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Chapter Law Content

Title: Accounting Act CH
Category: Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Executive Yuan(行政院主計總處)
Chapter 1 General Provisions
Article 1
(Scope of this Act)
This Act shall govern the accounting activities of government and affiliated authorities.
Article 2
(BAS authorities and the most senior BAS officer)
The accounting activities of each inferior Budget, Accounting and Statistics authorities (“BAS Authority”) (in the absence of BAS Authority, then the Chief BAS Officer) shall be supervised and guided by superior Budget, Accounting and Statistics offices directly in control.
Article 3
(Accounting Activities)
Government and its affiliated authorities shall implement accurate and detailed accounting of the following for each authority and fund:
1. Establishment, allocation and execution of budget
2. Annual revenue from tax or income
3. Occurrence, dealing and settlement of credit and debt
4. Receipts, payments, custody and transfer of cash, notes and securities
5. Loss and gain, custody and transfer of real estate property or other property
6. Calculation of administrative expenses, enterprise cost and annual surplus and deficit.
7. Calculation of operating costs, profit and loss and treatment of annual profit and loss.
8. Other accounts, which is required to be maintained.
Article 4
(Types of Accounting Event)
The accounting activities of accounting events in the preceding Article shall be classified into the following four categories according to its nature:
1. Ordinary Government Activities: General accounting activities of government authorities.
2. Special Government Activities: Accounting activities of government authorities, dealt with by special government authorities, except for those referred to in the preceding subparagraph of government authorities.
3. Government-owned Enterprise Activities: Accounting activities of government-owned enterprise authorities.
4. Extraordinary Activities: accounting activities of events of extraordinary nature and other material events that do not follow the beginning and end of a fiscal year, which is treated by authorities in charge or provisional entities.
Article 5
(Ordinary Government Activities)
Ordinary government activities shall be categorized into following three types:
1. Accounting activities of government annual revenue and expenses: The accounting activities relevant to the annual revenue, allocation and implementation of budget, revenues and expenditures from implementation of budget, credits and debts accrued from receipt and appropriation of revenue and expenditures, calculation of administrative expenses and annual surplus or deficit.
2. Accounting activities of government cashiering: The accounting activities relevant to receipts and payments, custody and transfer of cash, notes and securities.
3. Accounting activities of government properties: The accounting relevant to gain and loss, custody and transfer of real estate property and other properties.
Article 6
(Special Government Activities)
Special government activities shall be categorized into following six types:
1. Accounting activities of treasury cashiering activities: The accounting activities relevant to the receipts and payments, custody and transfer of cash, notes and securities by the treasury.
2. Accounting activities of managed properties: The accounting activities relevant to the loss and gain, custody and transfer of real estate property and other properties managed by the public property management authority.
3. Accounting activities of taxation: The accounting activities relevant to collection, investigation of revenue from taxes and other procedures of dealing with taxes pursuant to statutory provisions and certificates or supporting documents used and treatment of taxable items by tax authority.
4. Accounting activities of government bond: The accounting activities relevant to the issuance, management and repayment of bonds by competent authority of bond.
5. Accounting activities of special properties: The accounting activities relevant to the finances of special property dealt with by management authority of special property.
6. Accounting activities of special funds: The accounting activities relevant to the treatment of fund by management authority of special fund.
Special Fund in subparagraph 6 of foregoing Article means all types of funds which are not General Fund, including all types of Trust Fund, Retained Capital Fund, Non-enterprise Recurring Fund, except for Business Fund, Government Bond Fund, and Enterprise Fund of enterprise accounting.
Article 7
(Government-owned Enterprise Activities)
Government-owned Enterprise activities shall be categorized into following four types:
1. Accounting activities of annual business budget: The accounting activities relevant to the implementation of business budget, revenues and expenditures from implementation of budget, credits and debts accrued from treatment of revenues and expenditures and calculation of annual surplus or deficit and operating profit or loss.
2. Accounting activities of business cost: The accounting activities relevant to the calculation of unit cost for goods and services.
3. Accounting activities of business cashiering activities: The accounting activities relevant to the receipts and payments, custody and transfer of cash, notes and securities.
4. Accounting activities of business properties: The accounting activities relevant to the loss and gain, custody and transfer of properties used and applied in business.
Article 8
(Classification and Compilation of Accounting Activities)
Accounting activities relevant to the preceding three Articles shall be categorized, compiled and consolidated into Controlling Account.
Article 9
(Government Accounting Entity)
Government Accounting Entities comprises of following five entities:
1. General Accounting
2. Departmental Accounting
3. Sub-Accounting
4. Subordinate Departmental Accounting
5. Sub-Accounting of Subordinate Departmental Accounting
The accounting entity of each subparagraph in the foregoing paragraph shall apply a system of double-entry bookkeeping. However, accounting activities of sub-accounting entity of subparagraph 3 and 5 that is simple, shall not be subject to this limitation.
Accounts of each subparagraph in first paragraph may be dealt with in whole or collectively depending on the actual circumstances and after obtaining approval of Superior BAS authority.
Article 10
(General Accounting)
Accounting of the central, municipal, county (municipality), township (town, municipality) ,mountain indigenous districts of special municipal local governments shall form one general accounting.
Article 11
(Departmental Accounting)
Accounting of the following subparagraph shall form departmental accounting:
1. Accounting of departmental authorities that have legal budgets in the general budget.
2. Accounting of special fund that have legal budgets in the general budget regardless of authority division.
Article 12
(Sub-Accounting)
Accounting below the departmental accounting except for accounting of subordinate department shall form a sub-accounting and given the name of the authority.
Article 13
(Subordinate Departmental Accounting)
Accounting of following subparagraphs shall form subordinate departmental Accounting:
1. Accounting of government or its affiliated authorities and its subordinate business, enterprise authorities or operative entities.
2. Accounting of subordinate special fund of each authority with portions relating to annual revenue and expenditure, which is incorporated into the general budget.
Article 14
(Sub-Accounting of Subordinate Departmental Accounting)
Accounting below subordinate departmental accounting shall be Sub-Accounting of Subordinate Departmental Accounting and given the name of the authority.
Article 15
(Fiscal year)
The beginning and end of a fiscal year shall be determined by Budget Act.
A quarter of fiscal year shall be three months beginning from the date in which fiscal year is commenced.
Each month in fiscal year shall be determined according to calendar month.
Each month shall be divided into three periods, namely the period from the 1st to the 10th day, the period from the 11th to the 20th and the period from the 21st to the last day of each month.
Each month shall be sub-divided into period of five days each a sub-period, the 1st to the 5th day of each month is the first sub-period and the 26th to the last day of each month is the last sub-period.
Periods that do not commence with first day of fiscal year or first day of calendar month or months that are not consecutive shall be determined pursuant to Article 121 and 123 of Civil Code.
Article 16
(Currency of accounting books)
Government accounts shall use the national currency or currencies determined by the budget as basic monetary unit for book-keeping; those domestic or foreign currencies recorded in books that are inconsistent with basic monetary unit shall be converted into the basic monetary unit and recorded into major books of accounts. During bookkeeping, except for the purpose of arithmetic multiplication and division, the unit of account shall be the dollar and decimals shall be rounded up.
Where there are special circumstances applicable, regulations may be drafted regarding the provision of foregoing Paragraph and enforced once approved by each government BAS Authority.