How much will it cost a company not to conduct a mandatory audit? In this article, we will consider possible sanctions from the company’s regulatory authorities for the lack of an audit report. The consequences of failure to conduct an audit (in addition to fines for the lack of an audit report) may affect the financial and economic activities of the company.

Let's analyze which regulatory authorities can fine a company for the lack of an audit report, which, in essence, means failure to conduct a mandatory audit.

Fines from the tax service

The liability that can be imposed by the tax authority for failure to present documents within the prescribed period is provided for in paragraph 1 of Article 126 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Thus, the cost of failure to submit to the tax authorities documents and (or) other information provided for by the Tax Code of the Russian Federation and other acts of legislation on taxes and fees is 200 rubles for each document not submitted (clause 1 of Article 126 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

According to Art. 6 of the Federal Law of December 30, 2008 No. 307-FZ “On Auditing Activities” (hereinafter referred to as Law No. 307-FZ), the audit report is official document, intended for users of the accounting (financial) statements of the audited entities, containing the opinion of the audit organization, individual auditor, expressed in the prescribed form, on the reliability of the accounting (financial) statements of the audited entity.

From the above it follows that the audit report is not a document serving as the basis for the calculation and payment (withholding and transfer) of taxes, fees, as well as a document confirming the correctness of calculation and timely payment (withholding and transfer) of taxes, fees, and, therefore, There is no reason for the tax authority to impose a fine under clause 1 of Article 126 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation for failure to submit it. This position is shared by arbitration courts (resolution of the Eleventh Arbitration Court of Appeal dated March 24, 2016 No. A55-24924/2015).

In addition, the audit report is no longer included in the annual accounting (financial) statements (clause 1 of Article 14 of the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ “On Accounting”) submitted to the tax authorities, and therefore the tax authorities does not have the right to fine the company (letters from the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation for Moscow dated March 31, 2014 No. 13-11/030545, dated January 20, 2014 No. 16-15/003855, Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated January 30, 2013 No. 03-02 -07/1/1724).

Important!

On April 10, 2016, amendments to Article 15.11 of the Code of Administrative Offenses came into force, which provide for fines for gross violation of the rules accounting and reporting, including for the lack of an auditor’s report on the accounting (financial) statements (if an audit of the accounting (financial) statements is mandatory).

The amount of fines provided for in the updated version of Article 15.11 of the Code of Administrative Offenses is:

from 5 thousand rubles to 10 thousand rubles (for officials);

in case of repeated violation - up to 20 thousand rubles (for officials) or disqualification of the official for a period of 1 to 2 years.

At the same time, the statute of limitations for bringing to administrative liability is 2 years from the date of commission of such an offense.

Who can initiate the imposition of such a fine?

Officials are authorized to draw up protocols on administrative offenses:

tax authorities (subclause 5, clause 2, article 28.3 of the Administrative Code);

executive authorities exercising control and supervision functions in the financial and budgetary sphere (clause 11, clause 2, article 28.3 of the Administrative Code);

The Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation and the control and accounting bodies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation (subclause 3, clause 5, article 28.3 of the Administrative Code).

Fines from ROSSTAT

For failure to submit an audit report to the set submitted to Rosstat financial statements(in the case of a mandatory audit), the organization and its official may face an administrative fine (Article 19.7 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation):

• from 300 to 500 rubles (for officials);
• from 3 thousand to 5 thousand rubles (for legal entities).

At the same time, the imposition of a fine does not relieve the organization from the obligation to submit an audit report to the statistical authorities (clause 4 of article 4.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).

Fines from the Bank of Russia

The most serious sanctions may be imposed by the Bank of Russia.

A public JSC is obliged to disclose an annual report and annual accounting (financial) statements (Article 92 of the Federal Law of December 26, 1995 No. 208-FZ “On joint stock companies ah", hereinafter referred to as Law No. 208-FZ).

Requirements for the content of the annual report of joint-stock companies are established in the Regulations on the disclosure of information by issuers valuable papers, approved Bank of the Russian Federation dated December 30, 2014 No. 454-P (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations).

The annual accounting (financial) statements of a JSC subject to mandatory audit are disclosed by publishing its text on a page on the Internet no later than three days from the date of drawing up the audit report, expressing in the prescribed form the opinion of the audit organization on its reliability (clause 71.4 of the Regulations). Let us remind you that a mandatory audit is carried out in cases where the company has the organizational and legal form of a joint-stock company (clause 1, clause 1, article 5 of the Federal Law of December 30, 2008 No. 307-FZ “On Auditing Activities”).

The absence of information subject to disclosure in accordance with these Regulations, without sufficient grounds, is grounds for holding the issuer liable, as well as for establishing restrictions on the circulation of securities in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation (clause 2.13 of the Regulations).

Administrative liability for this violation is provided for in paragraph 2 of Art. 15.19 Code of Administrative Offences.

Thus, disclosure of information not in full (accounting statements must be disclosed together with the auditor’s report), and (or) unreliable information, and (or) misleading information entails the imposition of an administrative fine:

• from 30 thousand rubles to 50 thousand rubles (for officials) or their disqualification for a period of 1 to 2 years;
• from 700 thousand rubles to 1 million rubles (for legal entities).

Important!

If there are exceptional circumstances related to the nature of the administrative offense committed and its consequences, the amount of the minimum fine may be reduced by the court. For example, for failure to post an audit report on a website on the Internet information and telecommunications network, the court reduced the fine to 350 thousand rubles (resolution of the Supreme Court of the North-Western District dated February 10, 2016 No. A56-30455/2015, Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation dated February 25 .2014 No. 4-P).

Is there currently any liability for failure to conduct a statutory audit and failure to submit an audit report to the tax and statistical authorities?

According to Part 3 of Art. 1 of Federal Law No. 307-FZ of December 30, 2008 (hereinafter referred to as the audit law), an audit is an independent verification of the accounting (financial) statements of the audited entity in order to express an opinion on the reliability of such statements. For the purposes of this law, the accounting (financial) statements of the audited entity mean the statements provided for by the previously in force Federal Law No. 129-FZ of November 21, 1996 or regulatory legal acts issued in accordance with it, as well as statements similar in composition, provided for by other federal laws or regulations issued in accordance with them.

Mandatory audit is carried out in accordance with, in the cases listed in this part, and in other cases established by federal laws (). In particular, its implementation is provided for the accounting (financial) reporting of organizations (except for state authorities, local governments, state and municipal institutions and unitary enterprises, agricultural cooperatives, unions of these cooperatives), the volume of revenue from the sale of products (sales of goods, performance of work , provision of services) which for the previous reporting year exceeds 400 million rubles. or amount of assets balance sheet as of the end of the previous reporting year exceeds 60 million rubles. ().

Mandatory audit is carried out annually ().

According to the results audit an audit report is drawn up - an official document intended for users of the accounting (financial) statements of the audited entities, containing the opinion of the audit organization, individual auditor, expressed in the prescribed form, on the reliability of the accounting (financial) statements of the audited entity.

Let us note that the auditor's report was previously part of the financial statements of organizations subject to mandatory audit (subclause "g" of paragraph 2 of Article 13 of the Federal Law of November 21, 1996 No. 129-FZ ""). However, in 2013 it came into force the federal law dated December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ " " (hereinafter referred to as Law No. 402-FZ). According to the auditor's report, it ceased to be part of the annual accounting (financial) statements (clause "e" of section " " information of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated December 4, 2012 No. PZ-10/2012, as well as the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated January 30, 2013 No. 03-02 -07/1/1724).

Thus, the original version did not establish the obligation to provide an audit report based on the results of the reporting period for any economic entities, the accounting (financial) statements of which were subject to mandatory audit. Only for companies that publish their reports, the obligation to publish the auditor's report along with the financial statements was provided for ().

Therefore, initially, from January 1, 2013, for economic entities whose accounting (financial) statements were subject to mandatory audit, the obligation to submit an audit report to the tax authorities and state statistics authorities was abolished.

The texts of the documents mentioned in the experts’ response can be found in the reference book legal system .

Many companies are faced with the need to conduct this. Organizations required to conduct audits are determined by law. A scheduled audit of financial documentation must be carried out regularly, based on certain deadlines.

Timing of the OA

Sometimes managers replace the concepts of accounting and tax reporting with audit documents. There must be an audit report during a mandatory audit, but it does not always coincide with the filing of declarations. Documents are submitted to the tax office separately from audit reports. The frequency of filing financial statements is as follows:

• Quarterly, no later than 30 days from the end of the reporting period
• Annual reporting, no later than 90 days after the end of the year.

The law determines the frequency of mandatory audits. Federal Law No. 307 in Art. 5 part 2 indicates that OA is carried out annually. At the same time, there are no statements about specific dates. At the same time, Federal Law No. 129, relating to accounting, states that the auditor’s report must be submitted simultaneously with the annual financial statements.

Based on the auditors’ report, the reliability is established accounting documentation, supplied to tax authority, therefore, on July 25, 2007, the FAS Resolution on the 90-day deadline for filing the OA opinion appeared. It should be assumed that, in accordance with these laws and regulations, the audit report is submitted to the Federal Tax Service simultaneously with the financial statements.

Released in December 2011 new law“On Accounting” No. 402, and was revised on May 23, 2016. Federal Law No. 251 of July 23, 2013 made it mandatory to submit these documents together, but amendments to F3 402 of 2016 abolished the mandatory submission of reports and conclusions. According to these data, the conclusion is submitted either together with the financial statements, or no later than 10 days after the audit.

Responsibility for failure to conduct a mandatory audit

Companies that are required by law to conduct an audit do not have the right to refuse an audit. They must carry it out regardless of their desire. Failure to do so may result in penalties. Their value varies depending on the legal form of the company, as well as the frequency of the violation.

Repeated refusal or violation of deadlines for filing an audit report will result in an increase in fines.

According to Art. 15.11 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, primary and secondary fines differ by half:

• First violation - 5-10 thousand rubles for officials
• Repeated up to 20 thousand.

In this case, a repeated violation may entail not only a fine, but also disqualification for a period of 1 to 2 years. This is only one part of liability for OA considered as an accounting violation. In addition, the audit report is submitted to other government agencies.

Sanctions for violations

Administrative liability is also implied for refusal to conduct an OA. Also, do not forget that, by court decision, a forced audit of financial documentation can be carried out.

Violation of filing deadlines also entails penalties. The least severe amounts are incurred if there is a delay in submitting data to the tax office and Rosstat.

• In the first case the fine is 200 rubles,
• in the second- up to 500 rub. for officials and from 3 to 5 thousand rubles for legal entities.

If an audit report is not submitted to the Bank of Russia, which is mandatory for joint stock companies, then the fines can be very large. Administrative liability is provided for in Art. 15.19 Code of Administrative Offenses clause 2:

1. Legal entity- from 700 thousand rubles to 1 million.
2. Officials- from 30 to 50 thousand rubles or disqualification for up to 2 years.

It is worth knowing that incorrectly submitted documents, incomplete financial statements or an audit report issued by an unlicensed auditing organization also entail administrative liability. Therefore, you need to carefully select a company for an audit and comply with the deadlines for submitting all reports.

The responsibility of economic entities for evading mandatory audits is also discussed in this video:

If a company is subject to mandatory audit, the fines can be very significant. For what exactly, you will find out from our review.

What exactly is the responsibility for statutory audit?

The most interesting thing is that the current legal norms do not provide for a fine for failure to conduct a mandatory audit. That is, for the very fact of absence. But don't relax. Because, if a mandatory audit is not carried out, a fine is imposed for something else.

Basically, the fine for a mandatory audit in 2018 is associated with a document such as an audit report. In this context, sanctions for evading a mandatory audit are provided for by the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.

The result is a vicious circle: as such, there is no penalty for failure to undergo a mandatory audit under current legislation. However, it is impossible to obtain an audit report without third-party specialists analyzing the financial statements.

Thus, there is no liability for failure to undergo a mandatory audit, as well as liability for evading a mandatory audit.

Rosstat: fine for mandatory audit in 2018

If an organization is required by law to conduct a mandatory audit of its annual reports This means that an audit report must be submitted to the local Rosstat branch at the place of registration, along with a copy of the financial statements. Moreover, to be on time. Otherwise, the penalties for mandatory audit are as follows (Article 19.7 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation):

• for the company as a whole - from 3 to 5 thousand rubles;
• for an accountant (most likely) – from 300 to 500 rubles.

The law establishes 2 options for the period when the auditor’s report on the reliability of the financial statements must be received by Rosstat (Part 2 of Article 18 of the Law<О бухучете˃ № 402-ФЗ):

1. Together with annual accounting - within the general period.
2. If the auditors’ verdict is not yet ready, then the law gives 10 working days from the date of their conclusion, but no later than December 31 of the year following the reporting year.

Disclosure of the auditor's report

This applies only to joint stock companies. For them, paragraph 2 of Article 15.19 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation provides for a large fine. Including – for violation of the rules for disclosure (publication) of the audit opinion:

• for officials - from 30,000 to 50,000 rubles (or deprivation of the right to profession from 1 to 2 years);
• for JSC as a whole – from 700,000 to 1,000,000 rubles.

Please note that for PJSC and OJSC there is a single deadline for disclosing financial statements and audit reports. That is, they must be published for public information together and at the same time. For example, in 2018 this should have happened before April 3 inclusive. (clause 71.4 of the Regulations on the disclosure of information by issuers of equity securities, approved by the Bank of Russia on December 30, 2014 No. 454-P).

According to the law, some organizations are required to conduct statutory audits. What violation is provided for failure to conduct an audit, what is the statute of limitations? Read about it below in our article.

Question: LLC liability for failure to conduct a mandatory audit. What is the statute of limitations for this offense?

Answer: If an organization has not conducted a mandatory audit and does not have an audit report, this is a gross violation of accounting and reporting requirements. Fines are provided for in the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offences. The amount of the fine for officials is from 5,000 to 10,000 rubles. And in case of repeated violation - up to 20,000 rubles. or disqualification from one to two years. At the same time, the statute of limitations for bringing to administrative liability is 2 years from the date of commission of such an offense.

part 1 of article 15.19 and part 2

If an organization is required to conduct an audit, it must submit an audit report to the territorial division of Rosstat. Penalties for failure to submit an audit report to Rosstat - from 300 to 500 rubles. for an official and from 3,000 to 5,000 rubles. for the organization. For organizations that are classified as small and medium-sized businesses, inspectors can replace the fine with a warning if:

The violation was committed for the first time;

No material damage;

There is no threat of natural or man-made emergencies;

No harm or threat:

Life and health of people;
- animals and vegetation, the environment;
- historical and cultural monuments;
- security of Russia.

Also, penalties from Rosstat can be avoided if the statute of limitations has passed, which is only three months from the date of the offense (Article 4.5 of the Administrative Code).

It is important to know that if liability arises for failure to conduct a mandatory audit and penalties are imposed, the legislator does not relieve the organization of the obligation to provide an audit report.

In what cases is an organization required to conduct an audit?

Submission of the audit report to Rosstat and the tax inspectorate

When to submit an audit report to Rosstat

If an organization is required to conduct an audit, then it must submit an audit report along with financial statements to the territorial division of Rosstat. You need to do this:

Either simultaneously with the submission of financial statements;

Or separately no later than 10 working days from the day following the date of the auditor's report, in any case no later than December 31 of the year following the reporting year.

Responsibility for evading mandatory audit

What is the liability for evading a mandatory audit?

If an organization has not conducted a mandatory audit and does not have an audit report, this is a gross violation of accounting and reporting requirements. Fines are provided for in the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offences. The amount of the fine for officials is from 5,000 to 10,000 rubles. And in case of repeated violation - up to 20,000 rubles. or disqualification from one to two years.

If you didn’t publish the JSC’s financial statements and auditor’s report, and didn’t present the audit report to the shareholders, you will be fined in accordance with Part 1 of Article 15.19 and Part 2 of Article 15.23.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. The amount of the fine will be:
- for organizations - from 500,000 to 700,000 rubles;
- for officials - from 20,000 to 30,000 rubles. or disqualification for up to one year.

If you do not submit your audit report to Rosstat on time, you will receive a warning or a fine:
- for organizations - from 3000 to 5000 rubles;
- for an official (manager) - from 300 to 500 rubles.

Such sanctions are provided for in the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offences.

Similar fines will apply if you are late in submitting your financial statements or submit them incompletely (letter of Rosstat dated February 16, 2016 No. 13-13-2/28-SMI).

Entering information into the state register

Is it necessary to enter the results of a mandatory audit into the Unified Federal Register of Information on the Facts of the Activities of Legal Entities?

The customer is obliged to enter information about the results of the mandatory audit into the Unified Federal Register of Information on the Facts of the Activities of Legal Entities. Namely:

Alexander Sorokin answers,

Deputy Head of the Operational Control Department of the Federal Tax Service of Russia

“Cash payment systems should be used only in cases where the seller provides the buyer, including its employees, with a deferment or installment plan for payment for its goods, work, and services. It is these cases, according to the Federal Tax Service, that relate to the provision and repayment of a loan to pay for goods, work, and services. If an organization issues a cash loan, receives a repayment of such a loan, or itself receives and repays a loan, do not use the cash register. When exactly you need to punch a check, look at