Accounts missing for several years – how to reconstruct them
The situation is serious, but accounts are rarely impossible to rebuild. Much of it can usually be reconstructed from bank data, earlier filings and documentation held by your customers and suppliers. What matters is building on evidence you can show, rather than filling the gaps with guesswork.
How the reconstruction starts
1. Secure every piece of data you still have. Collect bank statements, annual statements, earlier accounting files, tax returns, VAT returns, a-meldinger, invoice data, till data and any other documentation that still exists. 2. Build the bank first. The bank accounts are usually the best starting point, because payments to and from the business can be traced and reconciled against the bank balance. The bank does not show everything, though – unpaid sales and purchase invoices and cash sales can all be missing. 3. Reconstruct income, costs, payroll and balances. Invoicing and till systems are used to check turnover. Suppliers can often send copies of old invoices, and earlier a-meldinger can be matched against the salary payments. 4. Establish what can actually be documented. If a purchase invoice is missing, the business should first try to obtain a copy. A voucher you produce yourself, or a bank payment, does not automatically give a right to deduct input VAT. 5. Compare the reconstructed accounts with what was previously reported, and decide how any errors should be corrected.
Can you simply estimate what is missing?
No. The Accounting Act allows a best estimate to be used where an item genuinely is uncertain – in some valuations, for example. That does not mean missing purchases, sales or vouchers can be replaced with approximate figures because the documentation has gone. The same applies to inventory. If the business has no historical stock counts and no reliable inventory system either, establishing the correct stock value can be difficult. The uncertainty has to be assessed and documented specifically – not resolved by inserting an arbitrary figure.
What happens to old tax returns and VAT returns?
For several taxes the business can normally amend an earlier assessment itself within three years of the filing deadline. For older periods, you have to consider whether Skatteetaten can be asked to reopen the assessment. Where the business discovers earlier incorrect or incomplete information itself, the rules on voluntary disclosure may also apply. That does not mean every voluntary approach automatically avoids additional tax. Among other things, the correction must not be prompted by an audit that is already under way or about to begin, or by information Skatteetaten has already received from someone else.
Do earlier annual accounts have to be filed again?
Not necessarily. The Brønnøysund Register Centre allows annual accounts that have already been registered to be corrected in certain cases. Within five months of the filing deadline there is more scope. After that, specific grounds and documentation are required, and if the following year's accounts have already been registered, the scope is very limited. In accounting terms, errors from earlier years are handled under their own rules. Small companies also have simplifications available, including the option to take a correction of an earlier error through profit or loss and to leave comparative figures unrestated. How long the records have to be kept once they have been reconstructed is covered in Retention of accounting records
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This is general guidance, not advice on your specific case. Deadlines, rates and amounts change – always check the current rules, or get in touch with us.
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Is it urgent?
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