Is it illegal for a company to not have a chief accountant in Vietnam?

Is it illegal for a company to not have a chief accountant in Vietnam?

Pursuant to Article 20 of Decree 174/2016/ND-CP regulating Chief Accountant, in charge of accounting as follows:

1. An accounting unit must have a chief accountant, except for those specified in Clause 2 of this Article. In the cases where a unit is not able to appoint a chief accountant at the time, it may appoint an acting chief accountant or outsource chief accountant works. An acting chief accountant will hold the position for up to 12 months, after which a chief accountant shall be appointed.

2. Acting chief accountant:

a) An accounting unit that has only one accountant or part-time accountant, budget accounting and finance units of communes shall appoint only acting chief accountants, not chief accountants.

b) Extra-small enterprises defined by the law on provision of assistance for small and medium enterprises may appoint acting chief accountants without having to appoint chief accountants.

3. Time limit for appoint chief accountants of state accounting units and acting chief accountant of the unit mentioned in Clause 2a of this Article is 5 years; regulations of law on reappointment of chief accountants and acting chief accountants shall be complied with after such time.

4. When replacing a chief accountant or acting chief accountant, the legal representative or manager of the accounting unit shall transfer the tasks and accounting documents from the old chief accountant or acting chief accountant to the new one; inform relevant departments of the unit; inform the organizations where its accounts are opened of the full name and specimen signature of the new chief accountant or acting chief accountant. The new chief accountant or acting chief accountant shall take over the accounting tasks from the transfer date. The old chief accountant or acting chief accountant is still responsible for the accounting tasks they performed.

5. The Ministry of Home Affairs shall provide instructions on tasks, power of chief accountants and acting chief accountants of state accounting units, procedures for appointment, reappointment, dismissal and replacement thereof.

According to Clause 1, Article 5, Decree 80/2021/ND-CP stipulates criteria for identification of SMEs as follows:

1. Any micro-enterprise in the field of agriculture, forestry, aquaculture; industry and construction that has an average annual number of employees who participate in social insurance not exceeding 10 people, total revenue in the year not exceeding 3 billion VND or total capital of the year not exceeding 3 billion VND.

Any micro-enterprise in the field of commerce and services that that has an average annual number of employees who participate in social insurance not exceeding 10 people, total revenue in the year not exceeding 10 billion VND or total capital of the year not exceeding 3 billion VND.

According to the above regulations in Vietnam, your company is a construction company employing 13 people participating in insurance. Therefore, your company is not considered a micro-enterprise.

At the same time, because your company is not a micro-enterprise in Vietnam, it must have a chief accountant. If you cannot resign your job, arrange someone to be in charge of accounting or hire a service to be the chief accountant. The maximum time to arrange a person in charge of accounting is 12 months, but your company has had 13 months.

Thus, your company has violated the law by not appointing a chief accountant on time in Vietnam.

Is it illegal for a company to not have a chief accountant in Vietnam? (Image from the Internet)

What are penalties for companies without a chief accountant in Vietnam?

Pursuant to Point a, Clause 2, Article 17 of Decree 41/2018/ND-CP stipulating penalties for violations against regulations on organization of accounting apparatus, appointing or hiring accountants as follows:

2. A fine ranging from VND 10.000.000 to VND 20.000.000 shall be imposed for one of the following violations:

a) Failure to organize the accounting unit’s accounting apparatus; failure to appoint accountants, chief accountants or purchase accounting services or chief accountant’s services;

Thus, your company will be fined from 5,000,000 VND to 10,000,000 VND for not appointing a chief accountant within the prescribed time limit in Vietnam.

Best regards!