[Opinion] Penalties Imposed on Director (Signatory) & Certifying PCS for Erroneous Turnover Reporting in E-Form AOC-4

Prof R Balakrishnan – [2023] 153 taxmann.com 458 (Article)

1. Filing of audited financial statements with ROC

The financial statements comprising of the balance sheet, profit and loss account/income and expenditure statement in case of a not-for-profit organization and the cash flow statement where applicable of a company must be filed every year with the Registrar of Companies of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs prescribed form AOC-4 in XBR format. The AOC-4 XBRL is required to be filed pursuant to the provisions of section 137 of the Companies Act 2013, read with sub-rule (1) of Rule 12 of Companies (Accounts) Rules 2014, annually within 30 days days’ time along with all the mandatory attachments. The AOC-4 form is required to be certified by a practising chartered accountant or practising cost accountant or practising company secretary for its correctness before filing the form,

2. Declaration and Certification in the form AOC-4 XBRL

The AOC-4 form is required to be certified to its correctness as per the provisions of the Companies Act 2013 by the signatory of the company and also by the certifying professional.

3. Declaration called from the company’s side

While filing the AOC-4 form, the documents i.e. the financial statements (including board report, auditors report and other documents) are required to be duly authenticated as an attachment as per the provisions of section 134 of the Companies Act 2013 by an authorized person by the board of directors through a resolution who could be the chief executive officer/managing director or a director or a company secretary or chief financial officer or any other person declaring that all the requirements of Companies Act 2013 and the rules made thereunder in respect of the subject matter of this form and matters incidental thereto have been compiled with. The declaration also states that whatever is stated in this form and in the attachments thereto is true, correct and complete and no information material to the subject matter of this form has been suppressed or concealed and is as per the original records maintained by the company. With the above declaration, the form is required to be digitally signed with the DIN number in case of a director or with the PAN number who is not a director such as a chief executive officer or chief financial officer and in case of authentication by the company secretary, the membership number of the secretary.

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