Sme Definition Companies Act

The sme definition is applied to all relevant stakeholders implementing sme development initiatives.

Sme definition companies act. The definition of an sme is important for access to finance and eu support programmes targeted specifically at these enterprises. These are businesses that have under a certain number of employees in the uk this is defined as less than 250 employees. According to this a small company is one that has a turnover of not more than 6 5 million a balance sheet total of not more than 3 26 million and not more than 50 employees. What is an sme.

Sme stands for small or medium sized enterprise. To make other provision relating to companies and other forms of business organisation. Small and medium sized enterprises smes are defined in the eu recommendation 2003 361. Note however that the companies act sme definition requires that two out of three characteristics are met turnover less than 25m employees less than 250 and gross assets less than.

Definition of an sme. In order to avoid detailed sector specific criteria turnover criteria is used across sectors i e. No differentiation between services and manufacturing sectors has been made for small enterprises and the thresholds for small manufacturing firms also reflect small service firms. The eu also defines an sme as a business with fewer than 250 employees a turnover of less than 50 million or a balance sheet total of less than 43 million.

The new sme definition will come into effect as of 1 january 2014. Frequently asked questions faq. Smes make up the majority of the uk s workforce and need to meet two of the following three criteria to be defined as an sme. All statistics compiled prior to 2014 will remain status quo and will not be affected by the new definition.

Small and medium sized enterprises smes or small and medium sized businesses smbs are businesses whose personnel numbers fall below certain limits. These include ministries and agencies2 at the federal and state levels including statutory bodies and local authorities regulators as well as financial institutions. As per the smeda act the sme definition includes enterprises in all economic sectors. This means that eligibility for sme development programmes and sme statistics compiled from 2014 onwards shall follow this new definition.

The abbreviation sme is used by international organizations such as the world bank the european union the united nations and the world trade organization wto. The uk definition of sme is generally a small or medium sized enterprise with fewer than 250 employees. Sme definition what is an sme.