Vietnam: Accountants are required to forge their signatures to be consistent

Specifically, according to Article 19 of the Law on Accounting 2015 of Vietnam: “An accounting record must have sufficient signatures. Accounting records must be signed with indelible ink. It is prohibited to use red ink or rubber signature stamps on accounting records. Signatures on accounting records appended by the same person must be consistent. The Government shall provide for signatures on accounting records appended by visually impaired people.”

So, how are penalties for the person whose signatures on accounting records are not consistent?

This violation is specified in Article 8 of the Decree No. 41/2018/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government. Specifically, the violation of “Inconsistent signatures or signatures not matching those in the signature registry” shall be imposed a fine ranging from VND 5.000.000 to VND 10.000.000.

Moreover, Decree No. 41/2018/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government also specifies fines for violations related to signatures, specifically as follows:

- A fine ranging from VND 3.000.000 to VND 5.000.000 shall be imposed for using signature stamps on accounting records;

- A fine ranging from VND 5.000.000 to VND 10.000.000 shall be imposed for accounting records having insufficient signatures as specified in those records;

- A fine ranging from VND 20.000.000 to VND 30.000.000 shall be imposed for spending without sufficient signatures on the expense records as specified in the law on accounting;

- A fine ranging from VND 1.000.000 to VND 2.000.000 shall be imposed in case lack of signatures of the book's creator, the chief accountant and the accounting unit’s legal representative; this fine is also imposed in case each accounting period does not have a separate accounting book or the printed books do not have sufficient signatures and seals;

- A fine ranging from VND 5.000.000 to VND 10.000.000 shall be imposed in case the financial statement lacks the signature of the creator, chief accountant, accounting manager or the accounting unit's legal representative;

- A fine ranging from VND 3.000.000 to VND 5.000.000 shall be imposed in case the accounting document’s duplicates do not have sufficient signatures and seals (if any) of relevant entities;

- A fine ranging from VND 1.000.000 to VND 2.000.000 shall be imposed for failure to make stocktaking reports or the stocktaking report not having sufficient signatures;

Thus, accountants are required to forge their signatures to be consistent in order to avoid being penalized just because their signatures are inconsistent. In addition, it should also be noted in the preparation of accounting documents, always remember that a signature is required.

Le Hai

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