What is the primary document. Explained in simple words

What is the primary document. Explained in simple words


"The tax authority, according to the primary documents, can completely refuse to recognize expenses on transactions with counterparties for the acceptance of goods on record, without verifying the actual write-off of these goods in the stated amount to the cost of production." (Yulia Pavlova, Chief Tax Consultant of Tax Compliance Law Firm, on mistakes of the Federal Tax Service when calculating taxes).

Nuances:

- The primary document is executed immediately at the time of the transaction or immediately after it is completed if there is no opportunity to do the paperwork in the process.

- Further, the information from the primary document is transferred to the so-called accounting registers (cash book, fixed assets accounting card, etc.). A note is made on the document about its recording - to avoid duplication.

- The primary documents after their use must be kept for five years. During this time, the tax authorities may request them at any time to verify the organization and its counterparties. And if any expense or income cannot be confirmed, the amount of deductions will change. For the absence of primary documents or failure to submit them to the tax authorities the organization may be fined.

- Primary documents may also be required in court in disputes with counterparties and even in the case of claims by law enforcement agencies.

It is up to each organization to determine the forms of primary documents it uses. Unified forms approved by the Federal State Statistics Service can be used for different types of operations. The main thing is that the primary document must contain the following information:

- The name of the document;

- date of composition;

- the name of the economic entity that created the document;

- the content of the business transaction;

- the size in kind and/or in money of the transaction, indicating the units of measurement;

- names of responsible officials;

- their signatures. The exceptions are documents whose forms are established by federal laws, for example, cash documents.

...

Read the full article at Secretmag.