This is a question asked by many couples who share the same accounting profession, have the desire to work in the same company to facilitate work and the same rhythm of life. So, according to the current Vietnam’s law on accounting, is it illegal for husband and wife to work in the same accounting department for the company?
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LAWNET would like to answer this question as follows:
According to Clause 3 Article 52 of the Law on Accounting 2015 of Vietnam, the following people are prohibited from practicing accounting:
3. Parents, adoptive parents, spouses, children, siblings of the legal representative, head, Director, General Director, deputies of the head, Deputy Director, Deputy General Director in charge of finance – accounting, and the chief accountant of the same accounting unit, except for private enterprises, single-member limited liability companies owned by individuals, and other cases specified by the Government.
Concurrently, according to Clause 2 Article 19 of Decree No. 174/2016/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government, people prohibited from practicing accounting include:
2. Parents, adoptive parents, spouses, children, siblings of the legal representative, head, Director, General Director, deputies of the head, Deputy Director, Deputy General Director in charge of finance – accounting, and the chief accountant of the same accounting unit, except for sole proprietorships, single-member limited liability companies owned by individuals, other types of enterprises not funded by state budget and are extra-small enterprises defined in the law on provision of assistance for small and medium enterprises.
Thus, according to the above provisions, it can be seen that husband and wife when working in the same company will not be allowed to work in the same accounting department if the husband/wife is the chief accountant or the head in charge of finance - accounting, except for the following cases where husband and wife will be able to do accounting works together:
- Husband and wife have one of the two people holding the position of chief accountant or the head in charge of finance - accounting working together in a private enterprise, limited liability companies owned by an individual, enterprises of other types without state capital and is a micro-enterprise according to the provisions of the Law on providing assistance for small and medium-sized enterprises of Vietnam.
- The husband and wife are just ordinary accounting staff, no one holds the position of chief accountant or the head in charge of finance - accounting and works in any business.
How are micro-enterprises? According to Article 4 of the Law on providing assistance for small and medium-sized enterprises 2017 of Vietnam, criteria for identification of SMEs are specified as follows:
1. An SME is either a micro-enterprise, small enterprise or medium-sized enterprise having the annual average number of employees who participate in social insurance is not greater than 200 and satisfying one of the following criteria:
a) The total capital is not greater than 100 billion dong;
b) The enterprise’s revenue of the previous year is not greater than 300 billion dong.
If any enterprise other than the enterprises excluded above, arranges an accountant in contravention of the provisions of the Law on Accounting 2015 of Vietnam, it will be administratively sanctioned, with a fine ranging from VND 10,000,000 to VND 20,000,000 for “Appointing accountants who are forbidden to work in accounting as specified in the law” specified in Point b Clause 2 Article 17 of the Decree No. 41/2018/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government on penalties for administrative violations in the fields of accounting and independent audit.
Thus, before appointing accountants, businesses must rely on the type of business to determine if they are in the excluded case and learn carefully the background of the company's accountant to avoid breaking the law.
Le Hai
