Answer:
The law does not prescribe which department or division of an enterprise is responsible for the archive of all of the Employee’s LC and offer letter.
In terms of responsibilities of the accounting department in an enterprise, Article 15 of the Law on Accounting prescribes that the responsibilities of the accounting department are to manage, use, preserve and archive accounting documents, in which the accounting documents to be archived include: accounting vouchers, detailed accounting books, general accounting books, financial statements, budget settlement reports; general budget statements, other accounting-related documents that do not include the Employee’s LC and offer letter[1]. Thus, the accounting department of the enterprise is only obliged to keep the accounting documents, but not including the LC, the offer letter of the Employee.
Therefore, as the authority or obligations to the archive of LCand offer letter of the Employee is not clearly specified under the laws, enterprise managers must be entitled to decide whether which department must be the most suitable to archive labour-related records, through internal regulations or regulations on assignment of functions and duties of departments and divisions of the enterprise.
According to the recent Official Dispatch on tax inspection of the tax authority related to salary costs, the tax authority is required to scrutinise in details the salary payment vouchers, payroll, LC and the Employee’s declaration, deduction and payment of PIT to have grounds for tax treatment according to regulations, prevent and handle cases where the enterprise intentionally overstates salary expenses to include them as deductible amount when determining the income subject to CIT. [2]Therefore, some enterprises have implicitly understood that the storage of the above labour-related documents will have to be kept by the accounting department, because it is convenient to present documents to the related tax authorities to examine and inspect if so required.
]Therefore, some enterprises have implicitly understood that the storage of the above labour-related documents will have to be kept by the accounting department, because it is convenient to present documents to the related tax authorities to examine and inspect if so required.
However, in the light of the law, the above guidance from the tax agency does not indicate that accounting departments of the enterprise must be responsible or have the right to archive all original records of the LC and offer letter. Because the party that provides information to the state agency is the enterprise itself, not a specific department or division in the enterprise. Therefore, when the competent tax authority requests the enterprise to provide information, according to the assignment and decision of enterprise managers, human resources departments of the enterprise can still be the department that provides documents, which is currently keeping, for the tax agency.
In fact, departments, divisions of the enterprise are required to coordinate with each other to provide information and documents at the request of competent State authorities, but depending on the functions and tasks of each department or division, such State authorities will keep different original records for the specific purpose of each department, division.
In conclusion, the enterprise has the right to self-determine in assigning a to which specialised department in the enterprise will archive labour records, offer letter of the Employee for the most convenient operation of the enterprise.
[1] Article 8 Decree No. 174/2016/ND-CP of the Goverment dated 30 December 2016
[2] Official Dispatch No. 3884-TCT-CS dated 18 November 2013 of Genneral Department of Taxation promulgating guidance on CIT policy
