Hi LAWNET, I have just established a one-member limited liability company owned by myself, of which major is IT. There are currently no employees in the company. I want to develop the company stably for a while before recruiting more personnel, but I wonder if my company needs to have an accountant at the time of establishment?
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Regarding your case, LAWNET would like to provide some legal grounds to answer the question of whether a newly established enterprise is required to have an accountant, specifically as follows:
According to Clause 4 Article 3 of the Law on Accounting 2015 of Vietnam: “Accounting units are the agencies, organizations and units specified in Clause 1 through 5 Article 2 of this Law that make financial statements.”
According to Clause 4 Article 2 of the Law on Accounting 2015 of Vietnam:
Article 2. Regulated entities
…
4. Enterprises established and operated under Vietnam’s law; branches and representative offices of foreign enterprises operating in Vietnam.
According to the above provision, enterprises established and operated under Vietnam’s law are considered accounting units, and according to Article 20 of Decree No. 174/2016/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government:
Article 20. Chief accountants and acting chief accountant
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.
Thus, according to the above regulations, when establishing an enterprise, it is mandatory for every enterprise to have an accountant, depending on the size of the company, it must be in charge of chief accountant or acting chief accountant.
Or if a newly established enterprise does not have enough funds to have its own accountant, enterprises are allowed to hire accounting works and chief accountant’s works to reduce labor costs for the company as specified in Article 22 of Decree No. 174/2016/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government as follows:
Article 22. Outsourcing accounting works and chief accountant’s works
1. Business accounting units, public service agencies not funded by state budget and other accounting units mentioned in Clause 3 Article 3 hereof may hire accounting service providers to do their accounting works or chief accountant’s works. Legal representatives of public service agencies may decide whether to hire accounting service providers to do their accounting works or chief accountant’s works.
Le Hai
