How will violations against regulations on accounting books be penalized?

Pursuant to Article 9, Decree 41/2018/ND-CP, violations against regulations on accounting books will be penalized as follows:

1. A fine ranging from VND 1.000.000 to VND 2.000.000 shall be imposed in the following cases:

a) The accounting book does not have the accounting unit’s name; the accounting book’s name and date of creation; lack of signatures of the book’s creator, the chief accountant and the accounting unit’s legal representative; page numbers; seal on joining page on the physical accounting book;

b) The accounting book is not written in ink (except electronic accounting books), new lines being inserted between or written on existing lines, the lines having space in between; the blank pages are not crossed out, the figures on one page are not totaled up, the total figure on one page are not transferred to the following page;

c) Each accounting period does not have a separate accounting book or the printed books do not have sufficient signatures and seals (except electronic accounting books which are not required to be printed out);

d) The accounting book’s template does not have sufficient primary content;

2. A fine ranging from VND 3.000.000 to VND 5.000.000 shall be imposed in the following cases:

a) The accounting book does not have sufficient primary content;

b) The accounting book is adjusted against the regulated methods;

c) Failure to print the required accounting books after closing the electronic accounting book.

3. A fine ranging from VND 5.000.000 to VND 10.000.000 shall be imposed in the following cases:

a) Failure to open the accounting book at the start of a fiscal year or the accounting unit’s founding day;

b) No accounting record backing up the existing figures or the accounting book’s figures do not match those of the accounting records;

c) The accounting books’ figures lack continuity between consecutive years or within an accounting period;

d) Failure to close the accounting book when it is required by law.

4. A fine ranging from VND 20.000.000 to VND 30.000.000 shall be imposed in the following cases:

a) Destroy the accounting book before the designated time or deliberately damage the accounting book;

b) Omit the assets and liabilities belonging or related to the accounting unit but not serious enough for criminal prosecution.

5. Remedial measures:

a) Make sure the accounting book mentioned in Point a, Clause 1 of this Article has sufficient mandatory content;

b) Amending the accounting book to match the actual data in case of no accounting record backing up the existing figures or the figures of the accounting book do not match those of the accounting records, as specified in Point b, Clause 3 of this Article;

c) Adjust the accounting books to the actual data if the accounting books’ figures lack continuity between consecutive years, as specified in Point c, Clause 3 of this Article;

d) Restore the accounting book mentioned in Point a Clause 4 of this Article;

dd) Add omitted assets and liabilities belonging or related to the accounting unit mentioned in Point b, Clause 4 of this Article to the accounting book.

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