論企業財務報表查核簽證之法制

Abstract

依目前公司法第20條及經濟部90年12月12日第09002262150號函解釋，資本額達新臺幣3,000萬元以上之公司，年度財務報表須經會計師查核簽證。然而，實收資本額與公司規模大小、獲利能力及經濟影響力並無必然關聯，以實收資本額作為財務報表是否應經會計師查核簽證之標準似有再行討論之必要。 參考香港、新加坡及英國對於財務報表查核簽證之規定，除小公司（small company）外，原則上要求所有企業之財務報表均須經會計師查核簽證，對於符合一定條件小公司則訂有豁免提交經查核簽證之財務報告之規定。 財務報表經會計師查核簽證之目的，係希望藉此增加財務報表的可信度，提供股東及債權人可靠的財務資訊。在公開發行公司因利害關人眾多，為維持交易安全，有必要藉由會計師查核簽證來維持財務報表之可信度；在非公開發行公司方面，不論規模大小，全面強制財務簽證，對於小型非公開發行公司而言負擔過重；因此，有關財務報表是否須經查核簽證，應區分公開發行公司與非公開發行公司來討論。 參酌香港、新加坡及英國對小公司之篩選標準，本文建議在非公開發行公司中，建立豁免簽證之門檻，使非公開發行之小型公司，得以豁免於財務簽證之要求。至於豁免簽證之門檻，本文建議以資產總額及營業額或營業淨額為基準，期使這樣的規劃能在交易安全與鬆綁管制間取得平衡。

According to Company Act Article 20 and the explanation of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, R.O.C. , where the amount of equity capital of a company exceeds NTD 30 million dollars, the company shall have its financial statements audited and certified by a certified public accountant. However, the amount of capital of a company may not in relation to its corporate size, profit ability and economic effects. Therefore, it is worth to rethink the appropriateness of the regulation mentioned above. In Hong Kong, Singapore and UK, all companies are subject to audit requirement while qualified small companies are eligible for audit exemption. The purposes of audit requirement is to enhance the reliability of financial statements and provide investors and debtors reliable financial information. Public companies have large varieties of stakeholders, for the safety of exchange market, it is necessary to have the financial statements audited and certified by accountants. On the contrary, in the field of private companies, legally obligates all companies irrespective of their size to be annually audited may be too burdensome, especially for small-sized companies. Hereby, audit requirement should be differentiate between public company and private company. Countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore and UK have exempted their small companies from the annual audit requirement. Thus, this study suggest that the authorities concerned set up size tests and exempt qualified small companies from audit requirement. The conditions for audit exemption are that the entity must qualify as small and meet both financial size tests based on turnover, balance sheet total. This study suggest the authorities concerned establish audit exemption threshold and grant qualified private small companies audit exempt.