The regulation of Russian business activities is increasingly approaching, which is associated with both the influx of foreign investment and the entry of Russian companies into foreign capital markets.

For effective interaction with Russian and foreign partners in Russia for 2020 international auditing standards were introduced, which seriously influenced the current practice of conducting inspections.

Audit requirements for companies with limited liability do not apply to all companies, but only to legal entities, falling under certain criteria. This is due to the fact that most LLCs belonging to small and medium-sized businesses have small financial turnover, do not list their shares or bonds on the securities market by publishing a prospectus, and do not attract money from individuals. Therefore, there is no need for additional verification of the reliability of their reporting.

Main criteria for verification

Companies whose activities affect the interests of many third parties or those that have sufficiently high financial performance must undergo a mandatory audit. These criteria are established by audit legislation and are sometimes changed in terms of increasing the thresholds for revenue and.

The requirements for an LLC are divided into two groups: by type of activity and other similar characteristics and by financial indicators. Based on these characteristics, LLCs can be identified that are subject to mandatory audit. Joint stock companies in the form of PJSC, whose shares are distributed by public subscription, are checked in any case, regardless of compliance with other criteria.

Subjects

The law establishes the following groups of limited liability companies for which an audit of annual reporting is mandatory:

By type of activity– audits are required to be carried out by banks, insurance companies, pension funds, holding companies that prepare consolidated statements for the holding and publish them, companies whose bonds are traded on the organized securities market.
According to financial indicators These requirements apply to enterprises with revenue exceeding 400 million rubles, as well as if the currency of the balance sheet asset exceeds 60 million rubles.

If a limited liability company falls under these criteria, the requirements for conducting an audit of its annual financial statements become mandatory. Compared to last year, nothing has changed in these criteria; no new subjects or requirements have appeared.

According to the new goals and objectives of the mandatory audit in 2020, there will be not only standard verification of the accuracy of financial statements and identification of errors arising during accounting, but also business analysis. The first two tasks remain in full and are somewhat expanded, so the responsibility to check the work of internal auditors also falls on the shoulders of external auditors.

The task of business analysis is to identify risks, factors that cause obstacles to the development of the company’s activities, and develop recommendations for such changes in financial and economic activities that will help eliminate these risks.

While the conclusion is subject to mandatory publication starting this year, its business part must be completed as correct and balanced as possible, one should not allow an incorrect interpretation of certain facts of economic life.

Legislation

In addition to the basic laws, mandatory auditing is regulated by the Order of the Ministry of Finance No. 192n, issued on October 24, 2016. They put it into force 30 international auditing standards.

Also, a little later, Order No. 203n was adopted, which approved 18 more standards. Among most significant changes:

introduction of phased audit principles;
introduction of the concept of audit evidence;
changing the form of the conclusion, instead of a standard report, an extended document is offered with an analysis of the organization’s activities, business risks and other issues;
preparation of a modified report;
auditor's report performed for organizations for which statutory audit is required must be published.

With the introduction of new standards, the responsibility of audit organizations has increased, and competition will also increase, since the publication of reports will give everyone the opportunity to become familiar with the quality of the work of auditors before concluding contracts.

The work of auditors was seriously influenced by repeal of audit secrecy provisions. According to it, employees of audit companies are required to report so-called “strange” client transactions to financial monitoring authorities.

Changes in cost

The new standards have significantly increased the labor intensity of the work of reporting specialists. Seriously changed requirements and the need to fill out additional tables increased the labor costs of specialists for 30-40% , the price for these services should have increased proportionally.

In any case, the cost of the auditor’s services must be approved by the company’s participants, therefore, when the issue of a mandatory audit is brought to a meeting of participants, the price must be determined.

Check procedure

Audit and its essence have not undergone any changes. The correctness of the entry is checked as a standard accounting Based on documents from a specific sample, a complete audit is not carried out. But the volume of information provided has increased significantly, and hence the workload on the accountant.

In addition, the need for business analysis forces the management of the enterprise to take part in the inspection, from which comments will be required on certain risks in the activity. The standards impose on the auditors themselves the responsibility to inform management about shortcomings in the operation of internal audit systems.

The auditor must be determined at a meeting of participants. He begins checking as soon as the reports are ready, but before they are submitted. Thus, the main work on the auditor will be for March– for financial statements, for June- for the tax office.

Taking into account the significant complexity of the requirements, it is better not to take risks and start checking as early as possible; there is a high risk of not having time to prepare a report, which can lead to various sanctions.

In addition, conducting a phased audit will give accountants and financiers the opportunity to benefit from consultations with auditors on controversial issues of tax legislation and accounting throughout the year.

The result of the check will be drawing up a conclusion, seriously different from previously accepted forms. A collection of recommended forms of opinions has been approved by the Ministry of Finance; it contains recommendations for ordinary and special opinions that are formed based on the results of an audit of consolidated statements.

Can an organization be punished for failing to conduct a mandatory audit? Yes, but sanctions will not follow directly. First of all, she will be denied acceptance of the annual financial statements. Such failure leads to the imposition of administrative responsibility on her.

It may also be established that there has been a gross violation of the accounting rules, which will lead to an administrative fine in the amount of up to 20,000 rubles. Small fines may be imposed for failure to provide a conclusion along with reporting and statistical authorities.

Compared to previous periods, almost nothing has changed, with the exception of the requirements for the inclusion of data on the mandatory audit in the Unified State Register in accordance with Law 129-FZ and the requirements for the mandatory publication of audit results.

Failure to comply with this requirement may be grounds for administrative liability; the manager may be disqualified or subject to a fine. up to 50,000 rubles(Clause 6, 7, 8 of Article 14.2 of the Administrative Code).

The sanctions imposed on the auditors themselves have become more stringent. For unreliable conclusions, they may be subject to sanctions in accordance with the Code of Administrative Offenses, and it is also expected to introduce criminal liability if the preparation of a poor-quality report led to significant losses. The law on criminal liability is still under consideration.

Changes in the inspection procedure, on the one hand, are positive, increasing the transparency of enterprises and the trust of investors and partners in them, on the other hand, the disclosure of additional information, which is no longer a tax secret, can lead to an increase in the cost of bank loans due to the publicity of some risks. But in the end analysis of documentation under the new rules should benefit the business.

Why is an audit needed? Details are in this video.

Look at the new rules under which a mandatory audit is carried out for LLCs in 2017, the new criteria for 2017, in what cases it is carried out, as well as new fines for companies. Check whether your company falls under them, and if so, what is the deadline for reporting the audit.

We have prepared simple and clear answers to these questions for you, collecting all the latest news regarding mandatory audit of companies, and also identified what opportunities exist to help companies save on audits in 2017.

What new will happen in 2017 with auditing, have the criteria for mandatory audit of companies changed?

In accordance with the current legislation of the Russian Federation, in 2017 a number of companies are subject to mandatory audits. Criteria for mandatory audit in 2017 have not undergone significant changes, but the form of the auditor's report has changed significantly. These innovations will bring additional costs for both accountants and general directors companies and for the auditors themselves.

The main changes relate to both the form of the auditor's report and its content. Mandatory audits have become more strict since January 1, 2017, but at the same time more open. Changing the form of the audit report has led to it becoming more transparent, but on the other hand more labor-intensive, which cannot but affect the cost of the audit.

The audit must be based on reliable accounting and tax reporting, as well as confirm the transparency of accounting and tax accounting, meet the criteria set by law Russian Federation, and is issued in a form approved by law.

Let's look at which companies fall under mandatory audit in 2017 and criteria, by which these companies are selected.

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Criteria for mandatory audit in 2017

There are a number of criteria for conducting a mandatory audit in 2017. An audit must be carried out if at least one of these criteria is met. Mandatory audit is carried out in the following cases:

No.	Criteria for conducting a mandatory audit in 2017
	The company's revenue is more than 400 million rubles or the amount of its balance sheet assets is more than 60 million rubles
	In case legal form organizations JSC (Joint Stock Company), CJSC (Closed Joint Stock Company), PJSC (Public Joint Stock Company)
	The company publishes consolidated financial statements and is an insurance or clearing company
	The securities issued by the company are admitted to organized trading on the market
	The company is a mutual insurance company, a non-state pension fund or is a control credit histories(the full list is contained in Law No. 307-FZ “On Auditing Activities”, and Law No. 208-FZ “On Consolidated Financial Statements”

Thus, 2017 criteria for mandatory audit do not differ from the 2016 criteria.

When and where to submit a mandatory audit report in 2017

If a company falls under criteria for mandatory audit in 2017, then it is obliged to provide Rosstat with a conclusion on this inspection. As a rule, the conclusion is submitted along with the package of financial statements, but this can be done separately within ten working days, starting from the next day of the date specified in the conclusion, but no later than December 31 of the year following the reporting year.

Features of mandatory audit in 2017

Since January 1, 2017, mandatory parameters of 30 international auditing standards (ISAs) have been introduced in Russia, according to the order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated October 24, 2016 No. 192n. Additionally, by Order of the Ministry of Finance dated November 9, 2016 No. 207n, 18 new auditing standards were approved. Overall, auditing has become more transparent and in line with international standards, but is more cumbersome and therefore more expensive. Mandatory audit for LLC in 2017 in accordance with the requirements of the ISA, it will require an increased volume of data provided by the company’s accounting department, but at the same time, the transparency and publicity of the audit results will increase.

Opportunity to reduce costs for statutory audits in 2017

Introduction new form auditor's report and new auditing standards will seriously affect the company's costs for statutory audit, because will require a significant increase in the workload both on the accountant and financial management of the company, and on the auditors, which will certainly lead to an increase in audit costs. However, for a number of companies the government left legal way do not apply the auditing standards that have come into force. Thus, if the audit agreement was concluded before January 1, 2017, then the audit can be carried out according to 2016 standards, thereby allowing companies to defer cost increases for mandatory audit in 2017 for at least one year.

Fines for failure to submit an audit report on time or for failure to conduct a mandatory audit in 2017

If a company did not take care of conducting a mandatory audit in 2017 on time, or did not submit the conclusion of this audit on time, it may be fined. The fines in force in 2017 are very significant. So the manager (official) will be punished in the amount of 10,000 to 20,000 rubles, and the organization itself - from 20,000 to 700,000 rubles.

Review of the latest changes in taxes, contributions and wages

You have to restructure your work due to numerous amendments to Tax code. They affected all major taxes, including income tax, VAT and personal income tax.

IN recent years The state has taken a course towards maximum openness and transparency of information about economic entities. Changes are being made in all areas. The auditing industry has not been left behind. The main goal of the amendments is to increase business transparency, reduce pressure on honest companies, and bring tax offenders out of the shadows to eliminate unfair competition.

Changes since 2017 in the field of mandatory audit of financial statements

1. Requirement for the preparation of audit reports in accordance with ISAs since 2017. What should we expect?

Our state strives for European indicators in terms of financial reporting. Therefore, another step towards increasing its publicity and transparency was the introduction of international auditing standards (ISA) in the Russian Federation on January 1, 2017 (Orders of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated October 24, 2016 N 192n, dated November 9, 2016 No. 207n).

For audit companies this means the following changes:

increase in the number of audit procedures

increase in the volume of data required to analyze the activities of audited companies

new quality standards for mandatory audits

new standards of information in the auditor's report

introduction of a modified opinion in the conclusion

For audited companies this means:

PROS: improving the quality of business risk assessment; a conclusion that will contain not only an assessment of the company’s financial statements, but also pay attention to significant risks for the business, etc.; expanded report information for accounting and for external and internal interested users: shareholders, board of directors, etc.

CONS: increase in the cost of mandatory audit since 2017; increasing the deadline for providing an audit report; increase in the cost of bank loans for companies (due to an increase in the level of transparency of the company’s activities and reflection of all identified business risks in the audit report)

2. Information about taxes, fines, income and expenses, and headcount will appear on the Federal Tax Service website

Information about economic entities is becoming more open. From June 1, 2016, tax secrets are no longer a secret (amendments to Article 102 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation were introduced by Federal Law No. 134-FZ of May 1, 2016):

information on the average number of employees of the organization;
the amount of taxes and fees paid by the organization, with the exception of taxes paid when importing goods into the EAEU and by tax agents;
amounts of income and expenses according to financial statements.

On July 1, 2017, the publication of this information in the public domain on the official website of the Federal Tax Service on the Internet began.

In addition, information on the amounts of arrears, arrears of penalties and fines, applied special regimes and the participation of taxpayers in consolidated groups will be published on the Federal Tax Service website.

Thanks to the availability of additional information about legal entities akh in the public domain, taxpayers get an additional opportunity to assess the risks when choosing a counterparty, and there will also be an additional argument to prove to the Federal Tax Service in the event of claims that due diligence was exercised when concluding a transaction.

3. Information about the mandatory audit is posted on the Federal Resources website

From October 1, 2016 in Russia, the results of the mandatory audit of accounting (financial) statements become public. Corresponding amendments were made to Federal law“On auditing activities.” Organizations subject to mandatory audit must now enter information about the audit results into the Unified Federal Register of Information on the Facts of Activities of Legal Entities (hereinafter referred to as the EFRS http://www.fedresurs.ru/) within 3 business days after receiving the audit report. Such information includes:

name, INN, OGRN, SNILS of the audited entity;
name (full name), INN, OGRN (OGRNIP), SNILS of the auditing organization (individual auditor);
a list of accounting (financial) statements that were audited;
the period of preparation of the accounting (financial) statements in respect of which the audit was carried out;
date of the auditor's report;
the opinion of the auditing organization (individual auditor) on the reliability of the accounting (financial) statements of the audited entity, indicating the circumstances that have or may have a significant impact on the reliability of such statements.

Violation by an official of the audited organization of the obligation to disclose such information may entail an administrative fine provided for in parts 6-8 of Article 14.25 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, up to 50 thousand rubles or disqualification for a period of one to three years.

4. From 2018, audit confidentiality will likely be abolished

The corresponding Draft Law No. 96436-7 on amendments to Articles 82 and 93.1 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation has already been submitted to the State Duma.

Let us remind you that, according to the current version of Article 82 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, when exercising tax control, the collection, storage, use and dissemination of information about a taxpayer obtained in violation of the requirement to ensure the confidentiality of information constituting the professional secret of other persons, in particular attorney-client secret, audit secret, is not allowed.

However, from January 1, 2018, it is proposed to exclude audit secrecy from this article. In addition, it is proposed to establish the right of officials of the Federal Tax Service to request from auditors documents (information) received by them about the taxpayer during audit activities and in the provision of other audit-related services. The requested documents must be related to the calculation and payment (withholding, transfer) of tax (fee) and can be requested from auditors if the taxpayer has not submitted them to the Federal Tax Service on his own.

So, the area of accounting and reporting, as well as tax obligations of companies, is becoming more transparent.

So that by March 2018, when closing the 2017 financial year and submitting annual financial statements, you do not end up with an auditor’s report, containing numerous reservations, We advise companies:

Conduct an audit in 2 stages (stage 1 - based on the results of the 9th month of 2017 in October-December 2017, stage 2 - based on the results of 2017 in the first quarter of 2018).

In this case, the auditors will complete almost the entire amount of work before the end of the reporting year, which will allow the organization to take into account their conclusions and recommendations in order to approach the annual report without distortions and errors in accounting. In this case, the organization will be able to eliminate haste and errors in reports and reduce the burden on accounting at the end of the year.

It is no secret that accounting and preparation of tax returns are the sphere of activity of the chief accountant. However, managers and founders should remember that responsibility for the accountant’s mistakes extends to them too.

As is known, if there are significant accounting distortions, the audit report may be negative, which will require the organization to additional costs associated with correcting the identified violations. For a re-audit of the revised financial statements, this means an additional payment for the auditors’ time for verification and the time period for issuing an opinion will also increase. For the audit of the revised financial statements, you will need to make an additional payment, since the amount of work of the auditor increases, and accordingly, the deadlines too.

Carrying out the bulk of the work based on the results of reporting for 9 months will help both the accounting department and the auditors to avoid these troubles. And even after receiving a report with a list of significant errors made when preparing reports for 9 months, the organization will have time to make the necessary corrections in accounting and receive a positive audit report at the end of the year

If auditors first come to the company in February-March, the accounting department has too little time to make changes. At the same time, accountants prepare the annual report and experience double workload, which does not have the best effect on the results.

- Break down the audit by year.

When conducting an audit in two stages, its cost will be evenly distributed over 2017-2018 and will not require a one-time diversion of funds from the company’s economic activities in 2018.

- Do not treat the audit as a formal procedure only for submitting financial statements. The formal approach and formal attitude towards auditing have sunk into oblivion. Today, this is not acceptable both on the part of the audited entities and on the part of the auditors.

Why deprive yourself of the opportunity to receive quality feedback on the state of affairs of the company? The organization's accountants will correct identified inconsistencies in a timely manner, and will not spend a lot of time and effort on this, as they would have spent correcting documents retroactively.

If errors are discovered only at the beginning of the next year, the accounting department spends time clarifying declarations, and the company spends money on additional payment of arrears and penalties.

Let us remind you that from October 1, 2017, the rules for calculating penalties for organizations will change. The innovations concern the arrears that will arise from October 1, 2017 . If the delay exceeds 30 calendar days, penalties will be calculated as follows:

based on 1/300 of the refinancing rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, valid in the period from the 1st to the 30th calendar days (inclusive) of such delay;
based on 1/150 of the refinancing rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, relevant in the period starting from the 31st calendar day overdue, which is commensurate with the interest paid on bank loans.

- Take the choice of an audit company seriously.

The market is saturated with many offers, both from individuals and from various companies. Our company “FIN-AUDIT” has been on the audit services market for the 17th year.

Business reputation and work quality standards are impeccable. We are always ready for a constructive dialogue with audited entities on issues that arise during the audit.

Do not forget that for the absence of an audit report or failure to enter the relevant information into the Unified Federal Reserve System, you can receive a large fine.

The audit of financial (accounting) statements for 2017 is required to be carried out by:

legal entities whose revenue in 2016 exceeded 400 million rubles.
or balance sheet assets at the end of the year exceed 60 million rubles.
developers within the framework of Federal Law 214-FZ
companies preparing consolidated financial statements
joint stock companies, including non-public ones.
public offering companies
banks, insurance companies and some other categories in cases established by laws No. 307-FZ “On Auditing Activities”, 208 Federal Law “On Consolidated Reporting”.

Let us recall that according to Federal Law No. 402-FZ, the company must provide an audit report to the territorial division of Rosstat either simultaneously with the submission of financial statements, or no later than 10 working days from the day following the date of the audit report, but no later than December 31 of the year following reporting.

A company that falls under the mandatory audit criteria cannot choose whether or not to submit an audit report to the statistical authorities. You will definitely have to give it up.

We wish YOU successful completion of the 2017 audit. Our company “FIN-AUDIT”, in turn, is ready to provide a high-quality approach when carrying out audit procedures and preparing an audit report.

An audit is an independent verification of these statements carried out to express an opinion on the reliability of the financial statements of a business entity (Part 3 of Article 1 of Federal Law No. 307-FZ of December 30, 2008). The audit can be carried out either voluntary or mandatory. In the first case we are talking about an initiative audit, in the second - about a mandatory audit. The obligation to conduct an audit is imposed on the organization by law. We will tell you about the criteria for conducting a mandatory audit in 2017 in our consultation.

When is an audit an obligation?

The criteria for mandatory audit in 2017 are contained in Art. 5 of the Federal Law of December 30, 2008 No. 307-FZ “On Auditing Activities”.

The main criteria for mandatory audit are legal and cost criteria. In the first case, the obligation to audit arises if the organization belongs to a certain organizational and legal form (for example, the company is a joint stock company) or if it conducts certain types of activities, and in the second - if the revenue or value of assets exceeds certain restrictions.

We present in the table for mandatory audit the 2017 criteria for LLCs and organizations of other forms. If at least one of the listed conditions is present, an audit is mandatory.

Statutory audit for 2017: criteria

Criterion	Condition
Organizational and legal form or type of activity	— joint stock company; — credit organization; — credit history bureau; — professional participant of the RCB; — insurance organization; — clearing organization; — mutual insurance company; — trade organizer; — non-state pension or other fund; — joint-stock investment fund; - management company of a joint-stock investment fund, mutual investment fund or non-state pension fund (except for state extra-budgetary funds)
Circulation of securities	admitted to organized trading
Revenue from sales of products (performance of work, provision of services) for 2016*	exceeds 400 million rubles
The amount of assets of the organization as of December 31, 2016 according to the balance sheet*	exceeds 60 million rubles
Presentation (disclosure) of annual summary (consolidated) statements by the organization**	presents or discloses annual summary (consolidated) accounting (financial) statements

* With the exception of government bodies, bodies local government, state and municipal institutions, state and municipal unitary enterprises, agricultural cooperatives, unions of these cooperatives.

** With the exception of state authorities, local governments, state extra-budgetary funds, as well as state and municipal institutions.

Other mandatory audit criteria

Let us present some other cases of mandatory auditing, not mentioned above and provided for by separate Federal laws.

The Financial Department presented a list of conditions for mandatory audit and a list of organizations in its Information Notice

01.02.2018

2017 has ended, accountants are preparing annual reports. As we know, many organizations will be required to conduct a mandatory audit of their financial statements and consolidated statements.

The Russian Ministry of Finance has put together information about which companies must conduct a mandatory audit of their accounting (financial) statements for 2017. All information is collected and presented in a form that clearly indicates: the type of company, its activities, type of reporting and regulations.

Are ordinary LLCs required to conduct an audit? Yes, under certain conditions:

1) Volume of revenue from product sales(sale of goods, performance of work, provision of services) organizations (except for bodies state power, local governments, state and municipal institutions, state and municipal unitary enterprises, agricultural cooperatives, unions of these cooperatives) for the previous reporting year exceeds 400 million rubles.

2) The amount of assets on the balance sheet at the end of the previous reporting year exceeds 60 million rubles.

If your company meets one of the conditions presented above, then you need to conduct a mandatory audit. Will be subject to audit annually financial statements. Reason: Federal Law of December 30, 2008 No. 307-FZ, art. 5, part 1, clause 4. Either an audit organization or an individual auditor has the right to conduct an audit.

Mandatory audit of the current year. Mandatory audit criteria for LLC What are mandatory audit criteria