Terms and figures

Total assets

Everything the company owns at the balance sheet date, as one figure.

Capital and reserves

Assets minus liabilities — the part of the company that genuinely belongs to its owners.

Result for the year

What is left once every charge and every tax has been taken out of every income. Negative, it is a loss.

Financial assets

What the company holds in other companies and means to keep: shares, participating interests, loans and securities.

Participating interests

Rights held in the capital of other undertakings, meant to create a lasting link.

Creditors

Everything the company owes — to suppliers, banks, employees and the state.

Current assets

Assets expected to turn into cash within the year.

Cash at bank and in hand

The money the company actually holds at the balance sheet date.

Net turnover

What the company earned from its ordinary trading over the year, before any charges.

Operating result

The result of the trading itself, before financial income and charges.

Profit before tax

The result for the year before tax on the result is deducted.

Tax on profit or loss

Tax on the company's profit: corporate income tax, the employment fund contribution and the municipal business tax together.

Net margin

The result against turnover — what is left of each euro sold.

Equity ratio

Capital and reserves against total assets — the share of the company its owners have funded.

Debt ratio

Liabilities against total assets — the share of the company funded by others.

RCS number

The number the Trade and Companies Register assigns to every entity on registration: a section letter followed by up to six digits.

VAT number

The VAT identification number, in the form LU followed by eight digits.

Legal form

The form a business takes — S.à r.l., S.A., S.à r.l.-S, SCS and others.

Annual accounts

The balance sheet and profit and loss account every Luxembourg company files with the Trade and Companies Register each year.

Confidential profit and loss account

The right, for some companies, to file their profit and loss account without it being published.

Abridged accounts

The lighter balance sheet and profit and loss account open to small companies.