Hi I received in e email from my accountant in HK this message today : "Further, balances in the brokerage statements need to be verified with the brokers to satisfy the audit procedures, that involves additional time" He makes this point to justify his audit quotation. Does that make sense ? What kind of information will IB or Etrade or HSBC or other brokers give to outside sources (non government sources) over an account as it raises also confidentiality issues ?
What the accountant meant is although I emailed him copies of the statements, he would need to double check with the brokers - I'm quite surprised he would get that information from the brokers. Does that make sense ? I look forward to the day this HK company will be closed, but it will take several months more and 2 fiscal year audits
If he is willing, you could add him as a user on your account and he can log on and verify all of your statements directly with the broker that way. I am sure that IB would mail statements directly to him also if really needed if you open a ticket and request that but there would likely be a charge. It is likely a fairly common request from an auditor. This may actually be the simpler way to do it to avoid his having to figure out how to log on etc. Just find out exactly what he needs, then open a ticket and ask IB to mail it directly to him (e.g. 12 monthly statements or whatever).
Thanks Comintel - the CPA actually didn't mention me having to ask IB for the info and I wonder if IB or other brokers would give out information to CPAs if asked only by those CPAs. But indeed the CPA possibly expects some kind of intervention from my part. Way easier to trade via a Ltd registered in a juridiction not requestiong yearly audits anyway, altough it won't work for everyone.
What you describe is at the heart of the audit process ... at least by US GAAP standards. Auditors do not prepare your books but they do spot check with outside sources (banks, brokers etc.) that what you have represented is indeed accurate.
Any noted by another poster, it is not uncommon for an outside auditor to seek to independently confirm balances held with a broker. In any event, we would not release account specific information such as this to any person or party or who was not listed as the account holder unless formally authorized by the account holder to do so.
Thanks IB-AN, glad to read this. Yet do you mean those independant auditors still try and contact IB without asking prior authorisation from the account holder ? On a side note as I moaned a few times lately about company auditing requirements in HK, for those interested do some research and contact investHK before selecting a CPA. Some CPA interpret the HK tax law in a way that to fill the company Profit Tax Return they just note that activity hasn't started as long as commercial activities haven't started in HK, and then an audit and relevant accounting and auditing fees are not needed ' except if later the IRD is requesting this audit, although there are some price packages which remain interesting and overall one should save quite a bit of time. Also even if one completes the yearly audits and declares the income offshore (so not subject to HK profit tax), the IRD challenging the geographic source of the income is a distinct and time consuming possibility. This process raises quite a few eyebrows but at least a CPA I know following this method has been one of the few recommended by InvestHK for years, and after checking with HK authorities when I inquired, investHk concluded it was a OK way to go. Yet once some activity has been declared, audits must follow on subsequent years.