RETAINING ACCOUTING DOCUMENTS

RETAINING ACCOUTING DOCUMENTS

Regulations on retaining Accounting documents (Decree No. 174/2016/NĐ-CP dated December 30, 2016, elaboration of some article of the Law on Accounting)

1. Accounting documents that have to be retained
✔ Accounting records.
✔ Detailed accounting books and overall accounting books.
✔ Financial statements; budget statements; consolidated budget statements.
✔ Other documents related to accounting works, including: contracts; administrative accounting reports; financial statements of completed projects and projects of national importance; reports on stocktaking and asset valuation; documents related to inspection and audit; records on destruction of accounting documents; decisions on addition of capital from profit, contributions to funds from profits; documents related to dissolution, bankruptcy, division, consolidation, merger, shutdown, conversion of the enterprise; documents related to receipt and use of funding or capital; documents related to taxes, fees, charges and other liabilities to the State; other documents.

2. Preservation, retention and publication of accounting documents and information
✔ Accounting documents retained must be original copies as prescribed by law, except:
👉 Accounting documents specified which has only one original copy but has to be retained by more than one entities, in which one of them may retain the original copy while the others may retain its photocopies.
👉 Impounded or confiscated accounting documents as prescribed, in which case their photocopies may be retained together with the document transfer record specified
👉 Accounting documents that are lost or destroyed by inevitable incidents specified, in which case their photocopies may be retained. In the cases where photocopies of them are unobtainable as mentioned, the accounting unit shall retain the document certifying that such photocopies are unobtainable.
✔ Accounting documents must be fully and safely stored by accounting units. Each accounting unit shall establish its own rules for management, use and storage of accounting documents, which specify the responsibility and right of each department and accountants. An accounting unit that is an extra-small enterprise is not required to establish its own rules for management, use and storage of accounting documents but has to fully and safely retain them as prescribed. An accounting unit must provide adequate equipment for management and storage of accounting documents. Accountants are responsible for protection of their accounting documents.
✔ The legal representative of an accounting unit shall decide whether to store its accounting documents physically or electronically. The storage of accounting documents must be safe, secured and information must be provided at the request of competent authorities.
✔ Accounting documents must be fully and systematically stored and sorted by creation date.
✔ The legal representative of the accounting unit shall promptly provide information and accounting documents to tax authorities and competent authorities as prescribed by law. The authorities provided with accounting documents shall protect them and return them in time and in full after use.
Article 12. Accounting documents to be retained for at least 5 years
1. Accounting records that are not directly recorded to accounting books and financial statements such as collection notes, payment notes, which are not enclosed with accounting documents.
2. Accounting documents serving management of an accounting unit that are not directly recorded in accounting books and financial statements.
3. In the cases where other laws prescribe that the documents have to be retained for more than 5 years, such law shall apply.
Article 13. Accounting documents to be retained for at least 10 years
1. Accounting records directly recorded in accounting books and financial statements, statements, detailed accounting books, general accounting books, monthly, quarterly and annual financial statements, annual statements, internal audit reports, accounting document destruction records and other documents directly recorded in accounting books and financial statements.
2. Accounting documents related to liquidation or transfer of fixed assets; reports on stocktaking and asset valuation.
3. Accounting documents of investors, including annual accounting documents and terminal statements of completed Group B and Group C projects.
4. Accounting documents related to establishment, division, consolidation, merger, conversion of the enterprise, dissolution, bankruptcy, shutdown or termination of a project.
5. Relevant documents such as audit documents issued by State Audit Office of Vietnam, inspection documents issued by competent authorities or documents of independent audit organizations.
6. Documents other than those specified
7. In the cases where other laws prescribe that the documents specified have to be retained for more than 10 years, such law shall apply.
Article 14. Accounting documents to be permanently retained
1. State accounting units shall permanently retain the following documents: annual state budget statements ratified by state budget, annual local budget statements ratified by the People’s Councils; documents and financial statements of completed Group A projects and projects of national importance; historical accounting documents or those of economic, national security, or national defense importance.
The legal representative of the accounting unit or local government shall identify accounting documents to be permanently retained.
2. Business accounting units shall permanently retain historical accounting documents or those of economic, national security, or national defense importance.
The head or legal representative of the accounting unit shall identify accounting documents to be permanently retained on a case-by-case basis and transfer them to the accounting department or another department for retention in the form of original copies or other forms.
3. Accounting documents to be permanently retained shall be retained for more than 10 years until they are naturally destroyed.