The General Office of the Ministry of Finance ("MOF") has recently distributed the Circular on Effectively Working on the Administration of the Agency Bookkeeping Industry in 2018 (the "Circular").
According to the Circular, a bookkeeping agency that has obtained the qualification before December 31, 2017 to record the financial accounts on a commission basis, shall file a record with the examination and approval authority previously granting the qualification, through the National Bookkeeping Agency Management System before April 30, 2018. If a bookkeeping agency has established a branch office or more, each branch office shall file a record with the examination and approval authority at its locality. Additionally, the Circular expressly states that if any bookkeeping agency or its branch office fails to handle the annual record-filing as required, the examination and approval authority shall order it to make corrections within the given time limit; if it refuses to do so, the authority shall include it into the list of subjects closely watched and make public such list. Where an agency fails to constantly fulfill criteria for agency bookkeeping, the examination and approval authority shall order it to take corrective actions within 60 days, and shall revoke its qualification for agency bookkeeping if it's still unable to satisfy certain criteria within the given time limit. Furthermore, the Circular calls for proactive efforts to make it more convenient for people to handle examination and approval affairs and better summarize and analyze the local administration of agency bookkeeping.