| ELECTING AN AUDITOR The auditor must be a professionally competent person independent of the management of the enterprise. Auditing includes control of the accounting, financial statements and administration of the enterprise during the accounting period. HTM and KHT are titles for authorised auditors. HTM refers to an auditor authorised by a local Chamber of Commerce, and KHT refers to an auditor authorised by the Central Chamber of Commerce. The Auditing Act specifies the circumstances when an authorised auditor must be used. If the Articles of Association / the Rules of the Cooperative/ the Partnership Agreement of a general partnership or a limited partnership, allow companies/cooperatives/partnerships that meet no more than one of the following conditions in both the closing accounting period and in the accounting period preceding it may neglect the appointment of an auditor when the new Auditing Act has come to force:
The obligation to appoint an auditor also applies to a collective launching operations (a general partnership, a limited partnership, a limited liability company and a cooperative) if the collective already has business operations that meet the conditions for auditing obligation in the launching stage. If the Articles of Association / the Rules of a Cooperative/ the Partnership Agreement do not contain any regulations on auditors, and no more than one of the conditions mentioned above are met, the company/cooperative/partnership will not have an obligation to appoint an auditor. With the new law, lay auditors are no longer used. Companies founded before the law enters into force (1 July 2007) may elect lay auditors (other than KHT or HTM auditors) according to the requirements of the earlier law for the accounting periods that end on 31 December 2011 at the latest. After the transition period, the companies must appoint a KHT or HTM auditor or a KHT or HTM corporation. However, if the Articles of Association for the company/ the Rules of a Cooperative/ the Partnership Agreement of a general or a limited partnership require appointing a KHT or HTM auditor, this requirement must be met. If the organisation is subject to public trading or if at least two of the following conditions are met in the most recent accounting period, at least one of the auditors must be a KHT auditor or a KHT corporation:
At least one of the parent company's auditors must be included in the auditors of a subsidiary. If an authorised auditor corporation has been appointed as the auditor, they must inform the company to be audited which of their auditors has the main responsibility for the auditing. The authorisation of the auditor with the main responsibility must be at least equal to that of the corporation. The auditor cannot resign during the term of office, but he can be removed from office during the term if a justifiable reason exists. An auditor who is a natural person must not be legally incompetent, bankrupt or banned from engaging in business, or have restricted competency. If one or more natural persons have been appointed as auditors, at least one of them must have a residence within the EEA.  | ||
