Significant error of the previous reporting year revealed after. Correction of errors in accounting and reporting

Correction of errors in accounting and reporting is carried out depending on their nature and the moment of detection. Consider the procedure for correcting errors accounting

28.10.2016

According to the legislation, errors in accounting and accounting (financial) statements (hereinafter referred to as reporting) of an organization (clause 2 PBU 22/2010, approved by order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated June 28, 2010 No. 63n (hereinafter referred to as PBU 22/2010)) are recognized as incorrect reflection (non-reflection) facts economic activity due in particular to:

incorrect application of the legislation of the Russian Federation on accounting and (or) regulatory legal acts on accounting;
misapplying an entity's accounting policies;
inaccuracies in calculations;
incorrect classification or assessment of the facts of economic activity;
incorrect use of information available at the date of signing the financial statements;
dishonest actions of officials of the organization.

Inaccuracies or omissions identified as a result of obtaining new information that was not available at the time of reflection (non-reflection) of the facts of economic activity (clause 2 PBU 22/2010) are not errors in accounting and reporting. Rules PBU 22/2010 do not apply in this case, and those identified in current period incomes (expenses) of previous years, which were not reflected in the accounting for objective reasons (not due to an error), are entered in the records of the period of their discovery, and there is no need to adjust the accounting records of previous periods.

Factors for Correcting Errors in Accounting and Reporting

The procedure for correcting errors in accounting and reporting is influenced by two factors:

the nature of the error (major or minor);
moment error detection(before or after the end of the reporting period).

An error is recognized as material if, individually or in combination with other errors for the same reporting period, it can affect economic decisions users accepted by them on the basis of the reporting of this period (clause 3 PBU 22/2010).

Recall that the reporting period for annual accounts is a calendar year (part 3 of article 13, part 1 of article 15 federal law dated 06.12.2011 No. 402-FZ (hereinafter - Law No. 402-FZ)), that is, the period from January 1 to December 31. The exception is cases of creation, reorganization and liquidation of a legal entity (part 1 of article 15 of Law No. 402-FZ).

The first reporting year for a newly created commercial non-credit organization is the period from the date state registration to December 31 of the same calendar year inclusive (Part 2, Article 15 of Law No. 402-FZ). If the state registration was made after September 30, then the first reporting year, as a rule, is the period from the date of its state registration to December 31 of the calendar year following the year of registration, inclusive (part 3 of article 15 of Law No. 402-FZ).

The organization independently determines the level of materiality of the error based on both the size and nature of the relevant reporting item (s) (clause 3 PBU 22/2010).

At the same time, one should take into account the impact of the error on all indicators presented in the statements for the period in which it was detected (including indicators of the reporting year and comparative indicators of all previous periods presented in the statements) (clause 3 PBU 22/2010; letter Ministry of Finance of Russia dated January 24, 2011 No. 07-02-18/01).

The criterion for evaluating an error for recognizing it as a significant organization must be fixed in accounting policy. Can be installed as general criterion materiality, and individual criteria for individual (most significant for the organization) balance sheet items.

One of the options for determining the significance of an error may be to establish a certain percentage of the size of the distorted article balance sheet to a group of articles (total for a section) of the balance sheet or to the sum (total) of all components of the balance sheet accounts (balance sheet currency).

The table below shows the procedure for correcting errors in accounting and reporting, depending on the factors discussed above.

The procedure for correcting errors in accounting and reporting

Correction of errors in accounting and reporting

Corrections of errors in accounting registers must contain (part 8 of article 10 of Law No. 402-FZ):

date of correction;
signatures of persons responsible for maintaining this register and authorizing the introduction of corrections (indicating their surnames and initials or other details necessary for identification).

Registration of the error correction is carried out by an accounting certificate (part 1 of article 9 of Law No. 402-FZ), which must reflect all the necessary entries (correctional, additional entries, events that caused the error, etc.). The certificate is drawn up on the basis of documents confirming the newly discovered circumstances or the presence of an error, in any form, indicating required details provided for by part two of Article 9 of Law No. 402-FZ.

Depending on the situation, corrections can be made:

by reversal (for example, in cases of unreasonable entries in accounting, overstatement of amounts on transactions, etc.);
by making additional entries in case of additional accrual of previously unaccounted amounts.

Information on significant accounting errors of previous reporting periods, corrected in the current, in without fail should be disclosed in the explanatory notes to the annual accounts (clause 15 PBU 22/2010). The explanations provide information on:

the nature of the error;
on the amount of the adjustment for each reporting item (for each previous reporting period, to the extent practicable);
the amount of the adjustment for basic and diluted earnings (loss) per share (if an entity is required to disclose earnings per share);
the amount of the adjustment to the opening balance of the earliest reporting period presented.

If we determine the influence material error accounting for one or more previous reporting periods presented in the statements is impossible, then the explanations must disclose the reasons for this, as well as provide a description of the method for reflecting the correction of a significant error and indicate the period from which the corrections were made (clause 16 PBU 22/2010 ).

Accounting and reporting errors: corrective entries

In accounting, the profit of previous years, revealed in the reporting year, is reflected in the composition of other income on the credit of account 91 sub-account "Other income" on the date of its discovery (clauses 8, 16 PBU 9/99, approved by order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated 06.05.1999 No. 32n; Chart of accounts for accounting of financial and economic activities of organizations, approved by order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated October 31, 2000 No. 94n).

Losses of previous years identified in the reporting year are reflected in the composition of other expenses in the debit of account 91, sub-account "Other expenses" as of the date of their discovery (clause 12 PBU 10/99, approved by order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated 06.05.1999 No. 33n).

According to Regulation No. 34n (clause 80 of the Regulation on accounting and reporting in the Russian Federation, approved by order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated July 29, 1998 No. 34n), such income and expenses are attributed to financial results organization of the reporting year in which they were identified.

In the form of a statement of financial results, other income is reflected in line 2340 "Other income". Losses of previous years identified in reporting period, reflect on line 2350 "Other expenses".

If records current year major bug fixed previous period, revealed after the approval of the financial statements, then the amount of the identified income (loss) is not indicated in the statement of financial results, but the amount of retained earnings is changed (line 1370 of the balance sheet) (clause 9 PBU 22/2010).

In today's article, the expert, using an example, tells how to correct an error after signing the financial statements. After reporting year ended and the financial statements signed, in order to correct errors, their materiality and time of detection play an important role.

What is a material error

Essential is an error that, by itself or together with other errors for the same reporting period, is capable of influencing the economic decisions of users that are made on the basis of financial statements for this period ().

The organization determines the materiality of the error independently, based on the size and nature of the relevant article (or several articles) of accounting. The procedure for determining materiality lies with the taxpayer. The accountant, guided by his professional judgment, determines the level of materiality. The methodology for determining the materiality of the error is fixed in the accounting policy.

Common in practice percentage materiality criterion(for example, no more than 5%), although materiality can also be expressed in the sum value. An interesting approach is to determine the significance of an error, when each significant article the balance sheet is assigned its own level of materiality or an error of more than five percent of the smallest amount reflected on any reporting line that is affected by the error.

When establishing the materiality level, we do not recommend recognizing as insignificant errors that caused a distortion of an item in the financial statements by more than ten percent, since the distortion of the amounts of accrued taxes and fees by at least 10%, as well as the distortion of any item (line) of the financial statements form by at least 10% is considered gross violation rules for accounting and presentation of financial statements (Article 15.11 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).

The error was discovered after the reporting was signed, but before submission

A significant error of the previous reporting year, discovered after the date of signing the financial statements, but before the date of its submission, is corrected in December. If the financial statements have already been submitted to tax authorities, statistical authorities or other users, then it must be replaced. The financial statements in which the identified material error has been corrected are referred to as "revised financial statements" (). The revised financial statements are submitted to all addresses to which the original financial statements were submitted.

Error discovered after reporting but before approval

A significant error of the previous reporting year, revealed after the presentation of the financial statements for this year, but before the date of approval, is also corrected in December. difference given order correction of a material error is that the revised financial statements must disclose information that these financial statements replace those originally presented financial statements, as well as on the grounds for compiling revised financial statements (clauses 6, 8 of PBU No. 22/2010).

Error discovered after reporting approval

After the financial statements are approved, they are not subject to revision, replacement and re-submission to users of the financial statements, even if a significant error is detected (clause 10 of PBU No. 22/2010). All changes in the financial statements relating both to the reporting year and to previous periods after its approval are made in the statements compiled for the reporting period in which errors were discovered (clause 39 of the Order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated July 29, 1998 No. 34n “On Approval Regulations on accounting and financial reporting in Russian Federation"). Therefore, a significant error of the previous reporting year, revealed after the approval of the financial statements for this year, is corrected in the current reporting period.

The offsetting account in the records will be account 84. And since the distribution of profits and losses is within the competence general meeting(which has already taken place, because the reporting has been approved), then before using account 84, you must obtain permission from the founders of the company. To do this, it is necessary to hold a second general meeting. Please note that if a material error is corrected after the financial statements have been approved, a retrospective restatement must be made. This means that the comparative indicators of the financial statements for the reporting periods reflected in the financial statements of the organization for the current reporting year are recalculated, as if the error of the previous reporting period had never been made (paragraph 9 of PBU No. 22/2010).

Error fix example

Suppose Alpha LLC, as a result of reconciliation with the counterparty Gamma LLC, conducted in November 2016, found that it did not reflect the fact that Gamma LLC provided services for renting a trading warehouse for December 2015 in the amount of 118,000 rubles. (including VAT 18,000 rubles). In the accounting records of Alpha LLC, the counterparty Gamma LLC continues to have accounts receivable in the amount of 118,000 rubles. As a result of this error, the distribution costs in December 2015 and for the year as a whole were underestimated by 100,000 rubles. (118,000 rubles - 18,000 rubles), and the profit is too high. The financial statements of Alfa LLC for 2015 have already been approved by the general meeting of participants.

According to the error materiality criteria approved by accounting policy for accounting purposes for 2016, the error was recognized as significant.

In November 2016, the following entries will be made in the accounting records of Alfa LLC:

DEBIT 84 / Errors CREDIT 60 - 100,000 rubles. - reflected the cost of renting a trading warehouse for December 2015 and thus reduced retained earnings;

DEBIT 84 / Errors CREDIT 60 - 18,000 rubles. - allocated VAT on the lease of a trading warehouse for December 2015;

DEBIT 68 / VAT CREDIT 84 / Errors - 18,000 rubles. - accepted for deduction of VAT on the lease of a trading warehouse for December 2015 (it is necessary to submit an updated tax return for VAT for the 4th quarter of 2015);

DEBIT 68 / income tax CREDIT 84 / errors - 20,000 rubles. (100,000 rubles x 20%) - conditional income tax has been accrued, there has been a decrease in income tax, which was calculated for 2015 (it is necessary to submit an updated income tax return for 2015).

Due to the fact that the correction of the error of 2015 involved account 84 " Undestributed profits (uncovered loss)" - this did not affect the amount of profit in 2016, so there is no need to resort to RAS No. 18/02.

In the financial statements for 2016, Alfa LLC makes a retrospective recalculation. If the mistake had not been made, then in December 2015 the organization timely reflected the expenses in connection with the lease of the trading warehouse in accounting:

DEBIT 20,26,44 CREDIT 60- 100,000 rubles. - reflects the cost of renting a trading warehouse for December 2015;

DEBIT 19/VAT CREDIT 60 - RUB 18,000 - allocated VAT;

DEBIT 68 / VAT CREDIT 19 / VAT - 18,000 rubles. - VAT is deductible;

DEBIT 90/2 CREDIT 20.26.44 - 100,000 rubles. - rental costs are included in the cost of sales.

Thus, the cost of sales for 2015 would be 100,000 rubles. more, and profit before tax by 100,000 rubles. less income tax for 2015 by 20,000 rubles. less, net profit in 2015 would have decreased by 80,000 rubles. Accounts receivable as of December 31, 2016, decreased by 118,000 rubles, and accounts payable as of the same date decreased by 38,000 rubles. (by reducing debt to the budget for VAT - 18,000 rubles, for income tax - 20,000 rubles).

It should be noted that, since the error was made in December 2015, only the indicators for 2015 as a whole and as of December 31, 2015 are subject to adjustment. At the same time, there is no need to make changes to the financial statements for 2015. All adjustments to these indicators will be made in the financial statements for 2016.

AT explanatory note for reporting, the organization will be required to disclose the following information (clause 15 of PBU No. 22/2010):

1) the nature of the error;

2) the amount of the adjustment for each article of the financial statements;

3) the amount of the adjustment for basic and diluted earnings (loss) per share (if the entity is required to disclose earnings per share);

4) the amount of the adjustment to the opening balance of the earliest reporting period presented.

The disclosures in the explanatory note only cover material errors.

And the order of its correction depends on two points: whether the error is significant and in what period it was discovered.

Note
Essential error- an error that, individually or together with other errors for the same period, may affect the economic decisions of users made on the basis of the accounting of this period (Items 3, 5 - 11, 14 PBU 22/2010).

How to make corrections to an account

Detection period mistakes	Correction
	material error	minor error
	In the month of discovery
After graduation reporting year, but before the date of signing reporting leader
After signing reporting leader, but prior to its presentation society members	31 December of the reporting year. If the reporting was represented by another users (for example, IFTS), then it must be replaced	In the month of discovery - if the error affected financial results, adjustment reflected in the account 91 "Other income and expenses"
After the presentation reporting participants, but her approval by them	31 December of the reporting year. Users are sent revised reporting with replacement information initial reporting and with justifications for its revision
After approval reporting participants	In the discovery quarter - adjustment results reflected in the account 84 "Undestributed profits (uncovered loss)"	In the month of discovery - result adjustments reflected in the account 91

What is the significance of the error

You determine and set the criterion for the materiality of the error yourself by writing it in the accounting policy (Clause 3 PBU 22/2010; Clause 4 PBU 1/2008). It must be justified.
Option 1. You can focus on the same rules for determining the materiality of an indicator, which are contained in PBU 9/99 on income and PBU 10/99 on expenses. Recall that it says that income (expense) for a certain type of activity is shown separately in the statements if it is 5% or more of the total amount of income (expenses) for the reporting period (Clause 18.1 PBU 9/99; clause 21.1 PBU 10/ 99). By analogy, it can be fixed in the accounting policy that an error is significant if it distorts the indicator for the reporting period by more than 5%.
Option 2. It is possible to assess the significance of the error based on the proportion of the balance sheet item, which reflected the error, in the balance sheet currency. For example, the term is incorrectly defined beneficial use OS. Its price does not exceed hundreds of thousands of rubles. And the value of all the assets of the company is in the millions. It is clear that the mistake made will not affect the decision-making by the owners of the company on this accounting. Another thing is if the company bought real estate, but untimely reflected its value on the balance sheet, and the company does not have other fixed assets. Such an error must already be recognized as significant.
Option 3. Such a qualitative indicator as the type of activity can be used. For example, your main activity is trade, and your secondary activity is rent. It can be established that errors made in accounting for leases are always insignificant.
Option 4. It can be prescribed that the significance of the error will be assessed for each specific case separately based on the impact of this error on the financial result and financial position of the organization. That is, there is no single criterion to establish.
Option 5. If you are reporting solely for submission to the inspection (the owners are not interested in it), then you can focus on the norm of the Code of Administrative Offenses: if the indicator of any article (line) of accounting is distorted as a result of an error by 10% or more, then this is a gross violation of accounting rules, for which the head faces a fine of 2 thousand to 3 thousand rubles. (Article 15.11 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation). That is, it can be established that there will be a significant error that distorts the accounting line indicator by at least 10%.

Example. Determining the type of error made

Condition

The organization for December 2011 erroneously accrued depreciation in the amount of 200,000 rubles. instead of 250,000 rubles.
At the same time, before the error was detected, the indicators affected by this error were as follows:
- residual value of fixed assets (from the balance sheet) - 900,000 rubles;
- profit from sales (from the income statement) - 1,000,000 rubles;
- profit before tax (from the income statement) - 270,000 rubles;
- net profit (from the income statement) - 216,000 rubles;
- cost of sales (from the income statement) - 700,000 rubles;
- the amount of income tax (from the income statement) - 54,000 rubles.
The same mistake was made in tax accounting - there are no differences.
In the accounting policy, the organization has established that an error is significant that leads to a distortion of any accounting line by at least 10%.

Solution

Let's see if the error is significant.

Step 1. Let's calculate the amount of the error: 250,000 rubles. - 200,000 rubles. = 50,000 rubles.
Step 2 Calculate the percentage misstatement of each line of the balance sheet and income statement, which are affected by the reflection of depreciation.

Name balance lines and report about profits and losses
Name balance lines and report about profits and losses	Sum before revealing errors, rub.	Amount after error detection, rub.	Distortion percentage, %
Main funds		850 000 (900,000 rubles - RUB 50,000)	5,88 ((900,000 rubles - RUB 850,000) / RUB 850,000 x 100%)
Cost price sales		750 000 (700,000 rubles + RUB 50,000)	6,67 ((750,000 rubles - RUB 700,000) / RUB 750,000 x 100%)
Profit (lesion) from sales		950 000 (1,000,000 rubles - RUB 50,000)	5,26 ((1,000,000 rubles - RUB 950,000) / RUB 950,000 x 100%)
Profit (loss) to taxation		220 000 (270,000 rubles - RUB 50,000)	22,73 ((270,000 rubles - RUB 220,000) / 220 000 rub. x 100%)
current tax at a profit		44 000 (220,000 rubles x 20%)	22,73 ((54,000 rubles - RUB 44,000) / 44 000 rub. x 100%)
Net profit (lesion)		176 000 (220,000 rubles - 44 000 rub.)	22,73 ((216,000 rubles - RUB 176,000) / RUB 176,000 x 100%)

Step 3 Let's compare maximum percentage distortions with the criterion of materiality of error: 22.73% > 10%.
Thus, the error made is significant.

The main difficulty in correcting errors is the need to make a retrospective recalculation if a significant error is found after the participants have approved the reporting (Subparagraph 2, paragraph 9, PBU 22/2010). And only small businesses can fix in the accounting policy that they will correct all their mistakes in the current period.

Filling out accounting records is a very painstaking task. Therefore, often even experienced specialists make mistakes that require mandatory quick correction. It does not matter for what reason they were made, the adjustment of data in accounting documents must be carried out according to certain rules. In this case, the organization will never have problems with oversight agencies.

Correcting Accountants' Mistakes: Basic Rules

All the basic requirements for an accountant regarding the correction of entries in accounting documents were established by order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation. Based on it, we can say that the method of correction depends on:

Document type;
Dates of its completion;
Dates when defects were discovered.

Total exists 3 methods corrections that can apply to all types of documents:

Proofreading. The method is used mainly in documents printed on paper. If a mistake is made, incorrect information is crossed out so that what is written can be read. Also, all corrections must be certified by the signature and full name of the person who made the recording. Mandatory item is to affix the date of the amendment and the seal of the organization;
"Red side". This method error correction applies to accounting accounts. In this case, in case of an error, the wiring should go through again, but in red. The amount, which is marked with such ink, must be subtracted when calculating the final result. After that, you need to make a new wiring with the correct data and regular ink;
Additional wiring. If the posting of accounting accounts was not done on time or the wrong amount was noted in the initial correspondence, then it is necessary to correct errors using this method. So, the organization must draw up a new posting for the amount that is missing. If the figure is slightly too high, then the wiring should be marked in red. It is also necessary to state the reason for this correction.

It should be noted that not all accounting documents can be corrected. For example, cash registers and banking documents modification is strictly prohibited.

We will take a closer look at several types accounting documentation, errors in which require mandatory correction.

Errors in primary accounting documents

Primary accounting documents include:

credit cash orders, as well as receipts attached to them;
expenditure cash warrants;
acceptance certificates;
agreements that were drawn up between the parties in the course of a transaction or settlement operation.

In the event that a specialist in the accounting department made a mistake in primary document, then it must be corrected before the information was entered into Accounting.

In accordance with the Federal Law "On Accounting", special rules were fixed, according to which errors in this document must be corrected.

If errors were made when compiling orders or receipts for them, which were filled in the printed version, then it is forbidden to correct errors in them. The only solution would be to re-documentation.

All basic documentation can be corrected using the Proofreading method. That is, in case of incorrect entry of any data, the specialist of the accounting department carefully crosses them out, and prescribes the corrected version above.

Even if a mistake was made in one digit, it is necessary to correct the entire prescribed amount.

After that, you need to write down the date of the change, the signature of the person who made the changes, and also put the seal of the organization . Also add the phrase "Written in the correction to believe."

If the document has an electronic version, then it can be corrected, and then printed and signed all the data again.

Errors in accounting registers: how to fix

To correct a document that has already been entered into accounting, you need to use the accounting register.

Also, as in primary documents, the operation must be performed in a corrective way. An exception is the situation when the shortcomings are directly related to the correspondence of accounting accounts, and also if the information was entered as a result of accounting or tax accounting. Therefore, it is necessary to use the “Red Side” correction method.

Often, accountants use this method to reduce the accrued value in the amounts of accounting accounts or to prescribe negative deviations, as well as for shortcomings that were reflected in the correspondence of accounts.

It is often necessary to correct errors that were entered in the accounting registers and were discovered after the reporting period. So, the accountant needs to correct all the data, then correct everything in the form of financial statements according to the relevant tax calculations. Then the specialist must pay the amount of tax payments to the budget.

How to write an accounting statement

If an error was made when fixing business transactions in accounting accounts, the specialist needs to issue an accounting certificate, which indicates the correction of transactions. The reason for this action is that all the data that is reflected in the accounting registers are produced on the basis of primary accounting documents. This fact is recorded in the Federal Law "On Accounting".

Such a certificate is necessary for the implementation of data correction, as well as the facts of an error. After that, based on her information, the correct option is transferred to accounting registers. It should be noted that the accounting statement is transferred to them separately from other documents..

It is issued in a free form, but at the same time mandatory criterion is the prescription of all the details that are enshrined in the federal law "On Accounting".

However, in budget organizations document has special form- f. 433.

You also need to write:

Description of the error made during the execution of the business transaction;
Full name, as well as the location of the document in which it is necessary to correct the data;
Detailed error content;
Explanation of the reason why it was admitted;
Method for correcting incorrectly entered information.

Legal liability

If a specialist in the accounting department missed the mistake and entered it in the accounting, after which it was discovered by employees Tax Service during the inspection, this situation may entail penalties.

Yes, according to article 120 tax code Russian Federation, their size ranges from 10,000 to 30,000 rubles, and it can also be a fine of 20% of the amount of unpaid tax or insurance premiums. Moreover, its amount should be more than 40,000 rubles.

Often documents with errors are mistaken for fake papers. Therefore, they are held liable under this article.

For the use of a fake document, a person or organization is held criminally liable under Article 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. For such a crime, a person or organization can receive:

Fine up to 80,000 rubles;
Penalty in the amount of salary for a period of up to six months;
Correctional labor up to 2 years or compulsory work up to 480 hours;
Arrest up to 6 months.

If the court proves that the accounting officer deliberately forged the document, then he faces either administrative or criminal liability.

For example, a company that produced counterfeit forms or seals will be held administratively liable under Article 19.23 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. The punishment will be a fine in the amount of 30,000 to 40,000 rubles and confiscation of fakes.

Starting from the annual financial statements for 2010, the Accounting Regulation “Correction of errors in accounting and reporting” (PBU 22/2010) comes into force, which was approved by order of the Ministry of Finance of June 28, 2010 No. 63n. PBU 22/2010 establishes the rules for correcting errors and the procedure for disclosing information about errors in accounting and reporting of organizations that are legal entities(with the exception of credit organizations and public institutions).

General provisions

Error - this is an incorrect reflection (non-reflection) of the facts of economic activity in the accounting or financial statements of the organization (clause 2 PBU 22/2010).

The error may be due in particular to:

improper application of the law;
incorrect application of the organization's accounting policies;
inaccuracies in calculations;
incorrect classification or assessment of the facts of economic activity;
incorrect use of information available at the date of signing the financial statements;
dishonest actions of officials of the organization.

All identified errors and their consequences are subject to mandatory correction (clause 4 PBU 22/2010).

Mistakes are either significant or insignificant.

At the same time, inaccuracies or omissions in the reflection of the facts of economic activity, identified as a result of obtaining new information that was not available at the time of reflection (non-reflection) of such facts, are not errors (clause 2 PBU 22/2010).

Note

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Corrections to cash and bank documents are not allowed. In other primary accounting documents corrections can only be made upon agreement with the participants in business transactions, which must be confirmed by the signatures of the same persons who signed the documents, indicating the date of corrections (clause 5, article 9 of the Federal Law of November 21, 1996 No. 129-FZ "On accounting").

According to paragraphs 4.2 and 4.3 of the "Regulations on documents and workflow in accounting" (approved by the USSR Ministry of Finance on July 29, 1983 No. 105), errors in primary documents are corrected in the following way: Cross out the wrong text or amounts and write the corrected text or amounts over the crossed out text. Strikethrough is done with one line so that you can read the corrected one. Correction of an error in the original document must be indicated by the inscription "corrected".

Rules for correcting minor errors

The order in which errors are corrected depends on when they were discovered (see Table 1).

Rules for correcting significant errors

General rules

The error is recognized as significant , if it, individually or in combination with other errors for the same reporting period, can affect the economic decisions of users made by them on the basis of financial statements compiled for this reporting period (clause 3 PBU 22/2010).

The organization determines the materiality of the error independently, based on both the size and nature of the relevant articles of the financial statements (clause 3 PBU 22/2010). Therefore, we advise you to prescribe the materiality criteria in the accounting policy of the enterprise.

The procedure for correcting significant errors also depends on when they were discovered.

It is worth recalling here that organizations are required to submit financial statements to the tax authorities at their location (subclause 5, clause 1, article 23 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). According to the annual financial statements, this must be done within 90 days after the end of the year. At the same time, the submitted annual financial statements must be approved in the manner prescribed by the organization's constituent documents (clause 2, article 15 of the Federal Law of November 21, 1996 No. 129-FZ "On Accounting"). For example, an annual report joint-stock company subject to prior approval by the board of directors (supervisory board) of the company, and in its absence - by the person exercising the functions of the sole executive body of the company. This must be done no later than 30 days before the date of the annual general meeting of shareholders (clause 4, article 88 of the Federal Law of December 26, 1995 No. 208-FZ "On Joint Stock Companies").

Errors identified before the approval of the annual financial statements

In Table 2, we have given the procedure for correcting material errors identified before the approval of the annual financial statements.

As you can see, all errors of the previous reporting year, identified even before the approval of the annual financial statements, are corrected with entries for December of the reporting year.

Errors identified after the approval of the annual financial statements

Errors of the previous reporting year, identified after the approval of the annual financial statements, are corrected as follows (clause 9 of PBU 22/2010):

entries on the relevant accounting accounts in the current reporting period. In this case, the corresponding account is account 84 “Retained earnings (uncovered loss)”;
by recalculating the comparative indicators of financial statements for the reporting periods reflected in the statements for the current reporting year. The exception is cases when it is impossible to establish the connection of this error with a specific period, or it is impossible to determine the impact of this error on a cumulative total in relation to all previous reporting periods.

In this case, the approved financial statements for previous reporting periods are not subject to revision, replacement and re-submission to reporting users (clause 10 PBU 22/2010).

The recalculation of the comparative indicators of the financial statements is carried out by correcting the indicators of the financial statements, as if the error of the previous reporting period had never been made. This is the so-called retrospective recalculation. The specified recalculation is carried out in relation to comparative indicators, starting from the previous reporting period presented in the financial statements for the current reporting year in which the corresponding error was made.

Now let's see what to do if a significant error was made before the beginning of the earliest of the previous reporting periods presented in the financial statements for the current reporting year. In this case, the opening balances for the corresponding items of assets, liabilities and capital at the beginning of the earliest of the presented reporting periods are subject to adjustment (clause 11 PBU 22/2010).

Note

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Currently, organizations have the right to disclose in the financial statements for each numerical indicator data for more than two years (clause 10 PBU 4/99, approved by order of the Ministry of Finance dated July 6, 1999 No. 43n). True, in the main, companies in their reporting reflect information for only two years - the reporting year and the previous one.

Meanwhile, starting with the annual reporting for 2011, the balance sheet will have to indicate data not only for the reporting period and the previous year, but also for the year preceding the previous one (Order of the Ministry of Finance dated July 2, 2010 No. 66n “On the forms of financial statements of organizations ").

If it is impossible to determine the impact of a significant error on one or more previous reporting periods presented in the financial statements, then the opening balance should be adjusted for the corresponding items of assets, liabilities and capital at the beginning of the earliest of the periods for which recalculation is possible (paragraph 12 of PBU 22/2010).

In some cases, it is not possible to determine the impact of a material error on the previous reporting period. We are talking here about situations where complex or numerous calculations are required, during which it is not possible to isolate information that indicates circumstances that existed at the date of the error, or it is necessary to use information obtained after the date of approval of the financial statements for such a previous reporting period (p 13 PBU 22/2010).

Filling out an explanatory note

The explanatory note to the annual financial statements reflects the following information regarding significant errors of previous reporting periods, corrected in the reporting period (clause 15 PBU 22/2010):

the nature of the error;
the amount of the adjustment for each article of the financial statements - for each previous reporting period to the extent that it is practically feasible;
adjustments to basic and diluted earnings (loss) per share (if an entity is required to disclose earnings per share);
the amount of the adjustment to the opening balance of the earliest reporting period presented.

If it is impossible to determine the impact of a material error on one or more previous reporting periods presented in the financial statements, then the reasons for this are disclosed in the explanatory note to the annual statements. In this case, a description should be given of the method for reflecting the correction of a material error in the financial statements and indicate the period from which the corrections were made (paragraph 16 of PBU 22/2010).