DOCUMENT STORAGE REGIME OF ENTERPRISES

In the operation process, enterprises have to use many documents related to production and business activities, human resources, finance, etc. It is extremely necessary to store documents for monitoring and managing the operations process. Therefore, every enterprise should have a suitable system for this storage. The current law also stipulates the types of documents that enterprises are required to store and the specific sanctions in case enterprises do not store these types of documents.

1. Documents the enterprise must store

Depending on the form of enterprise, an enterprise must store the following documents:

• Charter of the company; rules on internal management of the company; and register of members or register of shareholders;

• Certificate of protection of industrial property rights; certificate of registration of quality of products, goods and services; and other licences and certificates;

• Documents and papers certifying ownership of assets of the company;

• Voting slips, vote counting minutes, minutes of meetings of the Members’ Council, the General Meeting of Shareholders or the Board of Management; decisions of the enterprise;

• Prospectus for offer for sale or listing of securities;

• Reports of the Inspection Committee, conclusions of inspection agencies and conclusions of auditing organizations;

• Books of accounts, accounting records and annual financial statements.

Storage location: The enterprise must store the documents at its head office or another place stipulated in the charter of the enterprise.

The above-mentioned documents are documents related to important issues of the business and are required to be stored. In case there are unexpected risks or competent authorities examine documents to serve the business information management process, non-compliance will be dealt with in accordance with the law.

2. Document storage period

According to current regulations, the document storage period will depend on the type of document and is divided into 2 main types:

• Documents preserved permanently (such as company charter, internal regulations, ...).

• Document preservation has a term (eg 10 years for meeting minutes).

The storage period for each type of document is specified in the Table of preservation periods of Circular 09/2011/TT-BNV of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

3. Penalties related to document storage

According to the provisions of Article 34.2 of Decree 50/2016/ND-CP of the Government, for the act of failing to keep documents at the head office or other locations specified in the company's charter, there will be fine as follows:

• A fine ranging from VND 10,000,000 to VND 15,000,000;

• Remedies: forced storage of documents as required.

ADK Vietnam Lawyers