VI In the current situation of the impact of storm No. 3 Yagi, some local businesses are directly affected by the storm, causing not a few losses. So what should accounting units do if accounting books and documents are damaged by natural disasters or floods?
Through today’s article, Pham Consult hopes that this information will be helpful to your business. We hope that our fellow countrymen in the flood-affected areas will always have faith in a brighter tomorrow, and we will overcome it and peace will return
What should accounting units do if accounting books and documents are damaged by natural disasters or floods?
Pursuant to Article 4 of Circular 96/2010/TT-BTC, the responsibilities of accounting units whose accounting books and documents are damaged due to natural disasters and floods are as follows:
– Must promptly notify relevant management agencies such as: Financial agencies, tax agencies, State Treasury, direct superior management agencies within 15 days after discovering that accounting documents are lost or damaged due to objective reasons.
– Must collect, restore, and process to the maximum extent possible accounting documents and documents related to the accounting work of the accounting unit that are damaged due to objective reasons.
– Must collect and photocopy to the maximum extent possible lost accounting documents.
– Must establish an Accounting Document Recovery and Processing Board to perform tasks related to the recovery and processing of accounting documents immediately after notifying the situation to relevant management agencies.
What are the responsibilities of accountants in storing and preserving documents?
According to the provisions of Article 41 of the 2015 Accounting Law, the provisions on preserving and storing accounting documents are as follows:
– Accounting documents must be fully and safely preserved by the accounting unit during use and storage.
– In case accounting documents are temporarily detained or confiscated, there must be a record attached with a copy of the accounting document; if accounting documents are lost or destroyed, there must be a record attached with a copy of the document or a confirmation.
– Accounting documents must be stored for a period of 12 months from the end of the annual accounting period or the end of accounting work.
– The legal representative of the accounting unit is responsible for organizing the preservation and storage of accounting documents.
– Accounting documents must be archived for the following periods:
+ At least 05 years for accounting documents used for management and operation of the accounting unit, including accounting documents not directly used to record accounting books and prepare financial statements;
+ At least 10 years for accounting documents directly used to record accounting books and prepare financial statements, accounting books and annual financial statements, except where otherwise provided by law;
+ Permanent archive for accounting documents of historical value, of important economic, security and defense significance.
– The Government shall specify each type of accounting document that must be archived, the archive period, the time of calculating the archive period as prescribed in Clause 5, Article 41 of the 2015 Accounting Law, the place of archive and the procedure for destroying archived accounting documents.
Where should a business go to request a copy of the accounting documents if accounting documents are lost?
Clause 5, Article 6 of Decree 174/2016/ND-CP stipulates the photocopying of accounting documents as follows:
Copying accounting documents
…
4. In case the accounting documents of an accounting unit are temporarily detained or confiscated by a competent state agency, the photocopy of the accounting documents left at the unit must have the signature and confirmation stamp (if any) of the legal representative (or authorized person) of the competent state agency that decides to temporarily detain or confiscate the accounting documents as prescribed in Clause 2, Article 7 of this Decree.
5. In case the accounting documents are lost or destroyed due to objective reasons such as natural disasters, floods, fires and other objective reasons, the accounting unit must go to the purchasing unit, the selling unit of goods and services or other relevant units to request a photocopy of the accounting documents. The copied accounting documents must have the signature and confirmation stamp (if any) of the legal representative (or authorized person) of the purchasing unit, the selling unit or other related units.
6. In case the unit related to providing accounting documents for copying has been dissolved, bankrupted or ceased operations, the legal representative of the accounting unit that needs to copy the accounting documents must establish a council and draw up a “Minutes of determining that accounting documents cannot be copied” and at the same time be legally responsible for that determination.
Thus, according to regulations, in case accounting documents are lost due to objective reasons such as natural disasters, floods, fires and other objective reasons, the enterprise must go to the purchasing unit, the unit selling goods and services or other related units to request a copy of the accounting documents.
Note: The copied accounting documents must have the signature and confirmation stamp (if any) of the legal representative (or authorized person) of the purchasing unit, the selling unit or other related units.
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