The Company Law of the Peoples Republic of China (revised in 2005)

 
Chapter VIII Financial Affairs and Accounting of a Company

 Article 164 A company shall establish its own financial and accounting bylaws according to laws, administrative regulations and provisions of the treasury department of the State Council.

 Article 165 A company shall, after the end of each fiscal year, formulate a financial report, and shall have it checked by an accounting firm. The financial report shall be work out according to laws, administrative regulations and provisions of the treasury department of the State Council.

 Article 166 A limited liability company shall submit the financial report to every shareholder within the time limit as prescribed in the articles of association. The financial report of a joint stock limited company shall be ready for the consultation of the shareholders at the company 20 days before the annual meeting of the shareholders is held. A joint stock limited company of public offer stocks shall make a public announcement of its financial report.

 Article 167 Where a company distributes its aftertax profits of the current year, it shall draw 10 percent of the profits as the company's statutory common reserve. The company may stop drawing if the accumulative balance of the common reserve has already accounted for over 50 percent of the company's registered capital.

If the accumulative balance of the company's statutory common reserve is not enough to make up for the losses of the company of the previous year, the current year's profits shall first be used for making up the losses before the statutory common reserve is drawn therefrom according to the provisions of the preceding paragraph. After the company draws the statutory common reserve from the aftertax profits, it may, upon a resolution made by the shareholders' meeting, draw a discretionary common reserve from the aftertax profits. After the losses have been made up and common reserves have been drawn, a limited liability company shall distribute the remaining profits according to Article 35 of this Law; a joint stock limited company shall distribute the remaining profits in light of the proportions of shares held by shareholders, unless it is not permitted in the articles of association to distribute profits according to the proportions of shares held by shareholders.

If the shareholders' meeting, shareholders' assembly or board of directors distributes the profits by violating the provisions of the preceding paragraph before the losses are made up and the statutory common reserves are drawn, the profits distributed must be refunded to the company. No profit may be distributed for the company's shares held by this company.

 Article 168 The premium of a joint stock limited company from the issuance of stocks at a price above the par value of the stocks, and other incomes listed in the capital accumulation fund according to provisions of the treasury department of the State Council shall be listed as the capital accumulation funds of the company.

 Article 169 The capital accumulation funds of the company shall be used for making up losses, expanding the production and business scale or increasing the registered capital of the company. But the capital accumulation funds shall not be used for making up the company's losses.

When the statutory common reserve is changed to capital, the remainder of the common reserve shall not be less than 25 % of the registered capital prior to the increase.

 Article 170 Where a company plans to hire or dismiss any accounting firm to undertake the auditing of the company, a resolution shall be made by the shareholders' meeting or shareholders' assembly or the board of directors according to the provisions of the articles of association. Where the shareholders' meeting or shareholders' assembly or the board of directors adopts a voting on the dismissal of any accounting firm, it shall allow the accounting firm to state its own opinions.

 Article 171 A company shall provide to the accounting firm it hires truthful and complete accounting vouchers, account books, financial and accounting statements and other accounting materials, and may not refuse to do so or conceal any of them or make any false statements.

 Article 172 Except for the statutory account books, a company shall not set up other account books.

No company asset may be deposited into any individual's account.
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