The latest regulations on administrative sanctions in the field of accounting and auditing are issued in Decree 41/2018/ND-CP dated March 12, 2018, effective from May 1, 2018 and replacing Decree 105/2013/ND-CP.
Decree 41 clearly and specifically stipulates penalties and fine levels for violations of accounting, auditing, documents, books, etc.
DECREE
Regulations on administrative sanctions for violations in the field of accounting and independent auditing
- Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government dated June 19, 2015;
- Pursuant to the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations dated June 20, 2012;
- Pursuant to the Law on Accounting dated November 20, 2015;
- Pursuant to the Law on Independent Audit dated March 29, 2011;
- At the request of the Minister of Finance;
The Government issued a Decree regulating administrative sanctions for violations in the fields of accounting and independent auditing.
Chapter I
GENERAL PROVISIONS
Article 1. Scope of regulation:
1. This Decree provides for administrative violations, statute of limitations for sanctioning, forms of sanctioning, levels of sanctioning, remedial measures, authority to draw up records and authority to sanction administrative violations in the fields of accounting and independent auditing.
2. Administrative violations related to the fields of accounting and independent auditing that are not specified in this Decree shall be subject to the provisions of other Government Decrees on administrative sanctions in relevant fields of state management.
Article 2. Subjects of application
1. Domestic and foreign individuals and organizations (hereinafter referred to as individuals and organizations) that commit administrative violations in the fields of accounting and independent auditing.
2. Business households and cooperatives violating the provisions of this Decree shall be punished as individuals.
Chapter II
FORMS AND LEVELS OF PENALTIES IN THE FIELD OF ACCOUNTING
Section 1
VIOLATIONS IN ACCOUNTING WORK
Article 7. Penalties for violations of general provisions on accounting law
1. A fine of between VND 10,000,000 and VND 20,000,000 shall be imposed for one of the following acts:
a) Misapplication of regulations on writing and numbers in accounting;
b) Misapplication of regulations on monetary units in accounting;
c) Misapplication of accounting period regulations;
d) Wrongly applying the accounting regime to which the unit is subject.
2. A fine of between VND 20,000,000 and VND 30,000,000 shall be imposed on organizations that issue or publish accounting standards, auditing standards, or accounting regimes without proper authority.
Article 8. Penalties for violations of regulations on accounting documents
1. A fine of between VND 3,000,000 and VND 5,000,000 shall be imposed for one of the following acts:
a) Accounting documents do not have all the main contents as prescribed;
b) Erasing or correcting accounting documents;
c) Sign accounting documents in red ink or fading ink;
d) Sign accounting documents by stamping a pre-engraved signature;
d) Payment vouchers are not signed on each copy.
2. A fine of between VND 5,000,000 and VND 10,000,000 shall be imposed for one of the following acts:
a) Accounting documents do not have enough copies as prescribed for each type of accounting document;
b) Signing accounting documents without fully recording the contents of the documents under the responsibility of the signatory;
c) Signing accounting documents without proper authority;
d) A person’s signature is inconsistent or does not match the signature sample register;
d) Accounting documents do not have enough signatures according to the positions prescribed on the documents;
e) Failure to translate foreign language accounting documents into Vietnamese as prescribed;
g) Threatening damage or loss of accounting documents and vouchers in use.
3. A fine of between VND 20,000,000 and VND 30,000,000 shall be imposed for one of the following acts:
a) Forgery or falsification of accounting documents but not to the extent of criminal prosecution;
b) Agreeing or forcing others to forge or falsify accounting documents but not to the extent of criminal prosecution;
c) Prepare accounting documents with different contents in cases where it is necessary to prepare accounting documents with multiple copies for an arising economic or financial transaction;
d) Not preparing accounting documents when economic and financial transactions arise;
d) Making multiple accounting documents for an economic or financial transaction;
e) Making payments when the payment documents do not have full signatures of authorized persons as prescribed by law on accounting.
4. Remedial measures:
a) Supplementing incomplete elements of documents for the acts specified in Point a, Clause 1 of this Article;
b) Forced cancellation of false or forged accounting documents for the acts specified in Point a, Clause 3 of this Article;
c) Forced to create additional documents that have not been created when economic and financial transactions arise for the acts specified in Point d, Clause 3 of this Article;
d) Force the cancellation of accounting documents that have been prepared multiple times for an economic or financial transaction arising from the act specified in Point d, Clause 3 of this Article.
Article 9. Penalties for violations of regulations on accounting books
1. A fine of between VND 1,000,000 and VND 2,000,000 shall be imposed for one of the following acts:
a) Accounting books do not clearly state the name of the accounting unit; book name, date, month, year of book creation; date, month, year of book closing; lack of signatures of the book creator, chief accountant and legal representative of the accounting unit; do not number pages; do not stamp the edges between pages of the accounting book on paper;
b) Accounting books are not written in ink (except in cases where the unit chooses to record accounting books electronically), are interleaved above or below, are written on top of each other, are written on separate lines; are not crossed out on the blank page; are not added up when the page is full, are not transferred to the beginning of the next page;
c) Not binding into separate books for each accounting period or not having full signatures and stamps as prescribed after printing on paper (except for books that are not required to be printed as prescribed in cases where the unit chooses to store accounting books on electronic media);
d) The accounting books do not have all the main contents as prescribed.
2. A fine of between VND 3,000,000 and VND 5,000,000 shall be imposed for one of the following acts:
a) Accounting books are not fully recorded according to the main contents as prescribed;
b) Correcting errors in accounting books not in accordance with prescribed methods;
c) Do not print accounting books on paper after closing them on electronic media for types of accounting books that must be printed on paper according to regulations.
3. A fine of between VND 5,000,000 and VND 10,000,000 shall be imposed for one of the following acts:
a) Failure to open accounting books at the beginning of the annual accounting period or from the date of establishment of the accounting unit;
b) There are no accounting documents proving the information and figures recorded in the accounting books or the figures in the accounting books are inconsistent with the accounting documents;
c) Information and figures recorded in the accounting books of the year of implementation do not follow the information and figures recorded in the accounting books of the previous year, or the accounting books are not recorded continuously from the time the books are opened until they are closed;
Chapter V
TERMS OF IMPLEMENTATION
Article 72. Implementation provisions
1. This Decree comes into force from May 1, 2018.
2. This Decree replaces Decree No. 105/2013/ND-CP dated September 16, 2013 of the Government on administrative sanctions for violations in the field of accounting and independent auditing.
3. Apply the provisions of this Decree to handle violations occurring before the effective date of this Decree as follows:
In case this Decree does not prescribe legal liability or prescribes a lighter legal liability for violations committed before the effective date of this Decree but is discovered or is being considered and resolved later, this Decree shall apply.
4. For decisions on administrative sanctions in the field of accounting and independent auditing that have been issued or have been implemented before the effective date of this Decree and the individuals and organizations that have been administratively sanctioned still have complaints, the provisions of Decree No. 105/2013/ND-CP dated September 16, 2013 of the Government on administrative sanctions in the field of accounting and independent auditing shall be applied to resolve the matter.
Article 73. Responsibility for implementation
1. The Minister of Finance is responsible for guiding and implementing this Decree.
Ministers, Heads of ministerial-level agencies, Heads of Government agencies, Chairmen of People’s Committees of provinces and centrally run cities are responsible for implementing this Decree./.
GOVERNMENT
PRIME MINISTER