Currently, many businesses are still thinking that auditing financial statements is only used to pay taxes as required by current regulations, without having to perform strict inspection and supervision. The Board of Directors does not pay much attention to the recognition that the financial statements must comply with the applicable accounting standards, the corporate regime, but only care about the tax filing.
Along with the integration of the economy, as well as the reduction in the time to deal with the work due to the difference in legal documents has led to many reforms of the document system. Thereby, the point of only making financial statements to pay taxes or auditing financial statements for tax payment is no longer appropriate.
First, the consistency between tax documents and accounting
Before the advent of Circular 200, followed by Circular 78, Circular 96 on corporate income tax, Circular 39 on invoices, Decree 123 on electronic invoices ... There is not much difference between accounting and taxation. Details such as the time of recording revenue and the time of issuing invoices are similar, conditions for recording revenue between accounting and tax are the same, assessing exchange rate differences, choosing the exchange rate at the end Tax period guidelines follow Circular 200 and many other issues.
In addition, the promulgation of Decree 20, then Decree 132 on the declaration of related transactions should clearly show the growing role as well as the increasing demand for accuracy and appropriateness of information presented on the financial statements. Therefore, financial statements for tax purposes or governance have become closer together, the management of these figures needs to be unified and synchronized among departments within the business.
Second, the increase in penalties for tax violations
The increase in the penalty makes leaders need to change their mind about having to actually participate in financial management instead of assigning this job to the self-determination accounting department as before.
According to the Law on Tax Administration 38 and Decree 125 on sanctioning administrative violations of tax, the latest invoice, almost all the fines increase from 2 to 3 times compared to the old penalty, even the fine rate increases by 5. times. For example, the fine bracket for the act of "making false or incomplete contents of the notice or report on the invoice according to the regulations to send to the tax agency" is fined from 1.000.000 VND to 3.000.000 VND instead of the old fine is from 200.000 VND to 1.000.000 VND.
That clearly shows the important role of enterprises having to take self-responsibility when declaring information and preparing financial statements. If the Board of Directors disregards the value of the financial statements, it may face tax risks with a penalty many times higher than in previous periods.
Third, the principle attaches great importance to nature over form
This is a hinge innovation, on this basis, including the accounting principles times the tax calculation principles are also complied on the basis of the nature of the transaction determines the form. The completeness and validity of when providing required documents but cannot prove the reasonableness and truth of these documents, the recorded and declared data will be considered inappropriate and distributed. tax risk.
"Appreciating nature over form" belongs to the group of characteristics to ensure the reliability of accounting information as prescribed in accounting as well as specified in tax laws to improve quality and usefulness. of accounting information provided to the subjects using the information through the financial statements of the business.
In most cases, the nature of the business and the form are one and the same. However, in reality, there are still situations where the content or nature of the transaction may differ from the form, then the accountant bases on the principle of "matter over form" to choose the method. processed and assessed according to the economic nature
Through the above content shows, increasingly the importance of transparency and the importance of the information of financial statements submitted to tax authorities and financial statements used for internal corporate governance. The role of leaders, the Board of Directors needs to be promoted clearly and closely in order to orient all divisions of the business in the right direction and comply with current legal regulations.
