The Audit Season in Vietnam

In Vietnam, every year companies must submit their Financial Statements to three administrative bodies, namely the Department of Taxation, the General Statistics Office of Vietnam and the Department of Planning and Investment, in a period of 90 days after the end of the fiscal year, which corresponds to the first quarter of each year. Concerning the Financial Statements for Fiscal Year 2019, the submission deadline is the 31st of March 2020.

However, if the company is a foreign-invested one, the Law of Vietnam states that the Financial Statements of such a company must be audited by an independent Vietnamese auditing company, so as to submit the Financial Statements with an auditor's report. Therefore the 90 days after the end of each Fiscal Year is a very tense period for foreign companies in Vietnam and for the majority of the audit firms in Vietnam, that is why this time of the year is often called the Audit Season.

For many companies in Vietnam, audit of the Financial Statements is compulsory by Law. Therefore, so that Viet Australia's readers understand what kind of companies in Vietnam are subject to audit, we provide you with an extract from the Vietnamese Law on Independent Audit, that explicitly states what kind of companies have to be audited during the Audit Season:

Article 37. The audited units

1. The enterprises and organizations that as prescribed by law, their annual financial statements must be audited by the foreign auditing firms, branches of foreign auditing firms in Vietnam, including:

a) Enterprises with foreign investment;

b) Credit institutions established and operating under the Law on Credit Institutions;

c) Financial institutions, insurance enterprises, insurance brokerage firms.

d) Public companies, issuers, and securities trading organizations.

2. Enterprises and organizations that must be audited by the foreign auditing firms, branches of foreign auditing firms in Vietnam, including:

a) State owned enterprises, except for the state owned enterprises operating in the field of state secrets as prescribed by law, must be audited for the annual financial statements;

b) Enterprises, organizations implementing the national important projects, group-A projects using state funds, except for the projects in the field of state secrets as prescribed by law, must be audited for the settlement report of completed projects;

c) Enterprises and organizations with state contributed capital and the projects funded by other State capital prescribed by the Government, must be audited for the annual financial statements or the settlement report of completed projects;

d) Auditing firms, branches of foreign auditing firms in Vietnam must be audited for the annual financial statements.

3. The audit for financial statements and reports on the settlement of completed projects for enterprises and organizations specified in points a, b and c clause 2 of this Article does not substitute for the audit of the State Auditor.

4. Enterprises and organizations voluntarily audited.

Viet Australia
Viet Australia Auditing Company is an independent auditing organization licensed and established in 2007 in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.