Experienced accountants or bookkeepers. Financial director and chief accountant: what's the difference? What about the courts

financial director and Chief Accountant- these are employees of the same field, drawing information from the same resource, but responsible for different sections. Basically, a financier acquires a lot of information from an accountant. For this reason, for the management of the company has great importance work, just two specialists.

In many companies, in order to save money, they combine the positions of an accountant and a financier. However, these two are completely different professions, the combination of which is acceptable, but undesirable. The chief accountant is a specialist who monitors the accuracy of the data and checks that everything is recorded correctly and entered into the documentation. AT modern business, the accountant is more concerned with legal information than economic information. He must be aware of the laws of accounting and the company itself. The accountant must quickly answer all the questions posed, for example: how best to conduct a transaction, how to improve the work of the company, with such a condition that state power there were no complaints about the work.

The professionalism of a financial director is not related to legal activity and unlike an accountant, his signature has no meaning in contracts. Then why is the financier considered more important than the accountant? The answer is actually simple, the task of the CFO is to continuously increase the profits and revenues of the organization. To do this, the financier needs to manage several operations at once.

Who is a financial director?

The Chief Financial Officer is an employee of the firm who is responsible for financial position organization draws up a cash management plan. The most important thing depends on the financial director, since the financier concludes contracts that will be the most profitable and profitable for the company. The main task of the financier is to control the cash flow and prevent the company from going bankrupt.

Who is a chief accountant?

The chief accountant is a specialist responsible for the financial support of the organization. Provides reports to the management and, if necessary, the state administration on all cash flows, how much was received into the account and how much was spent. The chief accountant must monitor and record all the operations performed. The main task of an accountant is the careful preparation of reporting documents, so that public services there was no doubt about their correctness, this will help to avoid unnecessary fines and taxes. All operations must be done on time and without delay.

Responsibilities of the financial director

1. Analyze the work of the organization. In order to properly manage financial matters, the financier needs to know about all periods of work for the past and present. To do this, an analysis is regularly carried out, after which conclusions are drawn: how fast the company develops, what is an obstacle to development, etc.

2. Control cash flows. That is, the right distribution of funds.

3. Assess all possible risks for the company. This is necessary in order to avoid and prevent unnecessary cash costs that are unprofitable for the company.

4. Develop a strategy. Conduct planning and forecasting of all transactions.

5. Treasury function. Execution of all payments and increase in the company's cash budget.

Duties of the chief accountant

1. Documentation of all financial receipts to the company and reporting on operations that are associated with costs or replenishment of the budget.

2. Control of internal payments, products sold and services provided.

3. Guaranteeing the correct calculation of the work of the organization, taking into account the rules.

4. Observance of accuracy in payment systems, transfers and their timely payment in state bodies.

5. Management of accounting reports.

6. Monitoring the execution of documents for all the conditions of the law.

7. Implementation of the issuance of advances and salaries to all employees of the company.

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The state of linguistic culture in modern Russia leaves much to be desired. And the reason for this is by no means an orientation towards Western culture and not a lack of craving for reading, as the media lament.

A wide range of dictionaries in which you can find different spellings of the same word, heated debates of linguists around the spelling of individual words, a huge flow of literature that has not been worked out by a competent proofreader, clogging speech with inappropriate jargon words - this is the true reason for the prosperity of illiteracy. Language norms do not exist for their own sake, but, first of all, so that people understand each other, avoid ambiguity and, finally, preserve the national linguistic wealth.

How often in offices can you hear calls instead of calls, catalog instead of catalog, etc. Moreover, more and more often interlocutors begin to think about the pronunciation of words in the plural: directors or directors, accountants or accountants, contracts or contracts? All this slowly but surely shakes the traditional literary norms of the Russian language and leads to a general decline in culture.

In modern Russian, there are about 300 words in which the nominative plural is “fluctuating”, with variants. Moreover, the stress rate in some words changed over time, reflecting the development of the declension system of Russian nouns. So, for example, at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, directors were called directors, and professors were called professors. In the course of the last century, irreversible changes have taken place. Endings in -а (-я) began to reign in vernacular and "professional" jargon, and forms in -ы (-и) turned out to be more neutral, more traditional for the literary language (editors, instructors, proofreaders). But do not forget that there are exceptions to all rules.

DIRECTORS, CONTRACTS, ACCOUNTANTS - these are the norms that have become the ONLY POSSIBLE!

• The directors of large factories arrived, the directors gathered, we wrote a letter to the directors.
• Our company has signed contracts.
• Accountants calculated the estimate, etc.

The spelling (ending and stress) of the words director, accountant, contract, etc. is subject to the rule "Ends of the nominative plural of masculine nouns -ы (-и) - -а (-я)". This rule is quite complicated. If the ending -op / -ёr / -еr is stressed, then it is more often preserved in the plural form, i.e. gives -ers, -ors: contracts, drivers, gliders, motors, fences, engineers, cavaliers. In other cases, nouns, especially animate ones, on -op / -er in the plural have a strong tendency to shift the stress to the ending: doctors, junkers, boats, etc. But there are also a lot of reverse examples, in particular, accountants, coaches, etc. In addition, there are a number of factors that directly affect the spelling of a particular ending in a word. All this is described in detail (with numerous examples) in spelling guides.

However common man(not a philologist) it will be difficult to form the plural form of the nominative case, guided by the points of the rules. Therefore, take my word for it - it is better to just remember some words. Otherwise, you can easily "confuse" the desired rule. And even better, at least occasionally, look into the dictionary.

A little humor

When memorizing, you can be guided by rhyme-associations:

• directorA - masterA
• contracts are thieves
• accountants - gliders

The staffing of the vast majority of enterprises has the position of chief accountant. He is a specialist responsible for the financial component of the company's activities, and his high competence is the key to successful activity enterprises. The mistakes of the chief accountant can lead to serious complications not only in the financial sector, but in related areas of labor and civil law. The chief accountant is responsible both for the state of accounting at the enterprise and for submitting reports to the tax authorities.

Organization of accounting at the enterprise

Many are convinced that the main responsibility for the organization and maintenance of accounting lies with the chief accountant. This is an erroneous opinion. According to paragraph 6 of the order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation No. 34n dated July 29, 1998, the head of the business entity is responsible for organizing accounting.

At the same time, legal and technical aspects are distinguished in the content of the concept of "accounting organization".

The legal aspect refers to the legal side of the organization of accounting. It includes:

• approval of the regulation on accounting;
• scheduling;
• recruitment of personnel for accounting activities;
• issuing job orders.

Under technical side accounting organization means:

• purchase and maintenance of computer and other office equipment;
• acquisition software and carrying out its renewal;
• provision of premises, workplaces, stationery and other necessary materials.

It is the head of the enterprise who is responsible for accounting (No. 402-FZ, art. 7, p. 1).

The head of the company carries out accounting by transferring its management to other persons and organizations or independently.

Who can be involved in accounting

The specialists to whom the manager entrusts accounting are the chief accountant or other competent employee of the company. The director may conclude an accounting agreement with an organization or individual that specializes in this matter.

The head has the right to independently conduct accounting in two cases:

• the enterprise, on legal grounds, operates according to a simplified accounting scheme;
• the company is considered to be a small or medium-sized business.

Responsibility for the organization of accounting can be assigned both to the head of the company and to an employee specially invited for this purpose.

What are the responsibilities of a chief accountant?

Starting from 2017, in accordance with article 7 of the Law 402-FZ "On accounting”, some changes have been made to the duties of the chief accountant. Before the amendments, the duties of the chief accountant were as follows:

• registration of the accounting policy of the company;
• accounting;
• submission of a report to special supervisory authorities;
• control over the movement of products and all other business transactions.

Now the Law prescribes only the preparation of financial statements by the chief accountant. And it is also legally assigned the obligation to control the maintenance of financial records. Current preparation of accounting documents may be carried out by other financial officers.

Fulfillment of accounting and tax accounting duties

At the request of the management, a financial worker can be hired to conduct accounting. According to the employment contract, he must:

• prepare and maintain accounting records in the company, using the correct templates for this primary documents;
• organize an inventory of assets and liabilities and control its implementation;
• submit the prepared package of documentation to the control body at a strictly defined time, which is established by the legislation of the country;
• timely accrue tax payments, including advance payments, to a state institution.
• calculate both mandatory and advance contributions within the specified time limits;
• fully prepare a package of documents regarding funds of extra-budgetary significance, timely submit them to the control body.

The chief accountant of a company hiring a financial worker is obliged to monitor the implementation of the provisions of the employment contract between him and the company's management. If the relevant clauses are not included in the contract, then the financial worker has every right to simply not wish to fulfill them. Then all responsibility for the mistakes made (including criminal ones) will be placed on the shoulders of the chief accountant.

The chief accountant always has a lot of work, sometimes it makes sense to hire an intelligent assistant and control his work

Rights and powers of the chief accountant

The Chief Accountant has the following powers:

• allocate the scope of duties of accounting employees, other employees subordinate to him and demand the fulfillment of these duties;
• demand the prompt provision of the necessary information and working documents;
• petition the management for the deprivation of bonuses for failure to comply with its requirements and instructions;
• hold persons liable for untimely or poor-quality execution of documents;
• make up staffing employees of the company responsible for the preparation of primary documents with the right to sign;
• coordinate the hiring of accountants, warehouse workers, cashiers and other financially responsible employees;
• coordinate contracts with other organizations for the movement of inventory items;
• participate in drawing up sizing orders official salaries, the amount of allowances and bonuses;
• to fine accountants for incorrect registration of accounting transactions;
• endorse administrative documents on the establishment of salaries, allowances and bonuses;
• demand security effective use fixed assets and other material resources, as well as updating the norms of material costs and labor costs;
• demand optimization of the organization of work of warehouses, acceptance of property, justification for the release of raw materials and materials.

What is the responsibility of the chief accountant in 2017

The chief accountant can be held liable both by the management of the company and by state bodies.

Punishment by the head of the business entity

The employing company has the right to apply sanctions of a disciplinary or material nature. Disciplinary punishments are issued in the form of remarks, reprimands orally or in writing, as well as dismissal.

Disciplinary sanctions to the chief accountant on the part of the company's management can take different forms: from oral remarks to dismissal

When causing material damage, the guilty specialist may be required to compensate for losses.

Administrative measures for improper performance of duties

Enterprise-level accountability most often occurs within Labor Code under three articles:

• Art. 192 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation (punishments - remark, reprimand, dismissal);
• paragraph 9 of Art. 81 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation (possible sanction - dismissal);
• Art. 243 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation (measures of influence - recovery by the company of compensation for material damage).

Article 192 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation is used when the chief accountant is charged with direct failure to fulfill his obligations recorded in his employment contract.

Article 81 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation is applied in the event of material losses to the company and when the property of the company was used for other purposes.

Article 243, like Article 81 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, is applied for violations that led the company to material losses. But here we are talking about a larger scale of damage or the malicious nature of the violation, when the damage was done intentionally or under the influence of alcohol and drugs.

According to Art. 243 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the chief accountant is charged with the disclosure of trade secrets. And, finally, this article is applied when inflicting losses during non-working hours.

Bringing to responsibility by state bodies of the Russian Federation

Accountability by state bodies takes place both in the form of administrative penalties under the Code of Administrative Offenses, and in the form of accusations of criminal offenses in accordance with the relevant articles of the Russian Criminal Code.

Bringing the chief accountant to responsibility for offenses can be in the form of administrative or criminal punishment

Fines and penalties

Administrative liability arises due to a gross violation in the implementation of accounting. For such violations, Article 15.11 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation provides for the payment of a fine in the amount of 5 to 10 thousand rubles or disqualification for a period of 12 months to 2 years if the same offense is repeated.

Punishment for criminal offenses

A charge of criminal violations can be brought if, as a result of the actions of the chief accountant, the company is suspected of trying to avoid paying taxes. Then article 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which provides for fines, arrest or imprisonment, is applied. Responsibility under this criminal article occurs in the event of financial manipulation on a large scale by agreement with the leadership (paragraphs 7 and 8 of the Decree of the Plenum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation No. 64 of December 28, 2006).

Can the new chief accountant be fined after the old one is fired?

The newly appointed chief accountant is not responsible for the violations that occurred during the tenure of the previous chief accountant. Criminal liability is charged exclusively to persons who themselves have committed offenses. She is personal. No one should be punished for the offenses committed by another person.

This provision on personal responsibility equally applies to administrative offenses (Article 2.4, clause 1 of Article 2.1, clause 1 of Article 1.5, Article 2.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).

After dismissal, the chief accountant continues to be responsible for the actions that he performed during his work. It does not matter that on the date of detection of an offense or the opening of a criminal case, the chief accountant is no longer working.

The period during which they are held liable under the law

In the Supreme Court in 2006, the issue of the degree of responsibility of the director of the company after he left his leadership position was specifically considered. According to the court decision, regardless of the completion of his leadership activities, the director continues to be responsible for crimes committed during his work.

The same provisions are entirely transferred to the chief accountant. However, for committed offenses, a statute of limitations is determined, after which there is an exemption from the application of punishment.

Thus, the statute of limitations for an administrative offense should not exceed two months from the date of its commission. Exceptions are violations in the field of currency circulation, the limitation period of which is calculated as one year (clause 1, article 4.5 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).

When determining the beginning of the countdown of the statute of limitations for a misdemeanor punishable by administrative procedure, the case of refusal to conduct a criminal case is especially taken into account. If an offense that was previously dealt with as a criminal offense is reclassified as an administrative one, then the statute of limitations starts from the day the court decides to terminate the criminal case (Clause 4, Article 4.5 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).

The statute of limitations for crimes is prescribed in article 78 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. They are 2 years for minor offenses, 6 years for medium-gravity crimes, 10 years for serious crimes, and 15 years for especially serious crimes.

It all depends on the content of the article presented to the offender.

For example, filing with the intent to avoid paying taxes in the form of failure to submit a tax return or entering deliberately false data on a large scale is equated to crimes of medium gravity. The possibility of receiving punishment for such a crime expires two years from the date of arraignment.

But a similar offense carried out by agreement with the management, and even on an especially large scale, has a statute of limitations of ten years.

For some violations, the chief accountant can not only be fined, but also prosecuted

Actions to reduce the risk of liability

The profession of a chief accountant is fraught with dangers of getting accusations that entail administrative and criminal liability. Carrying out certain preventive steps will eliminate this liability or reduce it.

How to avoid sanctions for imaginary transactions and non-payment of taxes

The reason for the implementation of unintentional violations, leading to unwanted sanctions, is often the desire for tax optimization. Such tax cuts are a top priority for commercial organization. However, its solution involves a thorough analysis of options for activities, for example, the best way to write off and account for material and technical assets. It is impossible to cross the rather weakly marked line between the desire to reduce taxes and tax evasion.

In any case, you should not blindly implement the decisions proposed by the company's management to optimize taxes. One way to reduce the risk of being blamed is to take no responsibility for doing things. manager's orders. For this, it is desirable that all orders of this kind be given only in writing. This also applies to memos and other documents signed by the head. Stamps with an inscription like "to be completed" without a signature are not suitable as a supporting document.

How to file your disagreement with the director's decision

When there are no written orders from the authorities, and it is difficult to insist on their execution, the chief accountant has the opportunity to protect himself by writing a memo to the head. It states:

• the reason for writing the note;
• problems that may arise;
• their negative attitude to the solution of the task in the proposed version;
• your choice (if any).

In order for such a note to have any legal force, it must be officially handed over to the secretary with the incoming number fixed. Subsequently, a correctly drawn up note, if not completely exempt from liability, then, of course, will serve as a mitigating circumstance.

If the chief accountant does not agree with the decision of the head, his position should be recorded in writing

Cases from judicial practice

In order to understand how responsibility comes about and how to avoid it, it will be useful to analyze some typical cases from judicial practice.

Responsibility for payment under an unreliable contract

An unreasonable decision that led to financial losses may be a reason for dismissal under article 81, paragraph 9, part 1 of the Labor Code of Russia, but this does not always happen.

LLC "M" put up municipal enterprise invoice for equipment. According to the director's resolution, the chief accountant transferred the amount indicated in the document. Neither he nor the head of the enterprise saw the sale and purchase agreement and did not request, they did not check the information about the existence of M LLC. After payment, the equipment was not delivered to the enterprise. The damage from the sham transaction amounted to 300 thousand rubles.

The employer considered the actions of the chief accountant to fall under paragraph 9 of part 1 of Art. 81 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, since, in accordance with the legislation on accounting and his job description, he is obliged to check all documents on the transaction, request them from the counterparty if necessary. The chief accountant did not do this, nor did he take advantage of the opportunity not to carry out the risky order of the head.

But the court recognized the dismissal as illegal: the unreasonable decision that caused damage to the enterprise was made directly by the director, and not by the chief accountant. The employee only followed the instructions of his supervisor, as evidenced by the resolutions on the invoice.

The decision of the chief accountant was recognized as unreasonable, but later he was acquitted. Based on judicial practice, it is recommended that the judicial authorities, when deciding on the validity of the decision of the chief accountant, refer to the principles of conscientiousness in the performance of their labor duties.

Unjustified payment of wages

The case considered below also falls under the scope of Article 81 of the Labor Code (clause 1, part 1). The basis for the application of this article is the establishment of the fact of material damage incurred precisely as a result of the erroneous actions of the chief accountant (Article 238 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

The chief accountant N. recalculated M.'s salary, as she considered that the enterprise had a debt to this employee. The court recognized the dismissal under paragraph 9 of Part 1 of Art. 81 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation justified.

According to the charter of the enterprise, the management of its current activities is carried out by the general director. Job description The chief accountant establishes that in case of disagreement between him and the head of the organization on business transactions, documents on them are accepted for execution only with a written order of the latter.

Orders CEO with an indication of the payment of M's salary at the trial was not provided. Thus, the chief accountant, without the prior permission of the responsible person, made a payment, the need for which is not documented.

The decision of the chief accountant led to financial damage to the company, and the court considered the dismissal justified.

Signature - the basis for bringing to liability for financial fraud

According to Article 232 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, an employee who has caused damage to the employer is obliged to fully compensate him. And this employee does not have to have the status of a financially responsible person. So, from Art. 243 of the Labor Code (clause 3, part 1) it follows that in the event of intentional damage, it is compensated even for employees with whom the company did not formalize liability.

The Moscow City Court, in Ruling dated March 26, 2012 in case No. 33-6435, found the chief accountant guilty of violating the order of cash transactions and exacted from him the full material damage. The chief accountant received funds on account cash orders to transfer them to the bank for crediting to the organization's account. However, he did not hand over the money to the bank or handed it over partially. As a result of these actions, the chief accountant deliberately withheld funds belonging to the organization, in connection with which damage was caused.

The chief accountant did not dispute the authenticity of his signatures on cash receipts and confirmed the receipt of cash Money from the checkout. According to him, the funds were then transferred to the CEO.

The court came to the conclusion that the chief accountant, understanding the significance of his actions, transferred the funds received at the cash desk of the plaintiff for transfer to the bank to credit organization partially, leaving some of them at their disposal. This confirms the intentional nature of the actions. At the same time, the court pointed out that the purpose of withholding funds had no legal significance.

The chief accountant deliberately inflicted material losses on the company and was forced to fully compensate them.

The chief accountant is charged with the responsibility of supervising the maintenance of accounting and tax accounting. He must not only keep records in accordance with the requirements normative documents but also in every possible way to prevent attempts to violate the law. Inaction in this case is equated with complicity. The chief accountant is responsible for his work in a disciplinary, administrative and criminal manner.

What is the responsibility of the chief accountant

The chief accountant is a person with increased responsibility. This is the second most important position in the company (after the head). The chief accountant is responsible for the legitimacy of all transactions. A specialist can be held liable for committing illegal acts.

The legislative framework

Consider the legislative documents that regulate various forms chief accountant's responsibility:

• Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
• Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (in particular, article 15.11.).
• NK RF.
• Federal Law No. 129 of November 21, 1996.

Consider the regulatory grounds for criminal prosecution of the chief accountant:

Depending on the severity of the misconduct, the chief accountant can be brought to disciplinary, material, administrative, criminal liability. Disciplinary action applies to all employees. They are not specific to chief accountants.

Material liability

The liability of the chief accountant can be of two forms:

• On the common grounds . Assumes MO on a general basis. If the chief accountant causes any damage to the organization, compensation equal to his average salary is collected from him. For example, the damage to the company amounted to 100,000 rubles. The salary of the chief accountant is 20,000 rubles. It will not work to collect more than 20 thousand from an employee.
• Full liability. Provides full compensation for damages. Consider a similar example: an organization suffered damage in the amount of 100,000 rubles. The chief accountant, if his guilt is proven, will have to pay compensation in the amount of 100,000 rubles, regardless of the size of his salary. The condition of full liability must be specified in the employment contract. It can be delivered only to employees with key positions (chief accountant, manager).

IMPORTANT! If there is no clause on full MO in the employment contract, the chief accountant will be liable on a general basis.

You can oblige the chief accountant to pay compensation in the following cases:

• Lack of money or property.
• Damage to property (equipment, raw materials).
• Downtime due to an employee.
• Fines accrued through the fault of the chief accountant.

This is real damage. Compensation cannot be recovered on the fact of indirect damage (for example, in case of lost profits of the company).

IMPORTANT! After the discovery of the offense, the head must convene a special commission to identify the guilty person. Only if the commission reveals that it is the chief accountant who is guilty, compensation can be recovered from him. You also need to get an explanation from the employee.

Administrative responsibility

The chief accountant will bear administrative responsibility for the following violations of the law:

• Accounting rules are not followed.
• The employee does not present the documents required for tax control within the established time limits.
• Registration deadlines are not met.
• The rules for carrying out transactions with cash registers are ignored.
• The chief accountant violated the laws of the Russian Federation relating to the financial industry.

In 2016, amendments to articles 15.11 and 4.5 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation came into force regarding the procedure for bringing to responsibility. In particular, the following changes have been made:

• The amount of the fine has increased. Now it is from 5,000 to 10,000 rubles. The exact amount of penalties is determined by the court, depending on the circumstances of the case.
• Introduced liability for repeated violation of the law. It will act if a new offense occurred during the period of the previous administrative punishment. The fine in this case will be from 10 to 20 thousand rubles. An alternative option is the disqualification of a specialist for up to 2 years.
• The statute of limitations for pending cases has been extended. Previously it was 3 months. That is, if the accountant's offense was discovered after this time, it was impossible to hold the employee liable. Now the term has been extended to 2 years.
• When establishing the guilt of the chief accountant, it is necessary to present evidence of the fact of misconduct. Since 2016, photo and video materials can also be used as them.

Illegal actions were also specified, in which administrative liability is introduced:

• Registration in the registers of imaginary accounting items.
• Introduction of accounts outside accounting registers.
• Reporting data does not correspond with accounting registers.

All of these are pretty gross violations.

Criminal liability

The chief accountant bears criminal responsibility for offenses on the basis of Article 199.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. According to the first part of this article, an official will be brought to the MA if the following factors are simultaneously present:

• The organization does not pay taxes in large amounts.
• The chief accountant commits illegal actions knowingly.
• Violation of the law occurs for at least 3 years.
• The chief accountant, committing illegal actions, is guided by his personal interests.

The second part of Article 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is also of interest. It refers to an exemption from UO under the following circumstances:

• The offense was completely the first time.
• The company has done everything due payments to the country's budget.

The rules under consideration are relevant not only for chief accountants, but also for other officials who are responsible for paying taxes.

Is it possible to hold the chief accountant accountable after his dismissal?

If wrongdoing is discovered after an employee is fired, they can still be prosecuted. This will require going to court. Statement of claim must be filed within 12 months from the date the violation was discovered. The task of the head in court is to collect evidence that the chief accountant caused real damage to the organization. Lost profits are not included in the category of real damage.

IMPORTANT! 12 months must be counted from the day the offense was discovered, and not from the date it was committed. It is advisable to take care of the evidence that the violation of the law was revealed on a certain day.

Responsibility of the chief accountant for non-payment of salaries to employees

Non-payment of wages is a serious offense for which not only the head, but also the chief accountant is responsible. The employee, having not received the due funds, has grounds for applying to Labor Inspectorate. After this appeal, checks are initiated in the organization. If violations are found during the inspection, fines are issued. A specific person, including the chief accountant, can oblige to pay a fine. Consider who exactly will be responsible:

• If the salary was not paid due to the fact that there are no funds on the account of the organization, the responsibility lies with the head of the enterprise.
• If there are funds in the account, this is considered evidence of a delay in money due to the fault of the chief accountant. Accordingly, he will be responsible.

In this case, administrative liability in the form of a fine is usually imposed.

Liability for non-payment of taxes

For non-payment of taxes, the chief accountant will face criminal or administrative punishment. Penalties are imposed for late submission of a tax return. If the declaration contains false information, the chief accountant will face criminal liability.

Criminal liability of the chief accountant

Criminal liability of the chief accountant since 2016 toughened. Now the employee of the enterprise is also responsible for several articles of the law.

This suggests that he should properly fulfill his own duties related to the timely submission of documents to tax office and correct preparation of all necessary documentation.

Changes in criminal liability since 2016-2017

For a long time it was impossible to attract an accountant. The maximum he had to deal with was a fine of 3,000 rubles due to late filing of a tax return.

Although managers often tried to prove the guilt of their employees, no one allowed them to be held responsible.

Since 2016, changes have come into force, where the director, along with the accountant, is full responsibility for your own organization.

As a result, both have to appear in the dock in order to justify themselves by refuting certain statements.

Moreover, in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation severe punishment is applied which may startle some people.

The criminal liability of an accountant is associated with various reasons.

Criminal liability of an accountant is no joke. Now at certain conditions can't get away with a small administrative fine.

The duties of the employee include dealing with all financial transactions, conducting the necessary audit and detailed accounting.

Respectively, transmission of correct data is mandatory if this does not happen, serious punishments are coming.

Moreover, they can be divided by type of taxation:

1. Simplified tax system.
2. Taxation of the income of the organization.

Both cases are dealt with in articles of legislation., so you can not be surprised by the exact prescriptions. Judges only follow them, preliminarily evaluating the current situation.

Simplified taxation system

The simplified taxation system provides for the same regular payments from the organization. For this reason, violations are usually associated solely with non-compliance with the deadlines for filing a declaration.

Only managers forget that even in this case, the controlling body must receive accurate data on the profits of the company.

If the information has been erroneously or deliberately changed, criminal liability will follow. This is evidenced by article 199, which indicates the penalties that both the manager and the accountant will have to face.

1. Administrative fine from 100 to 300 thousand rubles.
2. Payments in the amount wages with recalculation for a period of 1 to 2 years.
3. Forced labor for 2 years.
4. Imprisonment for 2 years.
5. Arrest for six months.

When submitting documents deadlines must be strictly adhered to and no mistakes must be made. An oversight can be interpreted as an intentional act, which will immediately be revealed during the trial.

It's interesting that in such situations, only managers win which often deliberately force employees to break the law.

Taxation on the income of the organization

Will the chief accountant be held criminally liable for the complex calculation of tax collections? Yes, and last changes in legislation make his job dangerous.

What are the penalties in the article?:

1. Fine up to 500 thousand rubles.
2. Imprisonment for up to 6 years.

The only salvation is required proof of the absence of malicious intent. Otherwise, the accountant, along with the director, will have to appear before the court.

Already now there are many examples confirming this fact, which show a real picture of responsibility.

Criminal liability of the director and accountant in 2017

Responsibility for violations of tax laws, when you have to answer with your own money, is listed in Section VI of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. However, this is not all. Getting off with fines is unlikely to succeed. For tax evasion, the management of an organization can be held liable under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and Civil Code RF.

In the first half of 2015, the number of criminal cases under economic articles increased by 22% (according to the Prosecutor General's Office, the Judicial Department Supreme Court). And in January 2016, the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, in an interview " Russian newspaper” said that the number of criminal cases initiated on the facts of tax evasion increased by 68% in 2015. In 2015, more than 4.5 thousand criminal cases were initiated. Despite the fact that Putin V. in his December 2015 address drew attention to the intensified "nightmare" for business, in the coming years one cannot expect loyalty from law enforcement agencies towards entrepreneurs.

What does article 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation say about non-payment of taxes?

For non-payment of taxes from the organization, they are attracted under article 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Criminal liability occurs if the head of the company has committed actions aimed at evading taxes and fees on a large scale.

Large size is determined by two criteria. Firstly, this is the amount of taxes and fees exceeding 5 million rubles, provided that the share of unpaid taxes and fees exceeds 25 percent of the total amount of taxes and fees payable for 3 (three) consecutive financial years. Or is it an amount exceeding 15 million rubles.

Responsibility will come if there was a tax evasion on a large scale.

5,000,000 rubles

15,000,000 rubles

When calculating the amount of tax evasion and fees, all arrears are summed up for a given period. But at the same time, only the amounts of those taxes and fees, the payment deadlines for which have expired, are taken into account.

If tax evasion is more than 15,000,000 rubles, the director and accountant faces liability for tax evasion on an especially large scale.

15,000,000 rubles

45,000,000 rubles

The same liability applies if the investigator qualifies the actions as those committed by a group of persons by prior agreement. For example, a director, chief accountant and founder (participant) of the company. In most cases, this is exactly what the investigator will do. Preliminary conspiracy implies that several persons have agreed in advance to commit a crime together. At the same time, according to the investigator, even an order to hire an employee (for example, a chief accountant), according to the investigator, is a conspiracy. You can get charged with a crime committed by a group of people, even if you just worked as an employee and did not have any non-work contacts with each other at all.

The punishment for such an act is much more severe. By avoiding accusations of conspiracy, it will be possible to reduce the responsibility of everyone for the crime. And the differentiation of crimes according to the amounts of unpaid taxes and fees may help to avoid charges of tax evasion and fees on an especially large scale and in the future will help to avoid joint and several liability in a civil suit.

Who is attracted under 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

There is an opinion that criminal prosecution threatens only the head and chief accountant of the organization. This is not true. Any employee of the organization can be held criminally liable on the basis of Article 33 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - along with the perpetrator, the organizer, instigator and accomplice are recognized as accomplices in the crime. Most often, in addition to managers and chief accountants, the accused include business owners, LLC participants, financial directors, heads of departments (departments) and other persons who participate in decision-making related to the payment of certain works (services) included in the expenses or decisions related to the amount of taxes paid.

Acts under Article 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

For tax evasion and (or) fees from the organization, the director and chief accountant can be prosecuted if tax returns or other documents that must be submitted to the tax office under the legislation of the Russian Federation have not been submitted.

But most often in cases under 199 there are tax returns, so the investigators show the inclusion of deliberately false information in the tax return. It would seem that the investigators must prove that the incorrect data were included in the declarations knowingly. That is, both the director and the chief accountant knew that these data were false. That the partner is not trustworthy and so on.

In practice, in fact, no one proves this. And even the fact of signing or not signing the declaration by the director does not affect anything. The main thing is that the declaration has been submitted.

Usually, in criminal cases against directors, firms whose expenses were included in the declarations are called firms that have signs of one-day businesses. It will be almost impossible to prove that you did not intend to evade taxes and did not work with ephemera. You will have to prove that the company was not a one-day business at the time of work. If you find evidence that the company was good and you showed due diligence, the argument of the investigation will be the wording: "the director is obliged to organize accounting and the organization is obliged to pay taxes on its own." Alas, the principle of guilt also works here.

Punishments under 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

Article 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for several types of liability. The measure is determined by the gravity of the crime committed and the presence of qualifying signs.

• Fine in the amount of 100 thousand to 500 thousand rubles;
• A fine in the amount of the wage or other income of the convicted person for a period of one to two years;
• Forced labor for up to two years;
• Arrest for up to six months;
• Imprisonment for up to six years.

Grounds for initiating a criminal case

As we wrote above, the times when investigators initiated cases only on the basis of tax materials are a thing of the past. This was the case from 2011 to 2015. First, in 2011, investigators were allowed to open criminal cases only on the basis of materials they received from the tax authorities. Such a procedure was introduced by the then President D.A. Medvedev in order to protect business from unreasonable pressure from law enforcement agencies. And from October 22, 2014, investigators again received the right to initiate criminal cases on tax crimes without the initiative of the tax authorities. From this moment on, the reason for initiating a criminal case can simply be a report on the discovery of an offense drawn up by an employee of the operational police unit. A report can be drawn up on the basis of a denunciation of a dismissed employee or competitor.

Limitation periods for tax offenses

Investigators can initiate a criminal case on those violations of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation for which the tax authorities can no longer recover tax.

Tax inspectors have the right to check a period not exceeding 3 (three) years. And a criminal case can be initiated within the statute of limitations for criminal liability (Article 78 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation):

• two years after the commission of a crime of minor gravity (this is tax evasion from an organization on a large scale);
• six years after the commission of a crime of medium gravity (this is the concealment of property or money);
• ten years after the commission of a serious crime (this is tax evasion from an organization on an especially large scale).

Thus, the investigator can initiate proceedings against official organizations for tax evasion on an especially large scale within 10 years from the moment the offense was committed. This period significantly exceeds the period that the tax authorities check.

In fact, there are now two parallel and completely different systems of control over compliance with tax laws. And if tax inspections are strictly regulated and provide for a number of special measures to protect the rights of taxpayers, then there are practically no ways to protect during inspections by law enforcement agencies.

A guilty verdict in a criminal case threatens not only with criminal punishment for the management of organizations, but also with the collection of debts as compensation for damages. Moreover, these amounts can be collected both from the company and from individual brought to criminal responsibility. The number of double jeopardy cases brought before the courts is growing every year.

What about the courts

It will not be a big secret for you that the percentage of acquittals is less than 1. The courts do not show the slightest loyalty towards entrepreneurs against whom a criminal case has been initiated. So there is a practice that it is the accused who have to prove their innocence, and not the guilt of the accused to the investigating authorities. Prosecutors often sign indictments without reading them. The prosecutor only reads the materials of the criminal case for the first time in court. At the same time, it is confused not only in the names of the declarations, but also in the names of the taxes themselves. But this does not affect the decision of the court.

In terms of evidence on tax offenses, investigators present their expertise with calculations that, in general, seem to coincide with the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, but in detail with a large number of errors and sometimes critical for a particular case. In practice, if the accused orders independent expertise, it is not accepted by the court.

As for collusion, in this part the courts do not require special evidence from the investigators. Collusion is concerted action. With this approach, your actions will always be consistent. After all, the chief accountant takes into account expenses for tax periods (in certain period), submits declarations (at a certain time), checks the primary before preparing reports (at a certain time), the director signs (at a certain time). Everything happens within the exact time frame, which, alas, is established by law.

If we talk about intent, then any document signed by the director is intent.

Another point, no less important, is the shortage of judges who specialize in considering economic crimes. This can completely cross out all your attempts to justify yourself.

Civil action after conviction

In resolving disputes related to economic offenses, the courts are guided by Article 1064 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, which provides that the damage caused is subject to compensation in full by the person who caused it. Sentences in cases of crimes under Article 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation must contain a decision on a civil claim filed by the tax inspectorate.

Exemption from criminal liability

Criminal liability for tax evasion can be avoided if the arrears, penalties and fines are paid in full, provided that such a crime is committed for the first time (notes to Article 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). It is important to pay off the debt before the appointment of a court session (part 1 of article 28.1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation). If this is done later, the fact of payment of tax, penalties and fines will only be a mitigating circumstance.

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In the section on the question How is it correct - an accountant or an accountant? given by the author dry out the best answer is Correct, of course, accountants. But now in the Russian language there is a process when variants appear in the plural of some nouns (naturally, only in colloquial speech. for example, contracts - contracts, professors - professors). in dictionaries they are recorded as options, one of which is marked "colloquial", sometimes the option for "a" is part of KLYA (codified Russian language), that is, it becomes equal with the option for "s". in most cases, the "a" option wins over the "s" option. But this process is very long, as you understand. and the Russian language is a very mobile substance. does not stand still.
Source: my editorial background

Answer from T!M[guru]
accountant

Answer from Anatoly Blokhin[master]
through A

Answer from Neurologist[newbie]
accountants

Answer from Aiding[guru]
accountant

Answer from Elena[guru]
Plural accountant.

Answer from Natalya Arnautova[guru]
Accountants, of course! It's very sad what a large number of writes and speaks people incorrectly...

Answer from Yotrausik I[guru]
of course Y
I am surprised by those who answer that through A. you at least doubt that you are right and look in the dictionary before answering.
and in general, everyone should have a dictionary in their favorites!

Answer from Ўliya[newbie]
Undoubtedly accountants

Answer from Ludmila[guru]
In Russian, accountants, the plural of I or Y, of course, can be A, meadow - meadowA. It is genitive in the singular "accountant". But in colloquial speech it is acceptable "Accountant forward!" With an emphasis on A.

Many people are interested in the answer to the question of how to correctly write the word "accountant" in the plural. The fact is that the Russian language assumes both variants of the use of nouns in the plural and masculine with a base on a consonant letter, which, among other things, indicate professional skills (for example: accountant, professor). The thing is, there are different styles of communication.

Colloquial (modern) speech

Colloquial (modern) speech involves the use of the above nouns, ending in the letter A. Therefore, when you say, for example, that: “Accountants are often late at work in the evenings,” this will be quite acceptable.

Book (traditional) speech

Another thing is if you read a newspaper, or scientific article. In Bookish or traditional speech, masculine plural nouns with a consonant-based stem and indicating professional skills are used with an ending in the letter Y. In this case, it would be more correct to say this: "accountants are constantly late at work in the evenings."

Considering the foregoing, we can say the following: in order to correctly use "accountant" in the plural, you need to decide which speech you are using. In this case, no one can blame your literacy.