Size is one of the most commonly used levers in European and national legislation to determine who falls under a scheme and who does not. That sounds simple, but in practice size is measured in several ways, the measurement is established at different points in time, and a change in size does not always immediately lead to a different obligation. Anyone who does not know exactly how their size is measured and assessed also cannot be certain that their current obligations are still the right ones.
Size is rarely a single figure. Schemes generally look at a combination of characteristics, such as the number of employees, the balance sheet and turnover, and often several of those characteristics must be met simultaneously or alternately before a threshold is reached. Which combination applies and which threshold values belong to it differs per scheme and is laid down in the scheme itself. This page therefore does not mention any figures: those are found in the scheme that applies to your situation, and that text is the source that counts.
A second layer of complexity is the question of whether size is assessed only at the level of the legal entity itself, or whether the size of a group, a parent company or affiliated parties also counts. A company that is small on its own may still fall under an obligation because it is part of a larger group. Conversely, a large company within a group can sometimes make use of an exemption that does not apply to the group as a whole. This is connected to the way the legal form and the control structure are set up, and that is a reason why what changes to your obligations when your legal form changes is not separate from the question of size.
Size is not assessed continuously, but at fixed measurement moments, often at the end of a financial year, and sometimes only becomes relevant after a threshold has been exceeded or fallen below for a number of consecutive years. This means that a temporary peak in employees or turnover does not automatically lead to new obligations, and that an obligation that has once arisen does not by definition immediately lapse as soon as the size decreases again. The precise measurement moments and the question of how many years of exceeding or falling below are required are set out in the scheme itself.
Size does not only change through growth. An acquisition, a spin-off, a reorganisation, the loss of a major contract or a change in the group structure can cause the measured size to decrease just as much as increase. A change in the product or service can also indirectly affect how size is assessed, for example when activities are divested or added; that touches on the question of what changes to your obligations when your product changes. Size is therefore not a static characteristic that is established once, but something that moves along with the company and must be reviewed periodically.
A European scheme often formulates a common starting point for size, but the way member states transpose that scheme into national law can differ. Threshold values, definitions of what counts as an employee or as turnover, and the consequences of exceeding a threshold are sometimes tightened or worked out differently at the national level than the European text suggests at first glance. A company active in multiple countries can therefore encounter different size thresholds for what is substantively the same obligation. That is the same reason why what changes to your obligations when the countries in which you operate change is a separate question that cannot be answered independently of size: the combination of size and country together determines which text applies to you.
Because size is measured in multiple ways and assessed at fixed moments, it is important that the underlying figures, the definitions used and the date of measurement are recorded, not just the conclusion. A board that can show how the size was established, which source was used for that and when it was last reviewed is in a different position than a board that can only state an outcome without substantiation. How this recording is organised in practice is described on the page about how you record your size so that it holds up afterwards, and is connected to the way sector and legal form are also recorded, as described on the pages about how you record your sector so that it holds up afterwards and how you record your legal form so that it holds up afterwards.
Once it is clear which obligations belong to the current size, another question follows: who within the organisation carries out the work that belongs to those obligations, and how much of that work consists of repeatable, well-documented steps. Reporting work, keeping track of supporting documents and periodically reviewing recorded size figures are often tasks that can be broken down into steps that can partly be supported by software. The work scan from FTE TO AI calculates per task which part of that work can be taken over by AI, as a follow-up step once these pages have established which obligations apply and who is responsible for them.
Vraag maar welke verplichting op u van toepassing is, en waaraan u dat kunt aantonen.
Answers come from this site’s knowledge base. Not tailored advice, and not a scan of your company.