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

What is the responsibility for the statutory audit

The most interesting thing is that the current legal norms do not provide for a fine for not conducting a mandatory audit. That is, for the very fact of absence. But do not relax. Since, if a mandatory audit is not carried out, a fine is imposed for a slightly different one.

Basically, the fine for a mandatory audit in 2018 is associated with such a document 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, the current legislation does not provide for a fine for failing to pass a mandatory audit. However, it is impossible to get an audit report on hand without an analysis of financial statements by third-party specialists.

Thus, there is no liability for failure to pass a statutory audit, as well as liability for avoidance of a statutory audit.

Rosstat: fine for mandatory audit in 2018

If an organization, by virtue of law, must conduct a mandatory audit of its annual statements, then an audit report must be submitted to the local division of Rosstat at the place of registration along with a copy of the financial statements. And - to be in time in due time. Otherwise, the penalties for a 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 audit report on the reliability of financial statements must be received by Rosstat (part 2 of article 18 of the Law<О бухучете˃ № 402-ФЗ):

1. Together with the annual accounting - in the general period.
2. If the verdict of the auditors 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 one.

Disclosure of the auditor's report

This only applies 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 - and for violation of the rules for disclosure (disclosure) of the audit report:

• for officials - from 30,000 to 50,000 rubles (or deprivation of the right to a profession from 1 to 2 years);
• for joint-stock companies 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 an auditor's report. That is, they must be published for general information together and at the same time. For example, in 2018, this should have happened before April 03 inclusive. (Clause 71.4 of the Regulations on Information Disclosure by Issuers of Equity Securities, approved by the Bank of Russia on December 30, 2014 No. 454-P).

Which organizations must submit an audit report to Rosstat?

The obligation to submit an audit report to Rosstat is established by Art. 18 of the Law "On Accounting" dated December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ and in the regulatory acts of Rosstat. So, in the order of the department dated March 31, 2014 No. 220, it is indicated that if the annual financial statements of a company are subject to mandatory verification by auditors, it is mandatory to submit a report to the statistical authorities.

In Art. 5 of the Law "On Auditing" dated December 30, 2008 No. 307-FZ specifies the criteria by which managers and officials will be able to determine whether the organization is subject to annual audit by auditors.

In addition, you can rely on the following regulations:

• Part 4 Art. 18 of the law "On participation in shared construction ..." dated December 30, 2004 No. 214-FZ (developers);
• paragraph 8 of Art. 7.2 of the Law "On Non-Commercial Organizations" dated January 12, 1996 No. 7-FZ (state companies);
• paragraph 2 of Art. 7.1 of Law No. 7-FZ of January 12, 1996 (state corporations);
• Part 4 Art. 12 of the Law "On Self-Regulatory Organizations" dated December 1, 2007 No. 315-FZ (SRO).

The following entities must submit an audit report to Rosstat:

The obligation to provide an audit report does not apply to agricultural cooperatives, state and local authorities, state non-budgetary funds, unitary enterprises, state and municipal institutions.

What should be included in the auditor's report?

• name of the addressee (for whom it is intended);
• the name of the audited organization and information about it;
• information about the audit firm;
• responsibility of the auditor and the audited organization;
• list of audited financial statements;
• the amount of work performed by the auditor;
• the opinion of the auditor who conducted the audit of the statements (an indication of the circumstances that affect the reliability of information in financial documents);
• auditor's signature;
• the date on which the opinion was drawn up.

The main part of the document provides grounds for drawing conclusions about the reliability of the financial statements presented. In the results of the audit, the auditor reflects his opinion, which may be:

• unmodified (if the auditor believes that the financial statements accurately reflect the results of the organization's activities);
• modified (otherwise).

The modified opinion can be:

• qualified opinion (if the audit revealed significant misstatements, but they do not affect most of the significant elements of the reporting);
• negative opinion (if the misstatements affect important indicators of financial statements); this means that the auditor did not confirm the reliability of the audited documentation;
• refusal to express an opinion (if the auditing specialist was not given access to the reporting or the management of the organization prevented the audit).

A sample audit report can be found here.

Don't know your rights?

Deadlines and procedure for providing an opinion

In part 2 of Art. 18 of the law dated 06.12.2011 No. 402-FZ states that the audit report can be submitted in two ways:

• along with annual accounting;
• separately from the accounts on any day during the year following the reporting period (until December 31), but this must be done within 10 days following the date of the auditor's report.

IMPORTANT! Since the number of copies of the report is agreed in advance with the auditor, do not forget to order an additional copy for submission to the statistics service.

The date of submission of the report is:

• date of direct submission to the statistical agency;
• date of posting;
• the date of sending the conclusion in electronic format, recorded by Rosstat or the telecom operator.

The conclusion with the conclusions of the auditor is provided to the statistical authorities:

• in the form of an electronic document sent to Rosstat via telecommunication channels;
• on paper provided to the management of Rosstat personally by the head of the organization or an authorized person, as well as sent in the form of registered mail.

Punishment for violators

Art. 19.7 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation provides for administrative liability for organizations and managers for the late submission of the results of an audit by external auditors to the statistical authorities. Cases of violators are considered in court.

The following fines have been established:

• for officials - 300-500 rubles;
• for companies - from 3 to 5 thousand rubles.

IMPORTANT! Paying the fine does not release you from the obligation to undergo an audit and submit an appropriate conclusion to the statistical authorities.

In addition, violators will be punished under Art. 15.11 and 15.19 of the Code of Administrative Offenses.

For the absence of a mandatory audit report, the following penalties have been established for responsible persons:

• from 5 to 10 thousand rubles. - in case of primary violation;
• from 10 to 20 thousand rubles. or disqualification for a period of 1 to 2 years - if repeated.

More significant penalties are provided for non-disclosure of information in financial markets:

• for officials - from 10 to 50 thousand rubles;
• for organizations - from 300 thousand to 1 million rubles.

How to write a letter to Rosstat about the lack of auditor's conclusions?

If during the reporting period you did not carry out economic activities and did not receive income, you need to send letter to Rosstat on the absence of an audit opinion. The letter can be sent to the e-mail address of the department or by Russian Post.

There are no strict requirements for the form of the letter - it is enough to write it on a form with the details of a legal entity. In the header of the application indicate the name of the recipient (it will be the statistical department), the name of the sender, address, OKVED. In the main part, Rosstat is notified that the organization does not have the conditions established by Art. 5 of the Law "On Auditing".

In addition to the financial statements, it is necessary to submit an audit report to the statistical authorities. Failure to comply with this requirement is fraught with penalties.

The audit report on the statistics for 2016 is submitted along with the reporting. Or within 10 days after it is ready. For whom an audit report is mandatory when published on the Internet, find out in the article.

Who is required to provide an audit report on statistics for 2016

Have a question
Whether to conduct a mandatory audit for 2016 on a simplified system, if On December 31, 2015, the assets of the balance sheet amounted to 75 million rubles?

Yes, it is necessary to conduct a mandatory audit in this case. Companies whose balance sheet assets for the year preceding the reporting year exceed 60 million rubles are subject to a mandatory audit (Article 5 of Federal Law No. 307-FZ of December 30, 2008). And it does not matter whether the organization applies the general regime or the simplified one.

Audit report on statistics for 2016: deadlines

If an organization is required to conduct an audit, then it must submit an audit report to the statistics for 2016 along with the financial statements. You need to do this:

• or simultaneously with the filing 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 one.

This is stated in part 2 of article 18 of the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ.

How to submit an audit report for 2016 to statistics

Audit report on statistics for 2016 must be submitted on paper or sent by e-mail. Coordinate the last option with the employees of your territorial office of Rosstat.

It will not be possible to send a document in electronic form along with financial statements through a telecom operator. The document will not be accepted by Rosstat.

What threatens if you do not submit an audit report to the statistics

If the audit report is not submitted or submitted late, an administrative fine will be charged. An official of the organization faces a fine of 300 to 500 rubles. The very same organization can be fined in the amount of 3,000 to 5,000 rubles. Such sanctions are provided for by the RF Code of Administrative Offenses.

There will be similar separate fines if you are late with the submission of financial statements or submit them incompletely (Rosstat letter dated February 16, 2016 No. 13-13-2 / 28-SMI).

For organizations that are small and medium-sized businesses, inspectors can replace a 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;
• there is no harm or threat: to the life and health of people, animals and vegetation, the environment, monuments of history and culture, the security of Russia.

This follows from part 3 of article 1.4, part 3 of article 3.4, part 3.5 of article 4.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.

When the auditor's report is published on the Internet

Above, we told who and when should provide an audit report to the statistics for 2016. Now let's talk about whether it is necessary to publish the conclusion on the Internet.

The organization must publish reports in cases provided for by law (clause 9, article 13 of the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ). For example, the annual financial statements are posted by public joint-stock companies. This follows from paragraph 1 of Article 66.3 and paragraph 6 of Article 97 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, as well as paragraph 1.1 of Article 1 and the Law of December 26, 1995 No. 208-FZ. Moreover, they must publish statements together with the audit report ().

Joint-stock companies publish the text of the annual financial statements on the Internet page. The term is three days from the date of drawing up the auditor's report on the reliability of the financial statements. In any case, the accounting statements should be published no later than three calendar days from the date when the deadline for their submission to Rosstat expired (clause 71.4 of the Regulation of the Bank of Russia dated December 30, 2014 No. 454-P).

For 2016, you need to report to the statistics by March 31, 2017 inclusive. The deadline for publication of the financial statements together with the auditor's report falls on 4 April. If you are late with the publication, there will be a fine. The Bank of Russia warns about this in an information letter dated March 30, 2016 No. IN-06-52/17.

LLCs publish statements only if they openly place bonds or other equity securities ().

The requirements for mandatory publication of financial statements also apply to organizations using simplified taxation (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated June 18, 2008 No. 07-05-06 / 137).

For violation of the requirements of the legislation on the disclosure of information by the issuer, administrative liability is provided (part 2 of article 15.19 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation). The measure of responsibility is a fine. In this case, the amount of the fine is:

• from 700,000 to 1,000,000 rubles. - for the organization;
• from 30,000 to 50,000 rubles. – for officials (or disqualification for a period of one to two years).

We are publishing another question that came to us through the feedback form from one of the pages of our site.
From: Yakov Nikolaevich
Topic: Is it necessary to submit a mandatory audit report of a joint-stock company for 2014 to Rosstat and the Federal Tax Service?

Question:

We learned that starting from the annual reports for 2014, joint-stock companies, and we have CJSCs, must receive a mandatory audit report, and then submit it to statistics and the tax office.
Clarify please:

• Deadline for submitting annual reports and audit reports to the state statistics authorities?
• What is the deadline for submitting an audit report to the tax authorities at the place of tax registration?

Answer:

On June 06, 2014, a new “Procedure for submitting a mandatory copy of accounting (financial) statements” approved by the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) began to operate, which determines the deadlines for submission of annual financial statements and an audit report to the statistical authorities for joint-stock companies.

If the annual accounting (financial) statements of the organization are subject to mandatory audit, it is necessary to submit one copy of the annual accounting statements and a copy of the audit report to the state statistics authority at the place of registration of the enterprise (Part 2, Article 18 of Law No. 402-FZ).

"The procedure for submitting a mandatory copy of the accounting (financial) statements" must comply with:

• commercial and non-commercial organizations;
• state bodies, local self-government bodies, management bodies of state extra-budgetary funds and territorial state extra-budgetary funds;
• individual entrepreneurs, as well as lawyers who have established law offices, notaries and other persons engaged in private practice (hereinafter referred to as persons engaged in private practice);
• branches, representative offices and other structural subdivisions of organizations established in accordance with the legislation of foreign states located on the territory of the Russian Federation, international organizations, their branches and representative offices located on the territory of the Russian Federation, unless otherwise provided by international treaties of the Russian Federation.

Which organizations are required to conduct a statutory audit?

From September 01, 2014, the norm of the Civil Code on the mandatory external audit of any joint-stock company JSC (public and non-public), previously also called CJSC and JSC, comes into force.

If there is information in the reporting and the auditor's report classified as state secrets, then they must also be presented taking into account the requirements of the Law of the Russian Federation of July 21, 1993 N 5485-1 “On State Secrets”.

The composition of the set of annual accounting (financial) statements?

The composition of the mandatory copy of the annual financial statements to be submitted includes the balance sheet, the statement of financial results and annexes to them. For a non-profit organization, the annual financial statements must consist of a balance sheet, a report on the intended use of funds and an appendix to them.

In the report forms, be sure to indicate the contact phone number and e-mail address for prompt communication with you by a representative of Rosstat.

In order to obtain a qualified independent opinion on the reliability of its accounting (financial) statements, an organization may involve a specialized audit organization or an individual auditor in checking these statements. But in some cases, conducting an annual audit is an obligation, not a right of an organization. We will tell you about the criteria for a mandatory audit in 2019 in our consultation.

General criteria for statutory audit 2018

The main criteria and subjects of mandatory audit are provided for by the Federal Law of December 30, 2008 No. 307-FZ. In general, an organization is required to conduct an annual audit of its financial statements for 2018 if it satisfies any of the conditions specified in Part 1 of Art. 5 of the Federal Law of December 30, 2008 No. 307-FZ.

Thus, the criteria for a mandatory audit are:

• the organization has the organizational and legal form of JSC;
• the organization's securities are admitted to organized trading;
• the organization is a credit institution, a credit history bureau, an organization that is a professional participant in the securities market, an insurance organization, a clearing organization, a mutual insurance company, a trade organizer, a non-state pension or other fund (with the exception of a fund that has the status of an international fund in accordance with the Federal Law dated 08/03/2018 N 290-FZ), a joint-stock investment fund, a management company of a joint-stock investment fund, a mutual investment fund or a non-state pension fund (with the exception of state extra-budgetary funds);
• the volume of proceeds from the sale of products (sales of goods, performance of work, provision of services) of the organization for 2018 exceeded 400 million rubles;
• the amount of assets in the balance sheet as of December 31, 2018 exceeds 60 million rubles;
• the organization presents or discloses annual summary (consolidated) accounting (financial) statements.

Thus, for example, the organizational and legal form of a JSC obliges the organization to conduct a statutory audit, regardless of compliance with other criteria, and for a statutory audit of an LLC, the criterion may be, for example, the amount of revenue or the amount of assets.

Other cases of mandatory audit established by federal laws

In addition to the main criteria for a mandatory audit listed above, there are conditions under which an organization is required to conduct an audit due to the requirements of federal laws.

So, for example, a mandatory audit is carried out in relation to financial statements:

• state-owned companies (clause 8, article 7.2 of the Federal Law of January 12, 1996 No. 7-FZ);
• state corporations (clause 2, article 7.1 of the Federal Law of 12.01.1996 No. 7-FZ);
• housing savings cooperatives (Article 54 of the Federal Law of December 30, 2004 No. 215-FZ);
• developers (part 5 of article 3 of the Federal Law of December 30, 2004 No. 214-FZ);
• non-profit organizations performing the functions of a foreign agent (clause 1, article 32 of the Federal Law of January 12, 1996 No. 7-FZ);
• self-regulatory organizations (part 4 of article 12 of the Federal Law of December 1, 2007 No. 315-FZ).

Mandatory accounting audit: where to submit the audit report?

Starting from the reporting for 2019, financial statements are submitted only to the Federal Tax Service (with some exceptions). Moreover, as a general rule, reporting will need to be submitted electronically (reporting for 2019 can be submitted by small businesses on paper). For organizations whose reporting is subject to mandatory audit, the audit report must be submitted either together with the financial statements, or no later than 10 business days following the date of the audit report, but no later than December 31 (