Offenlegung / Hinterlegung Checklist — “did it actually submit?”

ELSTER für Ausländer — Template Pack v1. Educational material, not tax advice.

This is the filing that silently ruins people: it’s not a tax form, no one reminds you, your accounting tool pretends it did it, and the penalty letter (Bundesamt für Justiz, Ordnungsgeld starting with a €2,500 threat) arrives months later.

What it is

Every Kapitalgesellschaft (UG, GmbH, AG) must disclose its Jahresabschluss annually at the Unternehmensregister via publikations-plattform.de (this replaced the Bundesanzeiger submission route for fiscal years from 2022).

• Kleinstkapitalgesellschaft (§267a HGB) → you may hinterlegen (deposit): Bilanz only, no GuV, no Anhang required (§326 Abs. 2 HGB). Not publicly browsable — only retrievable on request.
• Kleine Kapitalgesellschaft → offenlegen: Bilanz + Anhang (no GuV).
• Deadline: 12 months after fiscal year-end (§325 HGB).

The critical distinctions

• [ ] HGB, not Steuerrecht. Your E-Bilanz is the tax balance sheet. The deposit must be the HGB Jahresabschluss. If your tool asks for the Bilanzierungsstandard: HGB.
• [ ] Generating ≠ submitting. Tools like eBilanz+ produce a Bilanz_Publikation_….xml. That file sitting in your folder means the deposit has NOT happened. You must log in to publikations-plattform.de, upload/submit, pay the small fee (~€25 range), and receive a confirmation.
• [ ] Check size class each year. Kleinstkapitalgesellschaft thresholds (§267a HGB: Bilanzsumme, Umsatzerlöse, employees — 2 of 3, two years running) can change as you grow — and the thresholds themselves were raised for FY2023+. Verify before assuming “hinterlegen” still applies.

The submission checklist

• [ ] HGB Bilanz for the year is final (signed off, matches your books)
• [ ] Size class confirmed → hinterlegen vs offenlegen
• [ ] Logged in at publikations-plattform.de (create the account well before the deadline — identification can take days)
• [ ] Correct fiscal year selected, correct standard (HGB)
• [ ] Submitted — not just generated, not just saved as draft
• [ ] Confirmation received (Auftragsbestätigung / Offenlegungsnummer) — this is the only thing that counts
• [ ] Confirmation PDF + invoice saved to Jahresabschlüsse/<YEAR>/
• [ ] Calendar reminder created for next year’s deadline (year-end + 12 months)

The paranoia check (do this once per year, 2 minutes)

For every year since founding: can you open a submission confirmation PDF (with an Offenlegungsnummer) from your own files?

• If yes → done.
• If a year has an XML but no confirmation → that year was never filed. File it now — late deposit before the Ordnungsgeld procedure starts is vastly cheaper than after. (This exact gap happens to careful people. Ask me how I know.)

If the Bundesamt für Justiz letter already arrived

Don’t panic, don’t ignore it. The letter sets a 6-week grace period — file within it and the threatened Ordnungsgeld is usually avoided (fees still apply). This is a situation where paying a professional for an hour can be worth it.