PENALTIES FOR ACCOUNTING ADMINISTRATION FAILURES TO BE FURTHER CLARIFIED BY VIETNAM GOVERNMENT

Official notices have recently been issued by The Vietnamese government in order to clear up administration penalties. All firms and entities in Vietnam region should update themselves with latest changes in the policy to fully understand the penalties. Moreover, partnering with a reputable accounting agency like S4B Vietnam to ensure compliance is highly advised.

On March 12th 2018, Decree No. 41/2018/ND-CP has been issued to replace the previous Decree No. 41/2018/ND-CP. Accordingly, specific cases of penalties have been clarified to regulate administration penalties subject to incompliance and fraud of accounting policies. In which, the maximum amount of VND100 million for organizations is set up. The previously defined penalties are VND 60 million for organizations and VND 30 million for companies. The new Decree took effect on May 1st 2018. Stricter requirements are introduced to regulate the format of the accounting vouchers, accounts charts, books, statements, company governance. Organizations should take the changes into serious account because even a minor transgression could lead to a large amount of penalties. The fine for specific offenses including not correct regulations on the way to present accounting numbers, unit of currency, wording, forged financial statement, insufficient content, wrong forms… Accounting vouchers Your organization can be responsible for the following penalties when you unable to meet the requirement of right format and content for your accounting vouchers.

• If your accounting vouchers lack required information or using a signature stamp, your company is subject to a fine amount of VND 3-5 million.

• If your signed accounting vouchers lack enough information or power of attorney or inconsistent signature, or printed in another foreign language, your company is subject to a fine amount of VND 5-10 million.

• If a non-compliance is found regarding wording, numbers, accounting period, monetary units, your company is subject to a fine amount of VND 10-20 million.

• Other activities including not preparing accounting vouchers when transactions occur, duplicating accounting vouchers for one transaction, paying without sufficient signatures can be subject to a find amount of VND 20-30 million. Accounting books Your organization can be responsible for the following penalties when you unable to meet the requirement of right format and content for your accounting books.

• If your company name is not clearly stated in your accounting books, or lacking the signature of the person who prepared them. Requirement of format also include page numbers, overlap stamp and other request by Law, you are subject to a fine of VND 1-2 million.

• Accounting books lacking accounting vouchers can be subject to a fine of VND 5-10 million. Chart of accounts Companies using incorrect chart of accounts which was registered with the Ministry of Finance will be fined VND 5-10 million. Financial statements Companies submitting finical statements after the deadline or lacking consistent data in the statements will be subject to 5-10 million (if they are late up to 3 months), 10 -20 million (more than 3 months late).

• Inconsistent data in one accounting period will be fined VND 20-30 million.

• Not submitting the financial statements to authorities will be fined VND 40-50 million.

• Get in touch with our experts at S4B Vietnam for detailed information on how we can help your business overcome the complexity of Accounting and Tax compliance in Vietnam.