Auditing services in Belarus

The audit services provided to you must comply with domestic and international standards. The specialists hired for supervision have extensive knowledge, experience and relevant qualifications. When working with clients, auditors are guided by partnerships. Certified auditors who are ready to provide their assistance regularly participate in internal and mandatory training.

Auditing services include:

• Review of financial statements prepared in accordance with the Accounting Law and International Financial Reporting Standards;

• Audit of programs or projects financed from external funds;
• Comprehensive consulting services and analysis required for the valuation of enterprises, during mergers, acquisitions, liquidation of divisions and privatization;
• Tax audit;
• Audit upon liquidation;
• Proactive audit on any issues raised by the client.

Who is auditor?

An auditor (financial, tax auditor) is a specialist who checks the tax and financial documents of an organization, evaluates how effectively it works, and gives recommendations to the management on how to correct the identified errors. An auditor can conduct an audit by the state, but more often it is an analyst and consultant who is invited to solve financial problems. Based on its verification, an informed decision is made where the company should develop further.

Types of auditors

• Internal auditor: enters the staff of a branched organization and checks branches and divisions
• External auditor: works in an auditing and consulting company and visits the client's enterprise for verification
• Tax (state) auditor: conducts inspections at enterprises in order to identify illegal transactions and violations of tax reporting

What does the auditor do?

✔ Checks financial statements in organizations, prepares a report on the results of an audit

✔ Checks the legality and safety of planned financial transactions

✔ Trains and consults the customer's employees

✔ Advises the company's management on financial and legal issues

Auditor services

The main types of audit services provided.

Obligatory audit

confirmation of the reliability of the annual accounting (financial) statements, as well as individual indicators of the financial and economic activities of the organization in the cases provided for by law.

Proactive audit

audit on issues agreed with the Client, directly related to the financial and economic activities of the company, as well as verification of compliance with certain procedures, rules and regulations.

Tax audit

complex audit of the financial activities of the enterprise in order to identify the facts of incorrect tax accounting, incomplete or excessive payment of taxes and contributions, errors in the preparation of tax returns.

Phased audit

conducting an audit and generating a report on the results of each audited period according to a convenient schedule for you, which contributes to the best processing of reporting materials by employees of your accounting service.

Special assignment audit

audit with the aim of expressing an opinion on the reliability of the area being checked or the indicator of the audited entity, as well as the compliance of the procedure for its calculation or formation with the requirements of the legislation of the Republic of Belarus.

Tax audit

Tax audit makes it possible to identify tax deficiencies and prevent the associated risks.

Tax audit is a complex audit of the financial activities of an enterprise for a certain period in order to identify the facts of incorrect tax accounting, incomplete or excessive payment of taxes and contributions, errors in the preparation of tax returns, as well as assessing the tax risks of the existing business procedure.

You will be able to carry out during a tax audit:

1. an initial audit of the economic activities of your organization;
2. analysis of the completeness and correctness of the tax policy of your organization;
3. checking the correctness of the determination of the tax base and rates;
4. checking the timeliness and completeness of the transfer of taxes and insurance contributions to the budget and state extra-budgetary funds;
5. identification of areas of possible risks during tax audits;
6. analysis of the legality of the application of tax benefits provided by the legislation or other mechanisms to reduce the tax burden;
7. analysis of the applied accounting methodology.

First of all, tax audit is in demand among large companies engaged in several types of activities, including export-import operations. The turnover of such companies is high, therefore tax liabilities, including fines and penalties, amount to considerable amounts. Thus, in order to minimize tax payments, as well as avoid penalties, it is expedient and cost-effective for a large company to conduct a tax audit, through which it will be possible to identify and neutralize errors in tax accounting and tax reporting.

There are no uniform procedures for conducting a tax audit. Each audit organization develops its own methodology based on practical experience and impeccable knowledge of regulations.

The result of a tax audit is drawn up in the form of a report with a detailed description of the audit procedures performed, identified deficiencies (violations) and recommendations for their correction.

Optimization of taxation

Within the framework of this chapter, we will consider the legal and practical ways of optimizing taxation, the introduction of which in the process of economic activity will not cause tax liability.

A number of authors confuse legal and illegal methods of tax optimization, which is unacceptable, since tax optimization must meet the criterion of legality.

Some authors consider the taxpayer's normal actions to be performed in the course of economic activity as optimization of taxation: a clear fixation of the rights and obligations of the parties in the agreement, the use of mechanisms for the formation of reserves for doubtful debts or a reserve for the repair of fixed assets allowed by the legislator in the norms of the Tax Code of the Republic of Belarus.

General methods of tax optimization:

- method of replacing a tax subject;

- the method of changing the type of activity of a tax subject;

- the method of replacing tax jurisdiction;

- adoption of the accounting policy of the enterprise with the maximum use of the opportunities provided by legislation;

- optimization through contractual relationships;

- the use of various benefits and tax exemptions.

In addition, special optimization methods can be used:

- method of replacing relations;

- method of separation of relations;

- method of deferred tax payment;

- method of direct reduction of the object of taxation

Obligatory audit

A company that has successfully and efficiently conducted an audit of financial statements clearly demonstrates its success and stability to customers, suppliers and investors. Turning to the services of an auditor for conducting a statutory audit, you can correct all the shortcomings and errors in the reporting and minimize tax risks.

It happens that business leaders do not see significant differences between the audit of financial statements and other checks, for example, tax. Therefore, they refer to the mandatory audit formally and try to carry out it according to the same principle.

However, the benefits of auditing financial statements are enormous:

errors in the reporting year are revealed in time;

tax risks, the possibility of receiving fines and penalties are minimized;

it becomes possible to improve the organization's internal control system.

Self-initiated audit

Initiative audit, as the name implies, is ordered by the owner of the company or shareholders before the upcoming audit, change of ownership, purchase and sale of business. Can be the basis for business valuation.

A proactive audit is carried out to identify shortcomings in accounting, reporting and taxation, to analyze the financial condition of the organization and to develop recommendations to improve the efficiency of the enterprise.

The cost of auditor services in Belarus

The cost of audit services is determined based on the labor costs of the audit. The audit costs are determined as follows:

• type of company;
• profile and specificity of the activity;
• features of accounting and tax accounting;
• number of documents and employees.

The bulk of purchases of audit services last year fit into the range of RUB 1,500-3,000. As a rule, this is an audit of relatively small enterprises with reporting according to national standards. The lowest cost of an audit in the surveyed array is 600 rubles for reporting under the national standard and 18,500 rubles.

How to find the auditor in Belarus?

There are many audit companies in our country, where qualified specialists will help you in solving your questions.

List of the most demanded audit companies:

1. Belauditalians
2. Pravilnaya kompaniya
3. FBK BEL
4. Auditeks
5. GB.by

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