The very fact of what role the state budget plays in the life of the state, how it affects the state of public relations and moods, suggests that the audit of budget settlements is a very urgent task in terms of ensuring effective budget policy.
In the historical aspect, in recent years the state budget policy has changed significantly, although by its very nature it is a fairly conservative thing at its core. The shifts that have occurred are mainly focused on the unification of the foundations of the budget system and its approximation to the standards adopted in the international community.
The main directions of improving the national budget policy are:
- strengthening the revenue base by optimizing budget sources and increasing the share of indirect taxes ;
- providing greater autonomy to regional and local budgets.
Naturally, an audit of budget settlements under such conditions becomes an effective tool for increasing the effectiveness of budget policy. His role is also great as a method of preventing economic crimes.
During the audit, the calculations classify all income and taxes according to a number of signs, the main of which are: form, sources, methods of exemption, objects of taxation, departmental and industry affiliation, significance. Based on a generalization of these classification features, the level to which these taxes are assigned and in which budget will be included is determined.
Audit of budget settlements is carried out, as a rule, in two forms.
An internal audit is a verification technology conducted on the basis of the corresponding program, algorithm. To carry out such an audit, trained personnel are required who are capable of performing enough routine work in large volumes for a limited time. As a rule, high qualification is not required here, but the staff is needed for certain verification operations. More complex areas are entrusted to highly qualified specialists. The main task of this type of audit is the collection, classification, grouping and generalization of accounting information for its subsequent analysis.
Actually, the audit of calculations with the budget is already focused on analytical activities and the proof or refutation of the reliability of the presented documents of financial statements.
So far, there are no rules strictly established by any regulatory act regulating the stages and content of the audit at different stages of its conduct. In practice, a verification stereotype has developed that includes the following phases:
- preparation of a preliminary audit plan;
- assessment and forecasting of perceived risks;
- development of a specific audit program;
- the actual check;
- summarizing the results of the audit and its information and documentary processing.
For such an event, which is an audit of the calculations made by the enterprise or company with the budget, very high demands are made in terms of the quality of the audit organization. This is even more relevant because the results of the audit themselves can be double-checked by the tax authorities.
The content of the audit must necessarily include verification of account 68. Analytical accounting for this account is carried out by type of tax. In addition, it should be borne in mind that various sub-accounts can be opened for this account, including, for example, “Calculations for VAT”. In this case, it is necessary to draw up a specific program, according to which the audit of VAT calculations will be carried out.
In accordance with the latest changes in the Tax Code, the task of the auditor is to verify:
- the correct calculation of the tax base;
- the reliability of determining the profit and income of the transition period;
- compliance with the norms and rules of calculating tax rates;
- completeness and timeliness of payment of budget payments;
- the validity of the application of tax benefits;
- compliance of accounts with entries in the balance sheet of the enterprise or company and accounting account 68.
Other verification operations are carried out in accordance with identified shortcomings during the inspection itself or in other challenging circumstances.