The chief accountant is represented by an official of any enterprise. He is engaged in maintaining records, calculating and paying taxes, paying salaries and other significant tasks. Therefore, he should only be a professional, competent and experienced specialist. He may have several assistants, but the main responsibility lies with him. Therefore, he must take his job responsibilities seriously. If serious violations are identified, criminal liability may apply to the chief accountant. She may be presented with a large fine, removal from office, forced labor, or even imprisonment.
The nuances of the accountant
The chief accountant is considered a significant employee of any company. He can count on a good salary, but at the same time he has a huge number of different responsibilities. It depends on him the correctness of accounting, timely payment of taxes, as well as the legality of transactions. In many companies, it is the work of this specialist that affects the development of the enterprise. He can cope with many problems, but when hiring an incompetent accountant, one can expect various difficulties in the work of the enterprise.
Each firm must have its own job descriptions. They list the main tasks, rights and obligations that this specialist is vested with. The chief accountant is criminally responsible for various economic crimes, so he must be aware of the consequences of his illegal actions. Each firm must have a chief accountant, and usually several assistants are hired.
The main tasks of the specialist
The chief accountant is vested with different powers and duties on the basis of an employment contract and job descriptions. He must cope with the following tasks:
- payroll for each employee of the enterprise;
- calculation of salaries and bonuses;
- tax calculation;
- deduction of fees to the Federal Tax Service;
- tax reporting;
- sending reports to the tax service.
Although the calculations and preparation of reports can be performed by other accountants, the chief specialist should check this documentation and the correct determination of the fee, since it is he who is responsible for various errors or violations. Accounting is the most important and challenging task for every company. The accounting documentation contains information about various financial transactions, as well as the amount of capital.
If the company employs a truly experienced and qualified accountant, this will positively affect the development of the enterprise. If you entrust accounting to an irresponsible person, this can lead to bankruptcy or other problems for the company. Due to well-formed documentation it is possible to evaluate how efficiently the company uses labor, material and other resources.
Features of violations
It is the head of the company that must ensure that his employees cope well with their duties, taking into account the requirements of the law. Often unscrupulous business owners substitute their accountants, forcing them to enter false information in the reports.
The most common violation is the issue of gray salaries. Often, employees of the company officially receive minimum wages, but the rest of the money is handed out. Is the chief accountant criminally liable for such a violation? Even provided that he complied with the requirements of the employer, he would have to be punished for illegal actions.
Who is controlled by?
The activities of the chief accountant should be controlled by several persons:
- the direct manager of the enterprise, interested in ensuring that his company develops successfully, and that there are no problems with various state supervisory authorities;
- tax inspectors involved in checking received reports and recalculating taxes, and if they reveal discrepancies or errors, this leads to unscheduled tax audits, as well as holding officials accountable for violations;
- the prosecutor's office, whose duties include the identification of various economic crimes;
- labor inspection, where complaints may be filed by employees of the enterprise, if the accountant for various reasons did not accrue timely salary or issued a smaller amount of money than is allowed by law.
If employees of the tax or labor inspectorate find out, based on the results of the audit, that the company is really violating the law, then the case file is sent to the police. Based on this documentation, a criminal case is instituted. Under such conditions, the chief accountant is held criminally liable.
Who can become a chief accountant?
Since the responsibilities of this specialist include a huge number of significant and complex tasks, the owners of different companies must be responsible in choosing an employee. If serious mistakes are made by the accountant, this will cause not only the criminal prosecution of the chief accountant, but also the entire company. Therefore, when choosing an employee, the following recommendations are taken into account:
- higher education in accounting;
- knowledge of the basic norms and requirements of the legislation regarding accounting and taxation;
- possess the necessary skills to work with different accounting programs used by each company to simplify accounting;
- the presence of Russian citizenship;
- confident computer skills and various programs;
- work experience, since such a serious position can only be taken by a person who has worked as an ordinary accountant for at least two years;
- if a company runs foreign economic activity, knowledge of customs legislation is additionally required.
Each owner of the company can use additional requirements when choosing a specific employee.
Responsibilities for a specialist
For various violations, the chief accountant of the company may be held liable for various types of liability. These include:
- disciplinary is applied by the immediate supervisor, who revealed any violation on the part of the employee, and it can be represented by reprimand, remark or even dismissal;
- material is assigned if as a result of improper actions an employee of the company caused any material damage to the direct organization, its employees, management or other enterprises and individuals, therefore, the culprit must cover such damage at the expense of his personal funds;
- administrative is used for minor violations, and usually it consists of small fines;
- Criminal liability to the chief accountant is used only if there are signs of a criminal offense, as well as in the preliminary preparation of relevant evidence.
The most severe penalties are provided under the Criminal Code.
What crimes are criminalized?
Often, criminal and administrative liability for one serious offense is applied immediately to the chief accountant. Typically, severe penalties are used in the following situations:
- significant delay in payroll;
- incorrect calculation of taxes for personal gain;
- special distortion of information in financial statements.
Such violations are often revealed by representatives of the Federal Tax Service. But if employees complain about the company to the labor inspectorate, then even the specialists of this organization can initiate proceedings against company officials.
Procedure for holding liable
The prosecution of the chief accountant is carried out in the correct sequence of actions. To do this, the steps are:
- Initially, representatives of the Federal Tax Service, the prosecutor's office or the police discover a direct crime by an official of a particular company;
- police or prosecutors begin collecting evidence in order to be able to punish the culprit;
- a statement of claim is filed with the court, to which all collected evidence of the crime is attached;
- a trial is being conducted, which must be attended by an accountant giving evidence in this case;
- if there is evidence of a crime, the perpetrator is held accountable.
Only the court decides what punishment will be applied to the specialist, so it’s simply impossible to say exactly what criminal responsibility the chief accountant bears. The judge examines all the evidence collected, assesses the testimonies of the witnesses and the immediate accused, and also takes into account extenuating and aggravating circumstances. The measure of punishment depends on what material damage was caused by the unlawful actions of a specialist. It is estimated what benefit he received from the crime. Often, in such cases, the director and other officials are held liable in addition to liability.
Salary non-payment
Does the chief accountant bear criminal liability if the company delayed the payment of salaries to employees? If the delay exceeds 15 days, then the employees of the enterprise may temporarily cease their activities, which they will certainly notify the employer, and may also file a complaint with the labor inspectorate. Based on such a statement, an audit of the company is carried out, after which the perpetrators are identified.
If the delay is insignificant in time, then the company and its officers are held administratively liable. The chief accountant is certainly ranked among the culprits, since his duties include the timely transfer of salaries to employees.
All circumstances of such a violation will certainly be clarified. It is often found that the company’s account simply does not have funds, therefore the chief accountant is not brought to administrative or criminal liability. Punishment in this case is borne only by the head of the company.
If the reason for the delay is that the chief accountant made a mistake or did not take the necessary actions on time, he is the one to be recognized as the culprit. Criminal liability is used for serious delays and revealing the mercenary goals of an official.
Tax evasion
It is the chief accountant who must ensure that taxes and taxes are calculated and paid to the Federal Tax Service in a timely and correct manner. If any violations are intentionally committed, this is the reason for bringing the chief accountant to criminal liability for the offense.
The main such violations include:
- within the established time limits, the tax return is not submitted to the Federal Tax Service;
- false information is entered into the reporting, and the main purpose of such actions is the concealment of the real income of the enterprise;
- incorrect tax calculation;
- lack of transfer of funds on time;
- the use of different methods to conceal income from the tax service.
In identifying such situations, not only the accountant is recognized as the culprit, but also the head of the company. If it will be proved at all that all these actions were carried out by prior conspiracy, then violators will be held accountable on the basis of the provisions of Article 199 of the Criminal Code. But for this, there must be official evidence that the accountant received any benefit from the violations.
What penalties are applied?
If the chief accountant is prosecuted, then she will have to face serious types of punishment. The exact sentence is selected directly by the court. For this, the provisions of Art. 199 of the Criminal Code. The main penalties include:
- for tax evasion a fine of 100 to 300 thousand rubles is imposed;
- instead of a fine, income can be used for a period of 1 to 2 years;
- forced labor for a period of up to 2 years, and at the same time, the specialist is deprived of the right to occupy high positions in any company for a period of up to three years;
- arrest for up to 6 months;
- imprisonment for up to 2 years.
If it is established at all that the crime was committed by a group of persons or on an especially large scale, then the punishment is tightened. Therefore, the following measures apply:
- a fine from 200 to 500 thousand rubles;
- forced labor for up to 5 years;
- a ban on holding high positions for a period of up to 3 years;
- imprisonment for up to 6 years.
If a crime is committed by both the accountant and the head of the enterprise, a punishment is imposed for both citizens.
Can punishment be avoided?
Everyone wants to avoid serious punishment, so the question arises of how to protect the chief accountant from criminal liability. For this, recommendations are taken into account:
- in some situations, it is enough to make changes to the reporting, eliminating all identified errors;
- if illegal actions were carried out by order of the director of the enterprise, then the accountant can testify against the head, having achieved not only the abolition of punishment, but also compensation from the management;
- if the salary was not accrued due to the lack of the required amount of funds in the account, it is important to prepare official confirmations of this fact.
If the specialist is really to blame for various violations, then he will have to bear the deserved punishment.
The criminal liability of the chief accountant after dismissal
Even if a specialist resigns, he can be held liable for past violations at any time. Before leaving the company, the accountant must work 2 weeks. During this period of time, he prepares various documents that will be transferred to a new employee.
If after a certain period of time it is established that the former accountant has committed a crime or an offense, then he can still be punished. The criminal liability and the dismissal of the chief accountant are not related events, so even a specialist who has long left the office may be punished if there is any fault.
The limitation period for such cases may be different, but usually is 2 years. Therefore, in the specified period of time, the violator may be held liable.
Conclusion
The chief accountant is an officer of the company. According to the job description, he has many different responsibilities with which he must competently cope. If you violate the requirements of the law, he may be prosecuted. In this case, the prosecutors will have to prove the presence of mercenary intent.
Criminal liability is also applied to the chief accountant even after dismissal. Therefore, leaving the company cannot prevent the punishment for various crimes.