(Chinhphu.vn) – Branches and representative offices of foreign companies operating in Vietnam are accounting units, so they must arrange chief accountants. For non-governmental organizations, if they are accounting units, they must also arrange chief accountants according to the provisions of law.

According to Mr. Huynh Thanh Thanh (in Hanoi), currently some representative offices, executive offices of foreign contractors, branch companies, non-governmental organizations do not have chief accountants /persons in charge of accounting due to the organizational structure is quite simple.

Mr. Thanh would like to ask, is the requirement of the chief accountant / accountant model for these units required under Article 118 of the Circular No. 200/2014 / TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance?

Regarding this issue, Department of Accounting and Auditing and Supervision – the Ministry of Finance has the following opinions:

In Clause 1, Article 49 of the Accounting Law 2015 stipulates: “An accounting entity must organize an accounting apparatus and appoint or hire accounting personnel.”.

According to Article 2 and Clause 4, Article 3 of the Accounting Law 2015, the accounting units include the following units:

“1 All level agencies with the duty of collecting State Budget revenue and spending State Budget funds.

2 State agencies, organizations and professional entities funded by the State Budget.

 3 Organizations and professional entities not funded by the State Budget.

4 Enterprises established and operating in accordance with the law of Vietnam; and branches and representative offices of foreign enterprises operating in Vietnam.

5 Co-operatives and co-operative federations.”.

In Clause 1,2, Article 20 of the Decree No. 174/2016 / ND-CP dated December 30, 2016 detailing a number of articles of the Accounting Law:

“1. An accounting unit must have a chief accountant, except for those specified in Clause 2 of this Article. In the cases where a unit is not able to appoint a chief accountant at the time, it may appoint an acting chief accountant or outsource chief accountant works. An acting chief accountant will hold the position for up to 12 months, after that accounting unit must dispose a chief accountant.

2. Acting chief accountant:

a) An accounting unit that has only one accountant or part-time accountant, budget accounting and finance units of communes shall appoint only acting chief accountants, not chief accountants.

b) Extra-small enterprises defined by the law on provision of assistance for small and medium enterprises may appoint acting chief accountants without having to appoint chief accountants”.

Based on the above provisions, branches and representative offices of foreign enterprises operating in Vietnam are accounting units, so they must arrange chief accountants according to regulations.

For non-governmental organizations, if they are accounting units, the units must arrange chief accountants according to the provisions of law.

The executive office of a foreign contractor is not an accounting unit and therefore does not need to arrange a chief accountant but only arrange the person in charge of the chief accountant.

The signing of accounting documents must comply with the provisions of the Accounting Law 2015, the Decree No. 174/2016 / ND-CP and the current enterprise accounting regime.