The court supported the employee who did not return the salary transferred by mistake to the company. Alexey Stanchin, head of tax practice at Tax Compliance, commented for the publication «Accounting. Taxes. Law» results of this case.

It should be recalled that the company transferred 1,722,463 roubles to the employee instead of 22,463 roubles. The overpayment occurred because of an inaccuracy in the payment slip: the accountant used an old form, while his colleague entered the new amount without deleting the old figures 1 and 7. 

The employee refused to return the money, so the employer went to court, citing a counting error as the basis for the claim. The judicial body considered the case and decided that in this case it was not a counting error, but a technical error, so it denied the organization's claims. 

As a result of the case, an important question arose: can the chief accountant be held liable for the mistakes of his subordinates? 

If we refer to the labor legislation, namely Article 233 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the material liability of an employee performing duties under an employment contract is incurred for damage caused to the employer by unlawful behavior. So, as a general rule, the chief accountant cannot be held liable for the action or inaction of other employees. 

However, if an organization proves that the chief accountant is guilty of wrongdoing, it is possible to recover damages from him.

For example, it is possible for an organization to incur additional tax penalties as a result of an error by the chief accountant. In such a case, the amount of fines and penalties is considered as direct actual damage to the employer (Rostrud letter No. 1746-6-1 dated 19.10.06). As a result, the loss is recovered from the perpetrator, but in a limited amount - within the average monthly earnings, according to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

The chief accountant shall bear full material liability in the following cases: 

1) The condition is in the employment contract (Art. 244 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, Appellate determination of the SC on civil cases of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kalmykia from 20.07.2023 in case N 33-566/2023);

2) An agreement on full material liability has been concluded with the employee. Such a document can be signed with adult employees whose labor function or profession is specified in the lists according to the Resolution of the Ministry of Labor from 31.12.2002 № 85; (According to the list II is allowed to conclude an agreement on full material responsibility with persons who perform Work: on the reception and payment of all types of payments, i.e. fits under the responsibilities of accountants).

3) The chief accountant intentionally caused damage or committed a crime proven by a court verdict (Article 243 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). 

In the case commented on, the emphasis is on a technical error made by an accountant as a result of his incorrectly completing a payment order. We believe that in this case special attention should be paid to the job responsibilities of the chief accountant as set out in the employment contract: whether he should control the actions of subordinate employees, how thoroughly all internal documents are coordinated, etc. If there are formulations that are close to his control over the actions of his employees, there is a risk that the chief accountant may also be held financially liable. 

The management of the company can apply to the court with a claim for compensation for the damage caused by the employee. In this case, it is necessary to prove the following: 

• the commission of unlawful actions by the responsible person; 
• the relationship between the actions and the damage;
• the reality of the damage and its amount.

Let us summarize briefly: there are risks of bringing the chief accountant to liability if he is somehow connected with the action/inaction of his subordinates. Some of the circumstances to be proved are:

• control over their behavior is covered by his documented responsibilities;
• his actions were willful in nature;
• the actions/inaction of employees, encouraged or ignored by the chief accountant, caused damage to the organization.