ERROR IN ASSIGNMENT OF PAYMENT: HOW TO CORRECT?

Nobody is immune from mistakes, especially the accountant, who, in the nature of his work, encounters a huge amount of information and various calculations. As practice shows, situations where mistakes are made in the payment order and money is sent "not according to the intended purpose," are encountered very often. How to edit the purpose of payment in the payment, learn from this article.

Define the purpose of payment

First of all, we remind you that the form of the payment order can be found in Appendix 2 to Instruction No. 221. The requirements for filling in the mandatory payment details are given in Appendix 7 to this Instruction.

1 Instruction on non-cash payments in Ukraine in national currency, approved by the NBU Board Resolution No. 22 of January 21, 2004.

According to clause 3.8 of Instruction No. 22, the payer pays the requisite "Purpose of payment" of the payment order to provide full information about the payment and documents, on the basis of which funds are transferred. Completeness of information is determined by the payer, taking into account the requirements of the legislation of Ukraine. Therefore, in the "Payment Purpose" field of the payment you should specify:

• the reason (purpose) of payment (for example, "penalty for an administrative offense", "payment for electricity", etc.);
• documents, according to which payment is made, - the numbers and dates of contracts, invoices, receipts, protocols, etc .;
• the period for which payment is made (indicated if necessary, for example, when paying for communication services);
• other necessary information (at the discretion of the payer or by agreement of the payer and the payee).

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And what if the error occurred in the payment purpose?

"Resident" payment

If the money has not yet "left" from the account, the payer has the right to withdraw the payment order from the servicing bank (clause 2.29 of Instruction No. 22). For this purpose, a document is submitted to the bank for withdrawal (clause 23.1 of article 23 of Law No. 23462). Such withdrawal is carried out in the order determined by the internal documents of this bank, exclusively in the full amount.

2 Law of Ukraine "On Payment Systems and Transfer of Funds in Ukraine" dated 05.04.2001 No. 2346-III.

That is, before withdrawing funds from the account, the payer can easily recall the "wrong" payment without problems and make a new (correct) payment.

If the funds are already written off from the payer's account and credited to the beneficiary's account, the transfer becomes finalized (Section 30.1, Article 30 of Law No. 2346). The question arises: who is to blame and what to do? Of course, the payer himself is guilty here (paragraph 33.2 of Law No. 2346, paragraph 3.8 of Instruction No. 22). After all, when filling out a payment order, he is obliged to indicate full information about the payment and documents, on the basis of which the funds are transferred to the recipient.

But the bank that carried out the transfer of money, is left out, since he has the right to check the correctness of filling in the details of the "Purpose of payment" only on external grounds.

But do not worry! There is an exit. Correct the payment props after debiting funds from the account, of course, does not work out, but it is quite possible to restore justice without a refund. The grounds for this are letters of the NBU from 09.06.2011. № 25-111 / 1438-7141, from 26.09.2005. № 25-113 / 1506-9580 (compare 046391400). According to them, the issue of making changes to the requisite "Purpose of payment" after crediting funds to the beneficiary's account must be decided in the order agreed between the payer and the recipient of the funds.

In other words, following the terms of the contract concluded between the counterparties.

Is there no such condition in the agreement? Do not worry. Will assist you art. 526 SCC, which refers to the fulfillment of the obligation in accordance with the customs of business turnover. That is, certain rules of conduct that are not provided for by law, but which have already been established and are widely used in economic activities.

The point of support in this matter may be the decisions of the courts in a particular case containing similar circumstances. Thus, for example, the courts consider the exchange of letters between counterparts as a reasonable solution to the question of clarifying the purpose of payment after writing off the funds from the payer's account (the definition of the Kyiv Administrative Appeals Court of 23.04.2014 in case No. 2a-3335/10/2670, the definition of the Zhitomir Appeal administrative court of 19.02.2013 in the case No. 0670/3840/12, the definition of the Supreme Administrative Division of the Russian Federation of 13.11.2012 No. K-20530/10).

In practice, as a rule, a letter of the payer is sufficient (preferably with a notice of delivery and a list of attachments), in which he notifies the recipient of the funds about the error and asks for an appropriate change. We compose the letter in an arbitrary form.

The recipient of the letter shall visit him from the head and attach it to the relevant bank statement. It will be the basis for the correct reflection of the received funds in the accounting.

In fact, such a letter will serve as an attachment to the payment order, according to which the purpose of the payment changes.

Attention! To contact the bank in order to make corrections to the destination of payment of a payment order or to return erroneously sent funds does not make sense.

According to the provisions of the Law No. 2346 and Instruction No. 22, banks are prohibited from making corrections to clients' settlement documents. The same requirement is contained in Art. 1090 SCU.

The only exceptions are cases (paragraph 2.26 of Instruction No. 22): partial execution of a payment request / collection order (order); changes on the initiative of the payer's bank, the number of the payer's account, the name and code of the payer's bank in connection with the reorganization of the bank, changes in the bank's accounting rules, and compliance with the requirements of the law by the bank.

Important! The payment order is the primary document used for accounting and tax accounting purposes. First of all, this document is important for the recipient of funds. Incorrect indication of the purpose of payment may result, for example, in charging double VAT liabilities. But the correct use of the mechanism for adjusting the purpose of payment in some cases can help to avoid additional fiscal imposition of tax liabilities and penalties.

"Budget" payment

When paying taxes and fines, filling in the details of the "Purpose of payment" is strictly defined by Order No. 6664. In accordance with this document, this props consists of 7 positions, each of which is separated from each other by the sign ";".

4 The procedure for completing documents for transfer in case of payment (collection) of taxes, fees ..., approved by the order of the Ministry of Finance of 24.07.2015, No. 666.

Notice! When filling in the fields, no spaces (spaces) between words and service marks are allowed. For example, payment of the VAT liability for August 2018 by the enterprise with the USREOU code 12345678 in the details of the "Purpose of payment" will look like: "*; 101; 12345678; VAT for August 2018 ;;;".

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And what to do if you made a mistake in the purpose of payment?

If you made a mistake in the format of filling in the fields (forgot to indicate the separating sign ";", incorrectly indicated the code of the type of payment, put a space between the service marks, etc.), the payment will still be made. In this case, it will be considered that the payer pays a monetary obligation (code of the type of payment "101") (clause 7 of Order No. 666). There is no liability for such a violation (see category 138.01 ЗІР).

It is more difficult if the code of the USRPOU (identification number) of the payer is incorrectly indicated. After all, the payment will go to the personal account of the person whose USREOU code was specified in the payment, and you will have underpayment. In this case, you need to pay off underpayment as soon as possible.

Then, in an arbitrary form, we write an application letter to the tax office, indicate the content of the error, and ask you to return the erroneously paid funds. We attach the "erroneous" payment to the letter. The mechanism for refunding is defined in art. 43 NKU.

"Non-resident" payment

The registration of payments for the transfer of funds to non-residents should be approached with special attention due to the currency control, as well as to confirm the customs value of the imported goods.

Thus, in accordance with clause 2.2 of this Regulation, in the details of the "Purpose of payment", the payer must provide full information on the payment and documents on the basis of which the funds are transferred in foreign currency. This means that in the payment you need to specify the details of both the external economic contract (contract) and the invoice (invoice) for which payment is made.

5 Regulations on the procedure for the execution by banks of documents for transfer, compulsory write-off and seizure of funds in foreign currency and bank metals, approved by the resolution of the Board of the National Bank of Ukraine on July 28, 2008, No. 216.

See the annex to the resolution of the plenary session of the WACU of March 13, 2017 No. 2, category 202.2 ЗІР.

These documents allow you to identify the payment with the delivery of imported goods and confirm its customs value. Also, instead of the invoice in the payment, one can refer to the specification to the contract, on the basis of which the goods were delivered (see the decision of the Kharkov Appellate Administrative Court of 16.10.2014 in case No. 816/1996/146).

And now let's imagine that an error has been made in the payment order of the foreign exchange payment. Then the exchange control will put the operation with "erroneous" data. Change the purpose of payment by sending a letter-specification to the counterpart in this situation will not work.

But there is a way out. Banks provide customers with a paid service related to clarifying the purpose of foreign currency payment. That is, the client writes an application (letter) to the bank with a request to correct the data in the "Purpose of payment" requisite of the relevant payment and appends supporting documents to it. Based on this statement, the bank changes the purpose of foreign currency payment. To find out the cost of consulting an accountant to correct a payment designation error, fill out the form provided.