Global companies such as Google and Apple, which were excluded from the audit, will be included in the target next year. The amendment to the "Act on External Audit of Stock Companies" (Externality Act) passed the National Assembly plenary session on October 28.
On October 12, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) passed the first round of the "2017 Financial Reform Task Force (TF)" with related organizations such as listed companies` associations, public accounting society, and private experts at the Seoul Metropolitan Government Building and discussed the scope of auditing and the scope of disclosure
As a result of the amendment of the Outsourcing Law, the limited company was also included in the audit, but the detailed contents are determined by the Enforcement Ordinance, and the government plans to cooperate with the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry to listen to and comment on the opinions of the companies. In particular, as the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) is added to the scope of external audit, it plans to establish specific targets and scope of disclosure of accounting information.
Domestic corporations of foreign companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook Korea, which have been operating as limited companies since then, will receive external audits.

In the meantime, it was pointed out that that a few number of limited companies do not have much to do with the sale, regardless of the size of the company. Some companies also pointed out that in order to avoid auditing, the corporation changed its corporate form from a corporation to a limited company.
As of the end of 2015, the number of limited-liability companies rose by 122.1% to 22,868, from 10,020 (10,209).

A limited company is similar to a corporation but has no external disclosure obligations, including a number of well-known foreign companies such as Microsoft Korea, Apple Korea, Google Korea, Facebook Korea and Hewlett Packard Korea. Some of them started as a limited company from the time of establishment of the domestic company, but some of them changed into a limited company while operating as a joint stock company.

In fact, Apple Korea has been pointed out that when it switched from a joint stock company to a limited company in 2009, its aim was to avoid external audits in 2009

Especially, some foreign companies have withdrawn profits earned from their domestic operations to foreign headquarters in the name of dividends and royalties, but there have been few social contributions such as donation activities in Korea.

As these companies become limited companies, they have no obligation to disclose sales information, operating profit, net profit as well as management information such as dividends, donations, entertainment expenses. However, it has been pointed out that it is a problem that a limited company does not receive an audit even though it does not differ greatly from a corporation.

Currently audited are: ▲ listed companies ▲ assets worth more than 12 billion won, ▲ corporations with total debt of more than 7 billion won, assets over 7 billion won, ▲ corporations with more than 300 employees, and total assets over 7 billion won. Considering that there are more than 2,000 companies with more than KRW 12 billion in assets among the 20,000 companies, more than 2,000 audits of limited companies are expected to take place

Korea, Microsoft, etc., also had over 100 billion won in assets in the last audit report.

The Financial Supervisory Commission (TFG) operates the accounting reform TF, which it convened for the first time, into four working groups, including general meetings, general supervision, designation and supervision, audit quality, and corporate accounting.

The results of TF discussions will be announced sequentially until December, and the enforcement order of the External Auditing Act and the Financial Stability Regulations will be announced in February next year.

The results of the discussions will be announced sequentially by mid-December, and plans to enact a law enforcement ordinance and revise regulations next February. Kim Yong-bum, deputy director of the TFC, said, "We have a lot of expectations for this accounting reform, and we need to think about how to operate it. " The Saks Act was enacted in 2001 as an accounting reform method for the accounting reform of Enrossa, Inc., which also affected fiscal reforms such as the European Union and Japan.

By Kim Dong Wook east@


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