Can Accounting Officer resign without completing the financial statements?

[J7J]

Good day,

If a close corporation is in arrears with paying the accounting officer for its services and has told the accounting officer that it can not afford its' services any longer, can the accounting officer resign without finalising the transactional records and financial statements for the applicable financial year?

If the transactional records and financial statements are indeed finalised before the accounting officer resigned, the unpaid bill would just increase with the risk of it remaining unpaid... What are the accounting officer's right in a case like this?

[Justloadit]

The mere statement that the accounting officer is not going to get paid, begs the question, will the accounting officer continue applying his trade with no remuneration?
I think not, there is a break down in the payment agreement. I think that the "No pay no work" would apply here.

[Dave A]

It's probably worth pointing out that the responsibility for the financials rests with the members of the CC. So from that point of view, the accounting officer is off the hook and, I believe, free to wander off into the sunset.

I'd also suggest that the CC could well be in for some difficulty replacing the accounting officer - it's normal practice for the incumbent to be "handed over the books" from the predecessor (which a cynic such as myself might misinterpret as a ritual which makes sure the predecessor is satisfied they've been paid to their satisfaction).

[Justloadit]

Not only that, who has signed the prestigious position with SARS as the accounting officer for the CC?

Ultimately this is the person on whose shoulders, everything financial that the company present to SARS rests on, and believe me, if SARS thinks that there is any monies owing, they will get it out of the person who has signed as the accounting officer.

So ensure that the financials get done correctly and presented to SARS timeously.

[Dave A]

Not only that, who has signed the prestigious position with SARS as the accounting officer for the CC?

Ultimately this is the person on whose shoulders, everything financial that the company present to SARS rests on, and believe me, if SARS thinks that there is any monies owing, they will get it out of the person who has signed as the accounting officer.

So ensure that the financials get done correctly and presented to SARS timeously.

*cough* that would be the public officer.

[Imp]

Interesting subject here .... If the company is using a Tax Practitioner, should the TP be the Public Officer, or should this be the CEO / owner of the business? If the TP is signing as the Public officer and the company doesn't pay the amounts due on time - does SARS come after the TP rather than the business??

[Justloadit]

Hi Dave, When I was posting could not remember the right terminology for the respective position, but the jest of the contents was conveyed correctly.

[Justloadit]

Interesting subject here .... If the company is using a Tax Practitioner, should the TP be the Public Officer, or should this be the CEO / owner of the business? If the TP is signing as the Public officer and the company doesn't pay the amounts due on time - does SARS come after the TP rather than the business??

If I was the TP, and not in any way involed in the control of the finances of the company, there is no way that I would assume this responsibility. This would mean that the TP is responsible for other peoples financial actions in the company, with no management control.

[Dave A]

Hi Dave, When I was posting could not remember the right terminology for the respective position, but the jest of the contents was conveyed correctly.

Agreed. My concern was given the topic at hand, differentiating between the accounting officer and the public officer is pretty important

[J7J]

Hi all,

Thank you very much for the responses. It has been very helpful. We have not signed anything with SARS (yet) regarding the public officer etc as we were trying to get everything in order before going to SARS (yes, their tax affairs are not in order)...

The cc has now come back with a proposed payment plan, to pay half today, half end of the month. Which I am happy with, because at least the debt will be paid. They are also suggesting they appoint a bookkeeper (we have been doing the capturing as well) and we stay on as accounting officer to only prepare quarterly reports and give ad hoc advice.

I have not spoken to them about this suggestion yet, but I have a few concerns in this regard (like the accuracy of the bookkeeper's work, getting up to date with their tax, registering for applicable taxes (like PAYE) and submitting returns, financial statements, etc, etc). I don't think they have considered all of this yet, so this is yet to be resolved.

As far as I know, the duties of the accounting officer is mainly compiling accurate financial statements and reporting to the Registrar if Assets < Liabilities, so if they don't want us to compile their financial statements for them (which we will only do after performing a proper review)... we can not stay on as accounting officer.

So, I have a few issues to discuss with them...