number per posting or document.
• Whether the official forms published with BMF letters may be reproduced (§ 5 UrhG); the mappings carry only their field numbers.