Mandatory audit and submission of annual financial statements

MEDIA, NEWS \ 10.03.2020

In accordance with the latest amendments to legislation, companies have to submit their annual financial statements for 2019 not to the statistical authorities, but only to the Federal Tax Service’s Inspectorate where the company is located. It is compulsory to do this in electronic form. The deadline for submitting documents remains unchanged, and is until March 31.

Liability for a failure to perform this obligation is provided for in article 19.7.3 of the Administrative Offences Code of the Russian Federation, namely: payment of a fine of 2,000 – 4,000 rubles for individuals; of 20,000 – 30,000 rubles or disqualification for up to 1 year for officers; and of 500,000 – 700,000 rubles for legal entities.

In addition, many organizations have to conduct an audit of their annual financial statements, which follows from the article 5 of the Federal Law No. 307-FZ “On audit activities” dated December 30, 2008. These organizations are:

• any organizations whose sales revenue without VAT amounted to more than 400,000,000 rubles or whose volume of assets as at December 31 amounted to more than 60,000,000 rubles;
• joint-stock companies;
• organizations whose securities are issued on an established securities market;
• organizations for which a special law provides for a mandatory audit (developers, credit and insurance institutions, micro lenders, incorporated investment funds, non-profit organizations that are foreign agents, etc.).

Liability for a failure to perform the obligation to provide the audit results of their annual financial statements is established in articles 19.7, 15.11, 15.19 and 14.25 of the Administrative Offences Code of the Russian Federation, namely:

• for a failure to submit an auditor’s report to the Federal State Statistics Service (known by the Russian acronym “Rosstat”) – a fine of 300 – 500 rubles for officers and of 3,000 – 5,000 rubles for legal entities.
• for a failure to publish the auditor’s report on a joint-stock company’s website – a fine of 30,000 – 50,000 rubles or disqualification for between 1 and 2 years for officers and a fine of 700,000 – 1,000,000 rubles for legal entities.
• for a failure to submit information about the results of the mandatory audit to the Unified Federal Register of Information on the Activities of Legal Entities – a fine of 5,000 – 50,000 rubles or disqualification.
• for the absence of an auditor’s report within the established storage period – a fine of 5,000 – 10,000 rubles.

Therefore, after the audit and preparation of the annual financial statements for 2019, it is necessary to prepare a resolution approving their results and to publish the auditor’s report. Acsour’s Legal Department will be glad to assist you in these matters.

If you have any questions about whether your company needs to carry out a mandatory audit, please do not hesitate to contact us. However, please note that owing to the requirements of Russian legislation, Acsour does not provide audit services. If necessary, we will be happy to provide you with legal support and a list of recommended audit firms.