# Advice on Accountant



## Mrs Vanecamp (18 Nov 2008)

I am a director of a single member company. I have no involvement in the business nor do i receive a salary.

I rang the company accountant (who I have never met) to arrange the signing of the AR and accounts.

He told me that he has already submitted these to the CRO with printed signatures. When I told him that the CRO don't accept printed signatures he became aggessive.

I now suspect that he forged my signature on these documents.

Is this standard practice for accountants? Should I take this further or am I making a big deal out of nothing?


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## ubiquitous (18 Nov 2008)

Mrs Vanecamp said:


> .
> 
> Is this standard practice for accountants? Should I take this further or am I making a big deal out of nothing?


No its not. 

Go to www.cro.ie, click on company search and order a copy of the submission for €2.50.

If you suspect he has done anything illegal or unethical (which sounds likely) consider a complaint to his professional body.

Find a new accountant if you have no confidence in this guy (which also sounds likely) .


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## Mrs Vanecamp (18 Nov 2008)

Thanks,

I'm waiting for the documents to be scanned.


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## mf1 (18 Nov 2008)

"I have no involvement in the business ................"

Apart from the question raised, this bit interests me. Given that there are significant responsibilities associated with being a Director should'nt people be more careful of being directors at all, unless they have a significant involvement in the business?

mf


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## ubiquitous (18 Nov 2008)

mf1 said:


> "I have no involvement in the business ................"



I didn't see that bit  The OP's beef might be more with their fellow director(s) who presumably have signed the accounts and annual return, than with the accountant who prepared them.


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## Mrs Vanecamp (18 Nov 2008)

Well it's a one man operation, a professional service really, for which I'm not qualified. I was just doing a relation a favour, I don't think the accountant counted on me knowing any of my responsibilities as a director.


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## mathepac (18 Nov 2008)

Mrs Vanecamp said:


> ... I was just doing a relation a favour, ...



Do yourself a favour and bail out. With that kind of stuff going on, you might need to protect yourself.


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## ubiquitous (18 Nov 2008)

Mrs Vanecamp said:


> I don't think the accountant counted on me knowing any of my responsibilities as a director.



In fairness, unless the accountant is also acting as auditor of the company (highly unlikely given that 80%+ of companies can now be audit-exempt) this is not their responsibility, particularly if (as is standard practice) the other director(s) have certified to the accountant that a properly-constituted AGM took place to approve the accounts.


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## Mrs Vanecamp (18 Nov 2008)

Well I did make that point to him, that as he wasn't auditing the accounts all the responsibility fell on the directors and he took offence at the suggestion that anything could be wrong with them.

My problem is that my name was must have been signed to something that I haven't seen as there are only 2 directors.


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## Bubbly Scot (18 Nov 2008)

I'm a director of a two director limited company and the CRO wouldn't accept our Annual Return without both signatures. Even though we file electronically the signature page still has to be "manually" signed. I know this because we were getting close to the deadline and the other director wasn't available to sign. We sent the form in anyway knowing it would come straight back requesting the signature..but with the all important date stamp to say it had been recieved prior to the deadline date.


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## Mrs Vanecamp (19 Nov 2008)

I've just bought the AR and Accounts from the CRO and my name has been forged. 

The ODCE tell me this is a criminal offence and I should go to the gardai but I don't know if this is a road I want to go down.

If I report him to his accounting body will it go the same way?


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## ubiquitous (19 Nov 2008)

Mrs Vanecamp said:


> I've just bought the AR and Accounts from the CRO and my name has been forged.
> 
> The ODCE tell me this is a criminal offence and I should go to the gardai but I don't know if this is a road I want to go down.
> 
> If I report him to his accounting body will it go the same way?



Of course it will. Do you think the accounting body are going to cover up an allegation of criminal behaviour? 

Do bear in mind that if, on the other hand, the signature was forged by your fellow director, or someone belonging to them, you will be exposing them to almost certain criminal prosecution.


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## Graham_07 (19 Nov 2008)

I am just curious as to why someone thought it necessary to forge the OP's signature. Was the AR amost overdue, was someone under pressure to file and was the OP unavailable ( no excuse obviously ) . Has the OP asked the other director about this. Is the other director the 100% shareholder of a single member company , namely  the relative the OP was "doing a favour" for and what do they have to say about it?


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## Mrs Vanecamp (19 Nov 2008)

Yes, that's something that I would like to know too, I work only about 5 miles away from his office and I probably would have had no problem in signing the accounts if I had a chance to look over them and he corrected his totting error on the Balance sheet.

The other director is in South America at the moment and I can't contact him so I don't know how much he knows


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## FredBloggs (19 Nov 2008)

Mrs Vanecamp said:


> Yes, that's something that I would like to know too, I work only about 5 miles away from his office and I probably would have had no problem in signing the accounts if I had a chance to look over them and he corrected his totting error on the Balance sheet.
> 
> The other director is in South America at the moment and I can't contact him so I don't know how much he knows


 
Was his signature forged too?  Was he away when the accounts were due?   If he was and the accounts were forged without both your knowledge that is very serious.  It maybe that the accountant was under pressure form your fellow director to get them in and he may have "authorised" him to forge his signature.  either way the accountant was stupid to do it and it is very serious.   

In my laymans opinion you should at least resign as director and write to the other director and the auditors stating that the reason you are resigning is because your signature was forged on the accounts.


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## ubiquitous (19 Nov 2008)

FredBloggs said:


> either way the accountant was stupid to do it and it is very serious.



The OP doesn't know if the accountant did it. Unless they (the accountant) are a lot stupider than your average accountant, its unlikely imho that they did.


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## ubiquitous (19 Nov 2008)

Mrs Vanecamp said:


> The other director is in South America at the moment and I can't contact him so I don't know how much he knows



Is he contactable by email?


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## Mrs Vanecamp (19 Nov 2008)

The last contact that I had from him was from a ship's email address so any reply would have gone to a general address.

I'm trying to get an answer from the accountant as to who put my name on the acounts but so far he hasn't returned my calls, last time I spoke to him he said he had submitted the accounts with "Printed signatures"


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## ubiquitous (19 Nov 2008)

Mrs Vanecamp said:


> The last contact that I had from him was from a ship's email address so any reply would have gone to a general address.
> 
> I'm trying to get an answer from the accountant as to who put my name on the acounts but so far he hasn't returned my calls, last time I spoke to him he said he had submitted the accounts with "Printed signatures"



If he has been specifically authorised to do so by the other director, and if the other director purported to him that this authorisation was on behalf of the directors as a group, then its quite likely that the accountant has done nothing wrong. 

Its hard to imagine any sane accountant putting their career and professional standing at risk by forging signatures. This is why I am guessing that the relevant authorisation is in place. If this is the case, then you have a problem with your fellow director.

You are going to be in the dark on this at least until and unless you can make contact with the other director and as such its difficult to comment further based on the limited facts available. 

If I were in your shoes I would be emailing, texting, faxing and phoning both him and the people running the ship he is on.


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## Mrs Vanecamp (19 Nov 2008)

Are you saying that it was ok for him to sign my name to the accounts even though I didn't see them as long as he had been given the authority to do so? 

That seems to contravene the requirement for 2 seperate signatures?


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## FredBloggs (19 Nov 2008)

ubiquitous said:


> The OP doesn't know if the accountant did it. Unless they (the accountant) are a lot stupider than your average accountant, its unlikely imho that they did.


 
The accounts would ususally go through the company accountant in any company for signature.  From his attitude to the Op it appears that he did know her signature was forged.  But it could well have been that the other director took the accounts from him and said he'd get the Op to sign, then forged her signature, which the accountant may have recognised as forged as he, presumably, would have seen the Ops signature on other diocuments.


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## ubiquitous (19 Nov 2008)

FredBloggs said:


> The accounts would ususally go through the company accountant in any company for signature.



But this isn't a company accountant we are talking about, but a general practice accountant.



FredBloggs said:


> From his attitude to the Op it appears that he did know her signature was forged.


There is no evidence of this. Why do you think otherwise?



FredBloggs said:


> But it could well have been that the other director took the accounts from him and said he'd get the Op to sign, then forged her signature, which the accountant may have recognised as forged as he, presumably, would have seen the Ops signature on other diocuments.



Or on the other hand,
(i) he may not have noticed an inconsistency in signatures (its not his job to verify them)
(ii) he could have been told that the person who signed the document had authority to do so, for example in the form of Power of Attorney.


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## ubiquitous (19 Nov 2008)

Mrs Vanecamp said:


> Are you saying that it was ok for him to sign my name to the accounts even though I didn't see them as long as he had been given the authority to do so?



But from what you've told us, you can't know for certain whether or not he did sign them. Perhaps someone else belonging to the director provided the second signature? 

I'm not for a moment suggesting that this is what happened, but it is a possibility that you will need to address until/unless you get clarity on the issue. 

If in the meantime you make allegations about the accountant that turn out to be groundless, then you may well have a serious problem on your hands. This is why I am suggesting that you need to talk urgently to your fellow director and to track him down urgently.


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## Mrs Vanecamp (19 Nov 2008)

If he thought that he was doing nothing wrong he wouldn't have told me that they were submitted with printed signatures (a lie) and when I told him that the CRO wouldn't accept printed signature he said "well you and I will just have to disagree on that"


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## ubiquitous (19 Nov 2008)

Mrs Vanecamp said:


> If he thought that he was doing nothing wrong he wouldn't have told me that they were submitted with printed signatures (a lie) and when I told him that the CRO wouldn't accept printed signature he said "well you and I will just have to disagree on that"



Well that doesn't sound great, but for the nth time you need to talk to your fellow director before you do anything else, for the reasons I have stated above.


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## Mrs Vanecamp (19 Nov 2008)

The accountant finally rang me back. Said I signed a form J3. Does that give him the right to sign accounts I haven't seen?

He also said he did me a great favour which sounds like he did something dodgey but I can't tell that from the abridged accounts.


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## papervalue (19 Nov 2008)

Mrs Vanecamp said:


> The accountant finally rang me back. Said I signed a form J3. Does that give him the right to sign accounts I haven't seen?
> 
> He also said he did me a great favour which sounds like he did something dodgey but I can't tell that from the abridged accounts.


 
you are being fobbed off, and he is digging hole for himself.

To me a form J3 would allow accountant to file b1 electroncially as agent.(normal enough gives extra days to file). look at cro site for example which you may have signed.

But

1. The confirmation sheet would have to be signed by 2 director's.
2. The abridged accounts would have to be signed by 2 director's.
3. The confirmation sheet and accounts would them have to be posted or handed in to company office(cant file electroncially)


The accountant would have absolute no right whatsoever to sign the accounts on your behalf.

If your name is signed on accounts in biro(not done by you, not done by other director with your permission)- fax copy to accountant and ask him where and when did you sign it?


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## mf1 (19 Nov 2008)

I have a novel idea. To avoid any further issues arising....

Why not let it go? And resign from the Company?  

I truly am a genius. And very modest as well.

mf


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## FredBloggs (19 Nov 2008)

ubiquitous said:


> But this isn't a company accountant we are talking about, but a general practice accountant.


 
I was going on the Op calling him the "company accountant" but from re-reading I see you are correct.




ubiquitous said:


> There is no evidence of this. Why do you think otherwise?


 
I would think otherwise because of the ops posts.  The Op seems to think so.


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## ubiquitous (19 Nov 2008)

FredBloggs said:


> I would think otherwise because of the ops posts.  The Op seems to think so.



Indeed. But on the other hand if that's the case its downright weird that the other director has allowed this to happen, or at the very least had accounts and returns prepared without having the decency to inform their co-director.


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## FredBloggs (20 Nov 2008)

ubiquitous said:


> Indeed. But on the other hand if that's the case its downright weird that the other director has allowed this to happen, or at the very least had accounts and returns prepared without having the decency to inform their co-director.


 
It would indicate to me that the other director is either taking the Op for a fool or for granted.  Presumably they think the Op is down as a director in name only and they really don't want them knowing about the business.

I think the Op should follow that modest poster MF1's advice.


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## Mrs Vanecamp (20 Nov 2008)

Yes MF is right the easiest way out is just to resign but I'm sure you can understand how annoyed I am with my name being forged, even if everything is in order.

I don't think the other director is taking me for a fool, he is just relying on this guy too much and probably isn't aware of what is going on.

He'll be back in a few weeks so I'll let him enjoy his holiday and sort it out with him then.


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## Mrs Vanecamp (1 Dec 2008)

Still waiting for the other director to get back to civilisation but I've heard from another client of this guy that the reason people go to him is because of his reputation. She never signs anything (even though she is a director) she doesn't know what he does and she doesn't want to know.

If I just resign and walk away presumably I'm still not free and clear of this?


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## bond-007 (2 Dec 2008)

If the OP tries to resign as a director, would the CRO not go mad as there now is only one director. Unless the other guy appoints another patsey ahem director the OP is basically stuck.


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## ubiquitous (2 Dec 2008)

No, the OP can use Form B69 to resign, if they observe the required notice periods as specified on cro.ie


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## bond-007 (2 Dec 2008)

That would leave the company in lets say an interesting position.


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## FredBloggs (2 Dec 2008)

Mrs Vanecamp said:


> Still waiting for the other director to get back to civilisation but I've heard from another client of this guy that the reason people go to him is because of his reputation. She never signs anything (even though she is a director) she doesn't know what he does and she doesn't want to know.
> 
> If I just resign and walk away presumably I'm still not free and clear of this?


 

I don't think it would be advisable to just walk away knowing your signature has been forged.  How would it look further down the road if it emerged there was something untoward in the accounts and you then said your signature had been forged.  At the very least you should send a letter tot he other director stating why you are resigning and also report the accountant to his professional body.  But be careful with your wording as it could be your fellow director and not the accountant forged your signature.  Tell them you have resigned as director because your signature was forged on the accounts - don't say or infer by who, because you don't know.


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## ubiquitous (2 Dec 2008)

FredBloggs said:


> At the very least you should send a letter tot he other director stating why you are resigning and also report the accountant to his professional body.



The merits & risks of reporting the accountant to his professional body have already been discussed in this thread.

As I said earlier.



ubiquitous said:


> Do you think the accounting body are going to cover up an allegation of criminal behaviour?
> 
> Do bear in mind that if, on the other hand, the signature was forged by your fellow director, or someone belonging to them, you will be exposing them to almost certain criminal prosecution.


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## FredBloggs (2 Dec 2008)

I understand what you're saying but in this instance the Op did nothing wrong and the only person they should be thinking about is themselves. What I said was that they shouldn't point the finger at their fellow Director or the accontant as they do bnot know who forged their signature but should certainly set out in writing their reasons for resigning. And by the way I do think the Accountants Professional body will take this seriously.


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## ubiquitous (2 Dec 2008)

FredBloggs said:


> And by the way I do think the Accountants Professional body will take this seriously.



Of course they will. That's exactly my point, and why I advised the OP that the other director (who is a relative of hers) could be facing prosecution if he, and not the accountant, is at fault.


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## ubiquitous (2 Dec 2008)

Mrs Vanecamp said:


> If I just resign and walk away presumably I'm still not free and clear of this?



If you have done nothing wrong, then you have nothing to worry about.


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## PaddyBloggit (2 Dec 2008)

If you didn't sign or give your permission for your signature to be used then that would constitute fraud in my book. You need to take positive action to protect yourself. Some good advice has been given. You should follow it as a matter of urgency.


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## Mrs Vanecamp (3 Dec 2008)

Thanks for all your advice  I needed to sort out the truth from the mis-information that I was being fed.

The other director has now returned and it turns out that he didn't even sign his own name to the accounts. He wasn't even aware that as a director he was supposed to.

It seems this accountant likes to cut through all the red-tape an regulations following small companies and just signs them all himself (or gets ome of his staff to do it)

Anyway I can let the other director deal with it now.


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## Graham_07 (3 Dec 2008)

Mrs Vanecamp said:


> It seems this accountant likes to cut through all the red-tape an regulations following small companies and just signs them all himself (or gets ome of his staff to do it)


 
That is sure one way to cut through red tape  . He could get a job signing off on Fás expense sheets.


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## ubiquitous (3 Dec 2008)

Graham_07 said:


> That is sure one way to cut through red tape  . He could get a job signing off on Fás expense sheets.



Indeed. The mind boggles. 

To the OP, you should resign as a director. Your co-director was very naive and showed poor judgement to tolerate this messing. You don't have anything to gain from being exposed in this way. And you should report this accountant to his Institute, if indeed he has one.


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## FredBloggs (3 Dec 2008)

ubiquitous said:


> Indeed. The mind boggles.
> 
> To the OP, you should resign as a director. Your co-director was very naive and showed poor judgement to tolerate this messing. You don't have anything to gain from being exposed in this way. And you should report this accountant to his Institute, if indeed he has one.


 
I agree with this.  
What kind of an accountant forges his client's signatures?  I don't understand this because I cannot see any advantage to the accountant for doing such a thing.   In light of this I would talk to your fellow director and see if he would join you in a complaint to whatever body that accountant is a member of.


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## Ham Slicer (3 Dec 2008)

I would say this is indeed the case.  

A guy I used to work with many moons ago left to set up his own practice as a tax advisor/accountant.  Don't think he ever sat any exams apart from Leaving cert and I wouldn't be too sure of that.  

He was a bit of a spoofer so it was hard to tell fact from fiction but he was definitely practising and I would pitty anyone that he was representing.

He still rings me every now and again to ask such questions as what's the difference between a company and a partnership? One time he asked me what those green forms were that Revenue were sending out - it was an assessment.

Maybe this is the guy who is representing the OP.





ubiquitous said:


> And you should report this accountant to his Institute, if indeed he has one.


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## Mrs Vanecamp (10 Dec 2008)

I said that I would resign as director unless we got a new accountant. When my fellow director told our so called "accountant" that, he offered a member of his staff as a replacement.

A comprehensive service that few would provide but surely if the revenue ever catch up with him he has now dug himself into a hole too big to ever get out of??


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## bond-007 (10 Dec 2008)

Indeed. Resign now. 

Let him take the fall now. Are his staff clueless as to their obligations as a director?


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## ubiquitous (10 Dec 2008)

I don't think the Revenue would be too bothered about it, to be honest, they would see it as a matter between the taxpayer and their agent. 

I expect that the ODCE would take a very dim view of it.

The guy is leaving himself wide open to be sued by any client who wants for whatever reason to disclaim responsibility for the contents of their accounts or returns.

I'm still amazed that your co-director is being advised by a clown like this guy obviously is.


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## Jack2008 (12 Dec 2008)

My OH is a recently qualified accountant. This is common practice in the place she works in.
She has been asked to forge names on accounts on several occasions and has always refused which does'nt go down to well. In her office the owner glorifes one of the employees who apparently is an "excellent" forger!!!!! She also reckons the owner takes advantage of new people who tend to be to scared to refuse.
I wonder is it common practice in small accountancy firms across the country! 
What part of the country Mrs Vancamp is in?


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## ubiquitous (12 Dec 2008)

Jack2008 said:


> She has been asked to forge names on accounts on several occasions and has always refused which does'nt go down to well. In her office the owner glorifes one of the employees who apparently is an "excellent" forger!!!!! She also reckons the owner takes advantage of new people who tend to be to scared to refuse.






Jack2008 said:


> I wonder is it common practice in small accountancy firms across the country!



Before this discussion started, I would have rubbished this idea, but given your story, and  Mrs Vanecamp's tale, it must be common enough. You know what they say about things that are stranger than fiction


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## Mrs Vanecamp (17 Dec 2008)

Hi Jack,

So you might have the answer as to "Why?" do accountants do this?

The staff member responsible for submitting the returns seems to be Polish (going by her accent) so maybe she could be put under pressure more easliy.

I'm in the South of the country


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## FredBloggs (17 Dec 2008)

Mrs Vanecamp said:


> I said that I would resign as director unless we got a new accountant. When my fellow director told our so called "accountant" that, he offered a member of his staff as a replacement.
> 
> A comprehensive service that few would provide but surely if the revenue ever catch up with him he has now dug himself into a hole too big to ever get out of??


 
Can the accountant audit a company of which one of his employees is a director?  (I don't know the answer to this)

Also still can't see what the advantage is to an accountant in forging his clients signatures


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## Mrs Vanecamp (17 Dec 2008)

He doesn't audit the accounts, he prepare the accounts and then a report stating that the directors' are reponsible for them and then signs the directors' names to that


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## Graham_07 (18 Dec 2008)

Jack2008 said:


> I wonder is it common practice in small accountancy firms across the country!


 
There are situations, such as filing tax returns, VAT or whatever where the agent on record , if they sign the return, is deemed to sign on the client's behalf and with their approval. However even where this is legally acceptable it is the accountants name which goes on as agent. Also the client must firstly approve ( usually by the client's original signature on the face of the accounts) the accounts that form the basis of the return. I see no situation that could ever justify any accountant signing the clients name to any document. To do so constitutes forgery.


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## MandaC (22 Dec 2008)

Unfortunately, this now appears to be quite a widespread practice, particularly with Annual Returns/Accounts.

I would think that it is down to the fact that the Accountants do not leave themselves enough time to have the Accounts completed on time and will sign off the accounts rather than have a fine with CRO.  

I know  of a person who forged a signature on some forms which were lodged with CRO.  It was discovered when the business was going up for sale and there was due dilligence completed on the sale.  Nobody knew why the person forged the signatures (they were completely harmless forms and there was no need to forge), but his professional reputation was in tatters and the practice was sued.

I would definitely report such practices and the Institute (if the Accountant is a member) will take a dim view of this.


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## Graham_07 (22 Dec 2008)

MandaC said:


> I would think that it is down to the fact that the Accountants do not leave themselves enough time to have the Accounts completed on time and will sign off the accounts rather than have a fine with CRO.


 
It would be my experience that the No.1 cause of delay  is the client  not bringing in the records early enough  ( despite sometimes many letters/phone calls and pleading ) for the accountant to  get the returns filed on time, rather than the accountant not leaving themselves sufficient time. However that would never justify the accountant signing all the returns with the clients names on. 

It is my policy on (a) letters of engagement and (b) annual year end letters to specify a 3 month maximum period after the year end by which I expect to receive the records.  I clearly advise directors of the due dates and that any penalties or loss of audit exemption caused by failure by them to give me sufficient time to have the returns completed by the due dates rests entirely with them.


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## simplyjoe (22 Dec 2008)

Graham_07 said:


> It would be my experience that the No.1 cause of delay is the client not bringing in the records early enough ( despite sometimes many letters/phone calls and pleading ) for the accountant to get the returns filed on time, rather than the accountant not leaving themselves sufficient time. However that would never justify the accountant signing all the returns with the clients names on.
> 
> It is my policy on (a) letters of engagement and (b) annual year end letters to specify a 3 month maximum period after the year end by which I expect to receive the records. I clearly advise directors of the due dates and that any penalties or loss of audit exemption caused by failure by them to give me sufficient time to have the returns completed by the due dates rests entirely with them.


 

Does this really work?


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## ubiquitous (22 Dec 2008)

MandaC said:


> Unfortunately, this now appears to be quite a widespread practice, particularly with Annual Returns/Accounts.
> 
> I would think that it is down to the fact that the Accountants do not leave themselves enough time to have the Accounts completed on time and will sign off the accounts rather than have a fine with CRO.



Indeed. There is another aspect to this, which I presume motivates some accountants to throw ethics & caution out the window and submit returns to CRO with forged signatures. It relates to the client's loss of audit exemption, which in many cases causes far more headaches for the accountant/auditor than it does for the client.

If for example the accountant is aware of past (or ongoing) problems with the client, either in relation to overdrawn directors loans, failure to keep proper books of account, or other "indictable offence" breaches of company law, the accountant assumes a whole new set of responsibilities in relation to such issues the minute he signs up to become company auditor. 

Among these responsibilities is a duty to report any such "indictable offences" to the ODCE. This area is an absolute minefield for auditors and they can themselves face criminal proceedings for failure to report, as well as possible negligence actions from their client if they make mistakes in this process that prejudice the client's interests.

On top of this, where the accountant is not a registered auditor, they cannot themselves audit the client and if the client's records or business is in any way messy or deficient, they will have problems getting another accountant to conduct the audit. Which means in practice that the accountant loses their client to another firm. Which provides them with an incentive to preserve audit exemption at all costs.

As a practising accountant and a registered auditor myself, I would never ever dream of forging a client's signature on a set of accounts. That said, I have sometimes gone to ridiculous lengths to facilitiate clients in order to preserve their audit exemption by ensuring they meet their CRO deadlines - for example collecting books and records in an evening, working overnight in preparing accounts from scratch, meeting the client at 7am the next morning and having accounts & B1 ready for a courier at 9am. Absolute madness, but (as the world's oldest man said when asked how was he) a lot better than the alternative.


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## Graham_07 (22 Dec 2008)

simplyjoe said:


> Does this really work?


 
By and large yes. You might get some within the time, others a bit later, we do follow up phone calls and stress that unless we get them by XX date we cannot guarantee submission on time. I do not think that if the client takes 8 1/2 months to get us the records that I should be the one under pressure to get it all done in 2 weeks. I do not put myself under that sort of pressure anymore. If someone wants to come in last minute then they need to find someone else. In any event ,for the financial statements to be in any way useful to the directors they should be produced in good time. They are not much use 9 months after the year end.


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## MandaC (22 Dec 2008)

Sorry, should have stressed, not the Accountants fault in all cases.  Have definitely observed many cases recently where client just will not give the information, despite being chased up many times. Have also observed cased where Accounts left till last minute and then client gone on hols/etc as what happened here.

Also have observed what others say here, Couriers here, there, everywhere, picking stuff up at weekends, etc.

Of course it is to do with the Audit Exemption.


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## ubiquitous (22 Dec 2008)

MandaC said:


> Of course it is to do with the Audit Exemption.



...and, it must be said, the very inflexible approach taken by the CRO in dealing with cases that are marginally late. 

In contrast, the Revenue are generally much more flexible and understanding in giving their customers the benefit of the doubt in such cases.


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## bond-007 (22 Dec 2008)

Is the audit exemption available for a company's first accounts?


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## Graham_07 (22 Dec 2008)

bond-007 said:


> Is the audit exemption available for a company's first accounts?


 
Yes, provided the requirements are met.


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