Régimen económico y contable de las sociedades agrarias de transformación(SAT)

Resumo

Agricultural Transformation Societies can be defined according to their legal characteristics, economic reality, and praxis in their statutory regulation, as social economy companies, with independent legal status following their registration, constituted mainly by owners of agricultural holdings and agricultural workers, who go into partnership in order to participate actively in the company for the benefit of all partners; with a corporate structure and, in principle democratic, with variable capital and with limited liability by decision of the partners. The legal framework of Agricultural Transformation Societies (RD 1776/1981 and Order of the Ministry of Agriculture of 14 September, 1982) has two characteristics worth noting. First of all, after over 34 years without renewal, it is obsolete and far removed from the world of law and today’s companies. And, secondly, it has an uncustomary flexibility in the regulation of other social figures. It leaves important legal and economic aspects of these companies unregulated, thereby granting an extremely wide margin to the will of the partners, who will set them up in the corporate bylaws. This leads to the existence of Agricultural Transformation Societies that are very distinct depending on their statutory set up. Given this statutory freedom, a study of this figure requires an in-depth analysis of the statutory provisions governing praxis. Based on knowledge of this reality and by contrasting what is and what ought to be, we shall find ourselves in the best position to propose improvements in the legal and accounting regulation of this social figure. Hence, we have examined the registration reality, that is, all the existing documentation in the Balearic Agricultural Transformation Societies Register concerning all the registered companies (whose classification according to activities and size, considering the number of partners, coincides with the national one). The social nature of Agricultural Transformation Societies and their legal set up causes them to have unique traits, and to carry out economic operations, especially with their partners, in particular economic conditions. Taking into account all the above, in our paper we go further into the study of the unique accounting aspects of Agricultural Transformation Societies. In particular, we shall analyse the current legal and accounting regulations applicable, by examining their suitability to the specific characteristics that these societies have and that make them different from capitalist firms and cooperative societies. We shall focus on the following main issues: social capital, capital contributions from partners and their exercise of the right of separation; issues concerning the determination of profit or loss, its distribution as well as the provision of funds; and finally the process of elaboration, verification, approval and filing of the annual accounts. Some Regulations regarding accounting aspects of Agricultural Transformation Societies are proposed, in order to achieve a greater adaptation of accounting regulations to the particularities of Agricultural Transformation Societies, which will make it possible to obtain accounting information concerning the economic, financial and equity position of Agricultural Transformation Societies, which is reliable and useful, both for users, and also for the survival of the company itself. Given the nature of Agricultural Transformation Societies as social economy companies, we consider it appropriate to incorporate social type information into the annual accounts of these companies.