The Tax Department has just issued a warning about the situation of businesses using two accounting books systems in parallel for tax fraud purposes. This is a serious violation of the law with high administrative penalties, and may even be criminally handled.
Through management and reports from law enforcement agencies, the Tax Department found that there is still a situation where some businesses and business establishments commit fraud by: Using 02 or more financial accounting books in parallel for the same unit in one annual accounting period.
The purpose of this act is usually to keep revenue, assets or payables off the books to evade tax obligations to the State.
Administrative penalty level: From 20 to 30 million VND
According to Decree No. 41/2018/ND-CP of the Government stipulating penalties for administrative violations in the field of accounting and independent auditing, acts related to book fraud are tightened:
Violations of accounting books (Article 9): A fine of between VND 20,000,000 and VND 30,000,000 shall be imposed for the act of keeping assets and liabilities of the unit outside the accounting books or being related to the unit but not yet to the extent of criminal prosecution.
Violations of documents (Article 8): A fine of between VND 20,000,000 and VND 30,000,000 shall be imposed for acts of forging, falsely declaring documents or making many identical letters for the same nghiệp vụ.
Remedial measures: Forcing the addition of assets and liabilities that have been left outside to the accounting book; forcing the cancellation of fake documents and false declarations.
Risk of criminal prosecution
It should be noted that the above-mentioned fine level only applies to violations that "have not reached the level of criminal prosecution".
In cases where functional agencies determine the act of creating 2 book systems to evade taxes with a large amount of money (from 100 million VND or more or has been administratively sanctioned but still violates), businesses and related persons may be criminally prosecuted for the crime of tax evasion under the Penal Code.
Businesses need to strictly comply with the current accounting regime, ensuring the uniqueness and honesty of books to avoid unfortunate legal risks and protect their reputation in the market.
