Evidence of counting error calculation sheet. Accounting error when calculating wages: what to do

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Let's figure out in what cases you can count on a refund of amounts overpaid to an employee and what to do with accrued personal income tax and contributions.

In what cases can an overpayment be withheld from an employee’s salary?

According to the law Russian Federation, only if an accounting error was made in wages and benefits, or the overpayment occurred due to dishonesty on the part of the employee, the excess can be returned (Article 1109 Civil Code RF). Moreover, in the latter situation, the body for consideration of individual labor disputes must admit the employee’s guilt in failure to comply with labor standards or simple work (part 3 of article 155, part 3 of article 157 Labor Code RF).

The employer has the right to decide to deduct from the employee’s salary no later than one month from the date of expiration in order to repay incorrect payments. Moreover, only on the condition that the employee does not dispute the grounds and amounts of the withholding (Article 137 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). At the same time, taking into account the opinion of Rostrud (letter dated August 9, 2007 No. 3044-6-0), it is necessary to obtain the written consent of the employee.

If the employee does not agree, recovery can only be carried out through the court. In accordance with Article 392 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the employer has the right to go to court in disputes about compensation by the employee for damage caused to the employer within one year from the date of its discovery.

The employer's decision to withhold, as a rule, is formalized by an order (instruction) of the institution in any form, and the employee is familiarized with the order for signature. In addition, an accounting error in the calculation of wages must be recorded, for example, in a report.

Amounts cannot be recovered from an employee at all if wages are overpaid to the employee as a result of:

• incorrect application of legislation (for example, paid leave for a longer duration than required, payment for work on a day off was accrued in double amount in cases where it should have been single, etc.);
• charging the same amount wages twice (definition Supreme Court RF dated January 20, 2012 No. 59-B11-17);
• incorrect application of the organization’s regulations (for example, an accountant awarded an employee a bonus that was not established for him, erroneously paid bonuses without a corresponding order from management, etc.).

In such cases, recovery is usually made from the employee who made the mistake that resulted in the overpayment. Maximum dimensions deductions from wages are established by Article 138 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. Thus, the total amount of all deductions for each payment of wages cannot exceed 20 percent.

What errors are considered counting?

Excessive wages paid to an employee in the event of incorrect application of labor legislation or other regulatory legal acts containing labor law norms cannot be recovered from him (Article 137 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). At the same time, attention should be paid to the lack of current legislation definitions counting error.

Previously, such a definition was contained in paragraph 51 of the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions of February 23, 1984 No. 191, which became invalid on April 12, 2004. In the said resolution, a counting error was understood as an arithmetic error. Rostrud took a similar position in letter No. 1286-6-1 dated October 1, 2012: an error made during arithmetic calculations is considered a counting error.

The existing judicial practice regarding the interpretation of the concept of “counting error” is very contradictory. However, in most cases judiciary are inclined to understand a counting error as one made directly in the process of calculation during mathematical operations, that is, an incorrect application of the rules of mathematics.

In this regard, the courts do not recognize as a calculation error, in particular, the incorrect application of the law or the erroneous (re)use of inappropriate source data in the calculation.

How to reflect an employee's return of an overpayment in accounting

If an agreement is reached with the employee that he will return the excess from the payment accrued to him (will make the required amount to the cashier), then budgetary institution The following accounting entries should be made:

If an overpayment is identified, a Certificate (f. 0504833) is issued, which is the basis for reflecting the overpayment amounts in the accounting registers. If an overpayment is identified for previous years, these amounts must be taken into account as income, and the amount of the overpayment must be reimbursed by the employee minus the withheld personal income tax.

How to correct personal income tax calculations

If the institution discovers a counting error after withholding personal income tax, then the excessively withheld amounts can be offset against the employee’s salary in subsequent payments (clause 3 of Article 226 Tax Code RF).

If in previous months tax was withheld and transferred to larger amount, then it can be repaid in the current month, and the amount payable is reduced by the amount of the previously made overpayment. Thus, the offset of the overpayment should be carried out automatically.

If the amount of the reversed personal income tax exceeds the accrued amount of tax on subsequent payments (for example, such a situation may arise upon dismissal), then the employee will have an excessively withheld amount of tax. The tax agent is obliged to return it in the manner specified in paragraph 1 of Article 231 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. Prerequisite- feed an individual applications for the corresponding refund.

The refund to the taxpayer of the amount of tax withheld in excess is made at the expense of the amounts of this tax subject to transfer to budget system RF on account of upcoming payments, both for the specified taxpayer and for other taxpayers, from whose income the tax agent withholds such tax. The transfer is made within three months from the date the institution receives the relevant application from the employee. The institution has the right to reimbursement of overpaid personal income tax on the basis of a corresponding application submitted to tax authority(letter dated January 14, 2009 No. 03-04-05-01/05).

Is it necessary to make changes to the RSV-1 Pension Fund of the Russian Federation?

The Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia, in a letter dated May 28, 2010 No. 1376-19, clarified that the discovery in the current reporting (calculation) period of the need to withhold from employees payments excessively accrued to them in previous reporting periods is not the discovery of an error in calculating the base for calculating contributions. Since in each of the specified periods (past and current), the base for calculating insurance premiums is determined as the amount of payments and other remunerations accrued in favor of employees in this particular period.

Therefore, there is no need to make changes to the calculation of accrued and paid insurance premiums for past periods in the situations under consideration. That is, if some payments were mistakenly included in the taxable base, for example, in the first quarter of the billing period, and this was discovered in the second quarter of the same period, then the error must be taken into account in the second quarter; updated calculations for the first quarter do not need to be submitted .

V. Duck,
budget accounting expert

The employer has the right to return the overpaid amount of earnings if he made a calculation error. To do this, it is necessary to obtain the employee’s consent or prove this fact in court.

The excess payment can be made to either a current employee or a terminated employee.

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If a citizen works for a company, his consent to retention is sufficient. The employer must ensure that the overpayment is due to incorrect mathematical calculations. Then you need to invite the employee to deposit the money within the prescribed period or obtain his permission to withhold. He must write a statement on the basis of which an order is prepared for a monthly deduction of 20% of the salary.

If the recipient excess amount the employee has already been dismissed, then compensation must be made through the court. Documents confirming the arithmetic error and a detailed calculation algorithm are submitted to arbitration.

If a program fails, a programmer's report should be prepared for the court, which identifies the problems and indicates their impact on the outcome of the computational actions.

In Art. 137 of the Labor Code lists all cases in which deduction of overpayments from earnings is possible by law.

Often the issue of refunding an overpayment is resolved in judicial procedure, because the worker refuses to return it voluntarily. An employer can count on a positive court decision if there is a counting error or a glitch in the program. In case of technical inaccuracies and incorrect application of standards, the money will remain with the employee.

What it is

There is no specific definition of a counting error in any regulatory document regulating labor relations in the Russian Federation.

An error made when performing arithmetic operations is recognized as a counting error, i.e. an incorrect result of division, multiplication, addition or subtraction. This is evidenced by the Determination of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation No. 59-B11-17 dated 01.20.12 and the letter of Rostrud No. 1286-6-1 dated 10.01.12.

If such an inaccuracy is detected, a relevant act in any form.

A counting error in payroll is legal basis to withhold the overpayment from the employee income at which it was accrued.

If there is no fact of a citizen’s dishonesty or an error in calculations, he is not obliged to return the excess salary he received (clause 3 of Article 1109 of the Civil Code).

Currently, accounting is mainly carried out using accounting programs. If the calculator made a mistake when entering data into it, this is considered a technical error due to the fault of the employer. It does not apply to invoices and any overpayment resulting from it is not subject to reimbursement.

Excess amounts issued due to inaccuracy committed by the calculator due to his low qualifications or negligence are not returned. The programs in which accountants work already contain all the necessary formulas for the correct calculation of staff remuneration.

If the program fails, the employer needs to call a specialist servicing it, who must document this fact. If there is supporting paper, the court may equate the incorrect functioning of the program with a counting error.

If an overpayment is discovered, it can be withheld from the employee’s earnings only with his consent or by a court decision. In the latter case, the guilt or dishonest actions of the employee must be proven or a counting error must be established. The employer must provide the relevant document to the employee and the court.

In the absence of evidence, the court will not satisfy the request to withhold the overpayment from the worker.

The definition of a counting error should be fixed in, for example, the Collective Agreement. To consider the fact of overpayment to the employer, it is necessary to create a special commission. It can include a chief accountant, a personnel officer, a financial manager, and an administrator. The functions of the chairman can be assigned to the director.

The worker’s commission’s conclusion must be familiarized with mandatory.

Technical oversight

Incorrect data entry is considered a technical error. This is how courts often characterize a mistake made by an accountant. In this case, the overpayment by the employee is not refunded.

Such errors, for example, include:

• misapplication of tax benefits;
• choosing the wrong coefficient when calculating salaries;
• entering incorrect initial data for calculations, etc.

It is almost impossible to reclassify such deficiencies as counting ones.

The court will refuse to reimburse the overpayment if there is no connection between a malfunction in the program and an arithmetic error. Technical problems themselves cannot indicate a counting error, so a conclusion from an appropriate specialist is required to prove this relationship. In this situation, an act of discovery of inaccuracy is not needed.

IN judicial practice The following are considered technical errors:

• incorrect entry of information into the program;
• double transfer of earnings and other payments;
• payment of remuneration for a period on various grounds;
• failure to comply with the rules established by regulatory documents.

The employer must remember that in the event of a counting error, withholding an overpayment from an employee’s earnings without his consent is illegal (Part 3 of Article 137 of the Labor Code).

Otherwise, the worker may sue, which will oblige the company to return the money and compensate the citizen for moral damages. The arbitrators will not examine the grounds and legality of the withholding.

To obtain consent from the employee, you must prepare a notice to him in writing. The employee can write an application for a refund or fill out the appropriate notification fields. The worker must write that he agrees with the reason and amount of the withholding.

Upon receipt of approval from the employee, the employer may set him certain period for a refund, for example, 3 days, as for travel expenses. Upon expiration of the period, the manager has the right to issue an order to withhold the amount within a month. The order is issued only with consent.

If the employee refuses or misses a month's deadline, the overpayment can only be returned by a court decision.

Evidence of a calculation error in payroll

For legal proceedings, the employer will be required to provide an explanatory statement from an accountant.

Apply to it:

• mathematical calculation with an error;
• payslips;
• statements of accrual and payment of earnings.

Often the employer refers to a software error. It does not refer to the company’s failure to comply with legal requirements, therefore it can also be considered as an accounting if there is an evidence base.

If the accountant made a mistake or typo, the money can often be returned. For example, when transferring to a worker an amount much greater than the required amount.

Deduction from employee income

Money from an employee’s earnings may be withheld based on the following regulatory documents:

In Art. 137 of the Labor Code states that deductions from a worker’s earnings to pay off a debt to the company are possible in the following cases:

• to reimburse an advance that was issued against earnings and was not worked out;
• to repay unspent and not returned on time advances issued for a business trip, official trip or other purposes;
• to return an overpayment to an employee due to a counting error or when the authorized body recognizes the worker’s guilt in non-compliance with labor standards or downtime;
• when an employee is dismissed before the end of the period for which he has already taken paid leave.

The employer must make a decision to return the overpayment within a month from the moment when the advance should have been returned, the debt was repaid, or an accounting error was identified. The employee must agree to the withholding.

Example

In accordance with Art. 138 of the Labor Code, the amount of all deductions from an employee’s monthly salary cannot exceed 20%.

Example:

For April 2019, plumber V.V. Kholopov LLC received a salary of 16 thousand rubles. By order of the manager, for this period he is entitled to a bonus of 4,800 rubles.

The accountant accrued RUR 22,800 to the employee. and made the payment minus personal income tax (22,800 - 13% = 19,836 rubles).

A month later, the accountant discovered a calculation error when calculating wages in the amount of 1,740 rubles. (19,836 – (20,800 – 13%)).

To record the fact of a counting error, a commission was created in the LLC, to which the accountant wrote an explanatory note. The mistake was ruled to be arithmetical. They decided to collect it from the employee’s earnings for May 2019.

A notification about this was sent to V.V. Kholopov and he confirmed his agreement with the situation.

Reflection in accounting

If the employee agrees to return the excess amount given to him to the cashier, the accountant must reflect this in postings.

They are presented in the table for a budgetary institution:

The detected overpayment is confirmed by a certificate f. 0504833, on the basis of which the amount is reflected in the accounting registers. Overpayments from previous periods are counted as income. The employee returns the amount minus personal income tax.

Correction of personal income tax calculation

In accordance with paragraph 3 of Art. 226 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, if a counting error is detected after personal income tax has been withheld, its excess amount can be taken into account when calculating earnings for future periods.

If tax was over-deducted and paid in the previous period, you can take it into account in the current month, i.e., transfer less to the budget by the amount of the overpayment. The excess should be credited automatically.

If reversed personal income tax amount more than accrued in the following periods, the worker has excessive retention tax This situation is possible upon dismissal. The employer is obliged to return this money at the request of the employee. This procedure is provided for in Art. 231 Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

The employer can recover the overpaid amount if they made an accounting error. In order to return overpaid amounts to the courts, the employer must prove that the payment was made due to an accounting error.

Overpayment due to an accounting error occurs for both active and laid-off employees. In the first case, the employer can return the overpaid amounts without going to court. The employer must make sure that an error was made in mathematical operations, and that the network performed the math incorrectly (addition, subtraction, division, multiplication). After this, you need to offer the employee to return the money within a certain period or agree to withhold it. Based on the application with consent, it is necessary to issue an order to withhold 20% of earnings monthly. If the employee has already been fired, he will have to go to court. The court will need to submit documents proving the calculation error and describe the calculation algorithm separately. If there is an error in the program, a report from an IT specialist will be needed to document the system failure and indicate how the problems affected computing operations.

Situations when listed in Art. 137 Labor Code of the Russian Federation. One of them is that the employee received more than his due due to a counting error. We can talk about overpaid wages, bonuses or benefits (sickness, children). A counting error is an arithmetic error, that is, incorrect execution of mathematical operations (letter of Rostrud dated October 1, 2012 No. 1286-6-1.

In most cases, the issue of returning money is resolved in court, since employees rarely agree to do this voluntarily. However, it should be noted that the employer will not be able to recover the overpayment if the accountant made a technical error or incorrectly applied the rule. The employer will return the money only if he proves a counting error.

Evidence of a counting error

For trial you should prepare explanatory note accountant with mathematical calculations. It needs to clearly show the calculation that led to the calculation error. Pay slips and statements must be attached to the certificate. But this additional documents, not the main ones. You just can't win in court with them

Employers often cite errors in accounting programs. In such cases, you should pay attention to the fact that a failure in the program and double payment of wages are mathematical errors. They do not apply to the employer’s error in applying the law.

Often an accountant makes a typo or mistake. In such cases, the employer has a chance to recover money if he transferred to the employee much more than his usual earnings. For example, instead of 11 thousand, the employer transferred almost 1 million rubles to the employee.

A technical error

A technical error is an incorrect data entry.

Courts classify a number of mistakes made by accountants as technical errors rather than accounting errors. In these cases, the overpayment will remain with the employee. For example, the court recognizes a technical error if it was caused by the accountant’s low qualifications. The negligence of an accountant when calculating wages also rarely results in a calculation error. Most of them work with programs that already have all the necessary formulas. Therefore, courts classify accountant errors as technical. Such an error can be:

Misinterpretation of tax benefits;

Wrong choice of coefficient when calculating earnings;

Indication of incorrect initial data for calculating payments, etc.

It will most likely not be possible to reclassify these shortcomings as a counting error.

The court will refuse to return the amounts if it does not establish a connection between the program failure and the counting error, in particular if a counting error led to the counting error. A technical failure in itself does not indicate a counting error. Therefore, you should use a report or opinion from an IT specialist (internal or external) about problems in the operation of the program. But the act of discovering a counting error is not suitable for these purposes.

Judicial practice shows that courts recognize errors as technical in the following cases:

1. Incorrect data entry into the program
2. Double salary transfer, financial assistance, bonuses, benefits.
3. Payment for one period for several reasons.
4. Failure to comply with the calculation rules provided for by regulation.

The employer should remember that money cannot be withheld from earnings without the employee’s consent. Even if you are fully confident that there is a counting error, you should not rush to hold it, as there is a high probability of violating the procedure. In such a situation, it is impossible to withhold wages without the employee’s consent (Part 3 of Article 137 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

When the employee discovers the withholding, he will go to court. The court will oblige the employer to return the money to the employee along with compensation for moral damage. In this case, the court will not examine whether the employer had grounds to demand the return of overpaid amounts.

To request consent, written notice must be provided. The employee must be asked to write a statement or fill out a column in the notification. In any case, the employee must write in his own hand that he does not dispute the basis and amount of deductions or agrees with them.

If the employee agrees to return the money, give him 3 working days for this, similar to the report on business trips. If the employee does not agree to the retention, he will ignore any information.

Once the voluntary repayment period expires, the employer has a month to issue a withholding order. An order should be issued only if the employee agrees to the deduction. It doesn’t matter whether he wrote an application or filled out a notice.

If the employee did not sign the consent to withhold or the employer missed the one-month deadline, then you need to go to court.

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When running a business and paying employees, an accounting error may occur when calculating wages. An error in calculating wages can not only reduce the employer’s fortunes and increase the company’s expenses, but will also negatively affect financial statements. Therefore, everyone HR specialist and the accountant should know how to retain an accounting error when calculating wages, and whether this can be done for the past period.

Accounting error when calculating wages - what is it?

First of all, a counting error when calculating is any error associated with the procedures accounting and specific calculation of the employee’s salary. The most common calculation errors are those caused by incorrect addition, subtraction, multiplication and division operations. However, incorrect reporting in accounting can lead to negative consequences for the entire enterprise - both to banal unnecessary expenses for paying an employee’s salary, and to the inability to summarize all reporting and sanctions from inspection bodies when submitting them.

Directly Russian legislation does not directly provide an interpretation of the concept of counting error, although it appears in regulatory documents. However, there are fairly comprehensive explanations set out in the Letter of Rostrud No. 1286-6-1 dated 10/01/2012 and the Ruling of the RF Armed Forces dated 01/20/2012 No. 59-B11-17.

Thus, only the following incorrect data according to which the salary was paid are defined as counting errors:

• Errors that arose when performing mathematical operations to calculate wages and their calculation.
• Errors that occurred due to a failure in computer programs calculations.

Other errors when calculating wages do not relate to accounting errors, which means that the employer is not able to withhold excessively accrued amounts from the employee’s salary. In cases where, as a result of an error, a worker was accrued a lower salary, the latter has the right to apply to the labor inspectorate or court to receive the amounts due to him, or to resolve this issue with the employer in pre-trial proceedings. In the event of a judicial resolution of the issue, the employee may also demand additional compensation for the delay in payment of wages, calculated depending on the timing of the delay.

What is not considered a counting error when calculating wages?

As you can understand, there are a number of situations in which amounts overpaid to an employee are not due to a counting error. Such cases are classified as uncountable errors. For example, these can be considered:

The legislation also identifies technical errors as a separate category - those caused by incorrect initial data entry or low qualifications of the accountant. The company is not able to compensate for these errors at the expense of the employee who received excessively accrued funds. But the organization can go to court to recover them from the person who made the mistake, or from the responsible suppliers of equipment or software if the error was their fault.

If a non-accounting error occurs, the employer has the right to ask the employee for a refund. However, the employee is not obliged to satisfy such a request and can ignore it without any legal consequences for himself in accordance with the provisions of Article 1109 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

Accounting error when calculating wages - how to withhold funds from an employee

Legal regulation of the deduction of funds due to a counting error when calculating wages is ensured by the provisions of Article 137 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. In particular, the right of such deduction clearly rests with the employer, but with certain restrictions. The employer is not obliged to withhold these funds from the employee, but has the right to do so during the period provided for by law.

So, if such circumstances occur, a deduction may be made from the salary. But only if the error in calculating wages for the previous period occurred during the calendar month before the actual moment of deduction. Otherwise, any deduction of this kind is unacceptable.

It should be remembered that deduction from an employee’s wages in any form is allowed only with his consent or if there is court decision, which clearly allows the employer to carry out the procedure for withholding funds. You should also remember that there are certain limits for deductions from wages, beyond which the employer has no right to collect.

From a procedural point of view, there are two options for filing a withholding in the event of a counting error. Namely:

Deadlines limitation period deduction from wages is three years, however, the procedure itself can be considered legal only if at the time of the actual deduction no more than one calendar month has passed since the actual excessive accrual of funds.

Amounts that were paid to the employee, but were ultimately not returned to the enterprise, must be fully subject to personal income tax.

The position of an accountant, as well as maintaining the accounting records of an enterprise under a civil contract, provide for increased responsibility of such a person. Due to the fact that the activities of an accountant may affect various questions reporting, including the calculation of wages to employees, various laws and other regulations are used to regulate it.

Types of liability of accountants for incorrect payroll

Accounting errors, as well as deliberate violations in maintaining records, may entail liability for the person engaged in accounting. In this case, such liability may be:

• Administrative;
• Tax;
• Criminal;
• Material;
• Disciplinary;
• Civil law.

The level of responsibility is established depending on the immediate causes of the error and the severity of the resulting consequences. Moreover, in many cases, several types of liability may be applied simultaneously to an accountant who made a mistake in calculating wages. For example, administrative for the fact of an offense, disciplinary as a punishment from the employer, and material as compensation for damage caused by one’s actions.

Basic accounting errors when paying wages

The responsibility to ensure the payment and accounting of wages may lie either fully or partially directly with the accountant. At the same time, making calculations and the presence of errors in them can lead to various liability of such an employee both before the law and before the direct recipients of wages, the employer or the organization with which he cooperates under a civil contract. The most common errors related to payroll are:

Each of these cases should be considered in more detail.

Failure to comply with labor legislation and non-compliance of wages with the employment contract

If the accountant does not take into account wages when calculating certain provisions employment contract, then in this case the accountant may be held liable. The most common violations in this case are:

• Non-payment of overtime for overtime recorded in the time sheet;
• Failure to pay bonuses stipulated by the employment contract;
• Violation of the procedure for paying bonuses and other allowances.

More common cases are when an accountant acts in accordance with an employment contract, but contrary to labor laws. From the point of view of the law, the clauses and conditions of a collective or personal agreement with an employee are considered void if they contradict the provisions of the Labor Code. However, the following errors are often common:

• Failure to indicate in the employment contract tariff rate salary and a note that payment is regulated by the staffing table or other internal regulations of the enterprise;
• The difference in wages of employees in the same positions and with the same qualifications is considered unacceptable, even if the employee is on a probationary period;
• Failure to pay bonuses to employees working part-time or under fixed-term employment contracts for a similar amount of work in similar positions.

Important fact

If such a payment procedure was established directly by the manager, the accountant is obliged to independently write a statement in his name about the presence of errors in the calculations, and if the manager refuses to keep accounts in accordance with labor legislation, the accountant should require written orders from management for each specific case of calculating wages or bonuses .

Payment of salary during a business trip or vacation pay

At some enterprises, vacation and travel allowances are tied to wages, which is a violation of the procedure established by law. These types of payments are tied to average daily earnings

and are calculated accordingly, and payment in such periods of wages is a violation of accounting, and, possibly, the rights of the employee. The application of such accounting rules is regulated by Art. 114 and art. 167 Labor Code of the Russian Federation. It should be remembered that the average daily earnings thus, it may either exceed the established salary or be lower than it, which may cause individual species

material liability. You should take into account separate rules for paying for days off on business trips, as well as days of departure, travel and arrival from them. Thus, the days of travel, departure and arrival from a business trip must be paid. If a posted employee does not perform work duties on weekends, they are not included in the payment. Weekends falling on vacation are subject to payment, and holidays

– do not count towards the amount of leave.

Upon dismissal for any reason, each employee must be paid compensation for all days unused vacations according to the time they worked. In this case, the accounting of time worked is rounded up to a full month - up or down, depending on the total number of days worked in an incomplete month.

In addition, labor legislation provides for the payment of severance pay in deadlines and in specified amounts for some reasons for dismissal. It should be remembered that it is inadmissible to deduct any funds from severance pay and vacation compensation in favor of the employer, regardless of the presence of debt obligations on the part of the employee.

Important fact

No circumstance can prevent the employee from paying compensation for vacation and wages for all days worked.

Failure to meet deadlines for payment of due wages, advances and vacation pay

Art. 136 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation clearly establishes the terms during which the accounting department or the management of the company are obliged to pay the employee his wages, as well as vacation pay. Most often, the accounting department violates the procedure for issuing vacation pay, which the employee must receive no later than three days before the start of his planned vacation according to the vacation schedule or application.

In addition, based on the provisions of the above-mentioned article, wages must be paid at least twice a month, except in cases where their payment and accrual cannot be ensured due to holidays or weekends. Accordingly, the practice established at some enterprises of paying advances in violation of such deadlines (when the maximum interval of 15 days is not observed) is illegal. It is also illegal to reduce the amount of the advance below the salary actually earned during working days by the employee.

Important fact

The presence of a personal statement written by an employee with a requirement to pay him a one-time salary in full is not legally significant. The accounting department is obliged to ensure the accrual of earned funds at least twice a month. It is permissible to formalize an employee’s refusal to receive wages, but only if such wages are available in the enterprise’s reporting.

Lack of compensation for delayed wages

Each day of delay in the payment of wages, vacation pay or other required payments due to an employee allows the employee to demand compensation. However, if an audit of the financial statements reveals a violation of the payment procedure and the presence of any delays, such funds may be recovered in favor of the employee even in the absence of a trial and a statement from the injured employee himself.

The procedure for accounting and calculating compensation is regulated by the provisions of Art. 236 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, and provides daily accrual additional interest. Their size is estimated at one three hundredth of established rate Central Bank financing, based on the volume of unpaid amounts.

Failure to comply with the procedure for issuing settlement documentation

The payslip must be drawn up in accordance with the provisions of Art. 136 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation and have the general form established by the employer. In addition, this form is in accordance with Art. 372 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation must necessarily be agreed upon with the trade union body.

The pay slip must contain information about the number of days worked, all deductions from wages, bonuses and other allowances. At the same time, the pay slip must be present for all types of payments, and not issued only once a month - such an action is considered a violation of accounting standards and can serve as a reason for bringing the accountant to justice.

Incorrect deductions from wages

The amount of deductions from wages cannot exceed 70% of the employee’s total regulated earnings. At the same time, at the initiative of the employer, without a writ of execution, it is permissible to collect from the salary as compensation no more than 20% of his salary. WITH writ of execution, according to its provisions, it is permissible to withdraw amounts from an employee’s salary up to 50% of its amount.

The procedure for carrying out any deductions is regulated by Art. 137 Labor Code of the Russian Federation. A common mistake is to withhold funds from an employee’s earnings for overpaid wages during long term, when the legislation directly allows for the possibility of returning overpayments only within one month before their discovery.

Important fact

The obligation to withhold alimony, fines and other payments to third parties from an employee by court decision lies with his employer and, accordingly, the accounting department of such an enterprise. Violation of the deadlines for making such payments can also serve as a reason for holding the accountant accountable.

Overpayment of wages beyond what is required

If, due to any errors, the accountant accrued excessive wages to the employee, then it can be withheld from the employee’s salary. However, such retention is permissible only in cases specified by law and is carried out for a period of no more than one month.

At the same time, an accountant who overpaid may be held liable for the entire time when the employee was provided with an inflated payment that did not correspond to his due earnings.

The procedure for applying and types of penalties for incorrect calculation of wages

The legislation does not address individual situations of accountant liability for incorrect calculation of wages. However, in such cases the general rules, used in regulating all aspects accounting activities at the enterprise.

• Disciplinary liability may be imposed by the employer on the accountant for any of the errors at his discretion. In this case, the accountant is obliged to provide an explanatory note, and he is subject to all labor legislation standards, as well as in relation to other employees. IN general procedure, the employer may subject the accountant to one of the disciplinary sanctions in the form of a reprimand, reprimand or dismissal.

Important fact

An accountant working under a civil contract cannot be subject to disciplinary liability. However, such an accountant may still be held liable for errors, both in accordance with the provisions of the concluded agreement itself, and from the point of view of tax and civil law.

• The accountant's financial liability for incorrect calculation of wages begins if his actions led to a loss for both the organization and the employee. At the same time, the employer has the right to mention in the employment contract the full financial responsibility of the accountant, but in itself it is not provided for by law. Partial financial liability allows the accountant's employer to compensate for the damage incurred in an amount not exceeding the average monthly earnings of such an employee.

Important fact

Full financial liability occurs in any case if the damage was caused by conscious actions of the accountant for selfish reasons, or committed for personal purposes. At the same time, if the damage was caused due to extraordinary circumstances, liability may not arise at all.

• Administrative liability is the most common punishment for incorrect payroll calculations by an accountant. Such liability is regulated by separate articles of Chapter. 15 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation and may imply as punishment both deprivation of the right to hold certain positions, a fine and even administrative arrest or compulsory labor.
• Criminal liability for an accountant for incorrect calculation of wages occurs only in exceptional cases. These include non-payment of taxes related to payroll, in particular personal income tax, which is regulated by Art. 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Also, such crimes include deliberate long-term delay of wages for more than two months - Art. 145.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

How an accountant can avoid responsibility

The accountant is not responsible for errors in payroll calculations in every case. At the same time, he can be released from any type of liability in court, with full restoration of his rights and payment of all costs and compensation if he is acquitted.

Thus, for some situations, in order to prevent administrative or criminal liability, it is permissible to timely eliminate errors in reporting documentation in the manner prescribed by law. In this case, administrative and, especially, criminal liability does not arise.

If the incorrect calculation of wages was made on the initiative or order of the employer, in connection with the provision of false documents or false information by employees, as well as due to the mistakes of other accountants, both predecessors and colleagues, the accountant can avoid liability and obtain in court the cancellation of both material claims against him, as well as disciplinary sanctions, administrative prosecution or criminal record in the case of a criminal case.