How to obtain SME Certification for your company

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When your company needs to officially prove that it is an SME, the necessary procedure is to apply for an SME Certification. In this article, we explain how you can do this.


What is SME Certification?

SME Certification is a service designed to, as the name suggests, certify the micro, small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) status of national companies , proving that they meet the criteria to be included in this classification.


This service is provided exclusively online by the Institute for Support to india whatsapp number database and Medium-sized Enterprises and Innovation, IAPMEI – Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation, IP (abbreviated as IAPMEI ), by completing the forms available in the specific area of ​​the website of that entity.


What is the purpose of SME Certification?

National companies can apply for SME Certification for a variety of purposes, for which they must prove that they qualify for SME status. Examples of cases in which this proof is required are:

applications for specific European Community support for SMEs;
certain processes related to public administration services;
applications for financing lines specifically aimed at SMEs.
Definition of SME

The characterization of a company as an SME depends on compliance with criteria relating to its number of employees, annual turnover and annual balance sheet total.


In general, companies with fewer than 250 employees, a turnover of no more than 50 million euros per year or an annual balance sheet total of no more than 43 million euros fall within the definition of SMEs.


Depending on the value of these three criteria, the classification is subdivided into micro, small and medium-sized companies:


micro-enterprises are those with fewer than 10 employees and whose annual turnover or annual balance sheet total exceeds 2 million euros;

small companies are those with fewer than 50 employees, whose annual turnover or annual balance sheet total does not exceed 10 million euros and are not classified as micro-enterprises;

Medium-sized companies are those with fewer than 250 employees, whose annual turnover does not exceed 50 million euros or whose annual balance sheet total does not exceed 43 million euros and are not classified as small companies or micro-enterprises.
Who is the SME Certification for?

The SME Certification is intended for micro, small and medium-sized companies that need to prove that they have SME status for the necessary purposes, as well as for public administration entities (or entities with a protocol with the public administration) that are obliged to require this proof for administrative procedures, such as the allocation of support to SMEs.


Who can apply for SME Certification?

SME Certification can be requested by any entity that carries out an economic activity and has legal personality in Portugal. This means that it can be requested by both legal entities and individuals, even if they are not required to have organized accounting .


Steps to obtain SME Certification

As mentioned, the application for SME Certification is made online, in a specific place on the IAPMEI website , with specific registration areas for companies on the mainland, for companies in the Autonomous Region of the Azores (RAA) and for companies in the Autonomous Region of Madeira (RAM). To do so, you must follow the following steps:


1. Register the company

The first step is to register the company for which you wish to apply for certification. This registration is only necessary once, even if you do not use the service for a period of time.


To do this, you must select the area (Mainland, RAA or RAM) that best suits your case and then fill in the company details: tax number, name, full address, telephone number and email, also assigning a password for future access. You can then log in to your user area with your tax number and the password you defined.


2. Identify a representative

After registering your company, you must identify the person who will represent you before the SME Certification service. To do this, you must fill out a form with your details, including your tax number, name, position, gender, telephone number and email address. It is important that your email address is correct and up to date to ensure that you receive communications from the platform, such as notices about certification deadlines.


3. Complete the first certification form

After completing the above steps, you can start filling out the form to request the certification itself. In this form, you must enter the following information, unless otherwise adapted depending on the type of entity:


company identification data, namely name or company name, address or registered office, tax identification number, social security identification number, legal form, date of incorporation, date of commencement of activity, dates of recent mergers or divisions, capital or assets and CAE code;

data that allows the classification of the entity requesting certification, including the identification of the company's partners and holdings, indicating the percentage of holding, voting rights or possible forms of control, information regarding each partner or shareholder or each company in which it participates and characterization information that allows the assessment of the specificities of the entities with which the company has relationships;

data on the activity of the applicant company, namely the number of employees, turnover and balance sheet and all partner and associated entities, relating to the number of financial years required to determine the status.
SME Certification Renewal

In order to keep up with any changes that may occur in the company, which may mean that the requirements for qualifying as an SME are no longer met, the SME Certification must be renewed annually.


To this end, companies must communicate data on employees and finances from the last financial year within 30 working days after the legal deadline for submitting the annual accounting and tax information declaration for the year in question to the Tax Authorities .


For this reason, the certification can only be renewed after the annual declaration has been effectively submitted to the Tax Authorities within the deadline, otherwise the conditions for doing so will not be met.