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Royal Decree 1517 / 2011, 31 October, Which Approves The Regulations Developed By The Recast Of The Accounts Audit Act, Approved By Royal Legislative Decree 1/2011 From 1 July.

Original Language Title: Real Decreto 1517/2011, de 31 de octubre, por el que se aprueba el Reglamento que desarrolla el texto refundido de la Ley de Auditoría de Cuentas, aprobado por el Real Decreto Legislativo 1/2011, de 1 de julio.

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TEXT

I

The present royal decree is intended to comply with the forecast contained in the final provision of the fifth paragraph, paragraph 1, of the Royal Legislative Decree 1/2011 of 1 July, approving the recast of the Law of Audit of Accounts, authorizing the Government to, on the proposal of the Minister of Economy and Finance, dictate the necessary rules for the development of the provisions of this Law. This recast text was issued under the regulatory clearance contained in the second final provision of Law 12/2010 of 30 June, amending Law 19/1988, of 12 July, of Audit of Accounts, Law 24/1988, of 28 of In July, the Securities Market, and the text recast of the Law on Companies, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 1564/1989 for its adaptation to the Community legislation, which authorized the Government to regularize, clarify and harmonize the legal texts to be recast that regulated the audit of accounts activity.

Law 19/1988 of 12 July on the Audit of Accounts incorporated into our legal order Directive 84 /253/EEC of 10 April 1984 on the authorization of persons responsible for the legal control of the accounting documents, regulating for the first time in Spain the audit activity of accounts, setting up such an activity as the one which, by using certain appropriate review and verification techniques, has as its object the issue of a report containing a technical and independent opinion on the reliability of the financial economic information audited, thereby fulfilling a function of public interest, as it underlies in the regulation contained in both the Law and the recast text cited, and thus has been recognized by the Constitutional Court when it came out on the constitutionality of the Audit of Accounts Act.

This Law has been the subject of modifications, highlighting, among them, the ones affected by Law 44/2002, of 22 September, of Measures of Reform of the Financial System, which responded to the need to advance and contribute in the improvement of the quality of the audit work as well as of strengthening the credibility of the audit activity and of contributing to the better functioning of the market economy, and the Law 12/2010 of 30 June, which was the subject of the transposition of Directive 2006 /43/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 May 2006 concerning the statutory audit of the annual accounts and consolidated accounts, amending Council Directives 78 /660/EEC and 83 /349/EEC and repealing Council Directive 84 /253/EEC.

The Law 19/1988, of July 12, was the subject of development by Royal Decree 1636/1990 of 20 December, which has been the subject of two partial modifications. The first amendment was made by Royal Decree 180/2003 of 14 February 2003 under the provisions of Law 19/1988 of 12 July 1988 on the obligation to audit the accounts of the accounts of certain Member States. entities by reason of their size and activity and the coordination procedures between bodies or public institutions with legally conferred powers of control and supervision on undertakings and entities which submit their annual accounts to audit of accounts and auditors of accounts of such undertakings and entities. The second amendment was made by Royal Decree 1156/2005 of 30 September, in order to incorporate the rules on the periodicity of the call for the examination of professional competence required for access to the Official Register of Auditors. of the Court of Auditors and the composition and functioning of the court, in accordance with Law 44/2002 of 22 September, and to amend the requirements relating to the bail to be provided by legal mandate who exercise the audit activity.

II

The amendment made by Law 12/2010, of June 30, entails the obligation to adapt to the current legislation the Regulation that develops the Law of Audit of Accounts, approved by Royal Decree 1636/1990, of 20 of December, as well as to develop those specific aspects that require it by legal mandate. At the same time, the reform is used to incorporate the technical improvements advised by the experience and the practice developed since the entry into force of Royal Decree 1636/1990, resulting in a new way of enacting a new Regulation of the development of the aforementioned Law and repeal it. In accordance with this, those defining aspects of the audit activity of accounts that make up a corpus of modern regulation, in which the system of public supervision is fully inserted in the system, are developed. international context, and its effective implementation.

This Regulation, in terms of its structure, follows the same systematic and collation of matters as that contained in the recast of the Law of Audit of Accounts that it develops, with the exception of those legal precepts that do not require regulatory development.

The "Audit of Accounts" chapter contains a set of provisions, distributed in seven sections, which aim to define the audit activity of accounts to which this Regulation applies, from a double perspective: positive, in developing the different subjective elements and objectives that define the audit activity of accounts as well as its modalities; and negative, by expressing the express delimitation of those works that do not have the nature and, therefore, that they are outside the scope of public oversight established on that activity. The positive definition highlights the accuracy of the need for the subject of the audit to be subject to a regulatory framework, i.e. the annual accounts, financial statements or accounting documents drawn up under the framework of the framework. (a) rules which are applicable to them and which have been formally formulated, signed or formally adopted by the relevant decision-makers. And with the negative definition, the work consisting in the specific verification of concrete facts, in the application of agreed procedures with the audited entity and the emission of the certification, since a job is performed with a different scope and an opinion is issued with a significant lower degree of reliability. It is also worth noting that the work done by those works, which is not audit of accounts and therefore will not be subject to the control of the activity, is legally attributed to the auditors. These works are intended to be subject to the guides approved jointly by the auditors ' corporations, in accordance with the same procedure as the one designed for the auditing standards.

In this sense, they emphasize the incorporation of the express prohibition of limiting the distribution or use of the audit report of accounts, consistent with the public relevance of this activity for the possible effects against third parties who may have any report; as well as the development which is made of the legally established faculty of not issuing the audit report or of giving up the audit contract, setting the criteria to be followed as well as the line that separates that right with the obligation to issue a report with a rejected opinion, when they are present technical circumstances that prevent the application of audit procedures to obtain evidence in accordance with the audit standards.

Also, since the group auditor assumes full responsibility for the report he issues by law, the scope and extension of the group auditor's obligation to review and evaluate the work done by the group is required. the auditors of the accounts that make up the group, the content and scope of which is determined by the relevant audit standard.

Are defined, to the exclusive effects of the recast text that is developed, the entities that have the consideration of public interest, for their significant public importance, taking to the effect as defining criterion the special activity they perform and their size. Thus, on the one hand, the entities that aim to raise funds, assets or rights or savings of the public for their management or investment are considered as such, which exceed certain thresholds relating to the number of members or investors and managed assets, as well as those entities which have a significant impact on the stability of the financial system and on the smooth functioning of the payment system. With the inclusion in that category of these entities, it is a matter of contributing to the best functioning of the markets in which these entities operate, and of contributing to the supervisory regime to which these entities are subject by the corresponding public bodies.

This chapter is supplemented by the definition of regulatory regulation of the audit activity of accounts, such as that which provides for the requirements, criteria and formalities that discipline the activity of the auditor or the auditor. the audit firm since obtaining the authorisation to carry out such an activity, and which are contained in the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, in this Regulation, as well as in the audit rules, the ethics rules and the rules which regulate the internal quality control system of the auditors and companies of the audit, the adoption of which is the ultimate responsibility of the public oversight system attributed by the recast text to the Accounting and Audit Institute. Part of these rules are the rules of audit which are those which must necessarily be observed in carrying out any audit work in which the technical opinion expressed in relation to the audit is to be supported. audited information. Those rules shall be those contained in the international audit standards adopted by the Commission of the European Union and, in the absence of or regulated by them, the technical rules for auditing in the terms set out in this Regulation. Regulation. Finally, the principles of ethics that should be promoted and observed in the exercise of the activity are defined and should be developed in the corresponding ethical standards that are adopted. The basic content and procedural arrangements for drawing up these rules are regulated.

III

Chapter II "Access to the exercise of the audit of accounts" regulates, in its first and second sections, the Official Register of Auditors and the system of authorization for the exercise of the audit the audit of accounts, the set of requirements for access to the Official Register of Auditors, in any of the situations foreseen for auditors of natural persons and audit firms, and in definitive, the access regime or legal clearance for the exercise of the activity of the audit of regulated accounts in the recast text of the Audit of Accounts Act.

In relation to the aforementioned Registry, two are the extremes that deserve here special mention for constituting novelties introduced by the aforementioned recast text. The first concerns the incorporation of auditors who, without being partners in an audit firm, can be expressly appointed to sign audit reports on their behalf, and the audit firm must report on the audit reports. designations that have been made at any time. The second relates to the compulsory registration of certain third-country auditors and audit firms separately.

In terms of access to the exercise of the activity, as far as the required training is concerned, the number of hours required to understand the requirement of practical training required to be able to be registered is required. in the Official Register of Auditors of Accounts as well as the obligation to provide certain information, without prejudice to the determination of the accounting and distribution rules by the Accounting and Audit Institute, with the the participation of the audited auditors. In addition, given the new legal framework established with Law 12/2010 and the system of university teaching arrangements provided for in the Organic Law 6/2001, of 21 December, of Universities, it is only possible to contemplate the dispensation for the completion of the first phase of the examination to those with official university degrees and valid throughout the national territory. However, with the idea of combining the academic quality of those with the contrasting practical training of those who exercise the audit activity, it is anticipated that, in the imparting of post-graduate degrees, the universities can have the collaboration of the Corporate Auditors ' representative corporations.

Additionally, new measures to facilitate the exercise of public oversight in training are collected, compared to the previous regime. This is the case with the criteria which allow the above mentioned practical training requirement to be met; the information to be sent, with the minimum character, to the Official Register of Auditors; and the details of this information staff who are not registered or registered as non-performing in the Register who provide services in the field of audit activity, in order to know the period of practical training for the purposes of future registration in the Register or the request to move to the exercise situation.

In addition to the ordinary access regime, three other access routes are to be identified, the scheme of which is developed: two, applicable to auditors authorised in the Member States of the European Union and in third countries, for the which is established by an aptitude test, the design of which corresponds to an evaluation committee whose composition is the same as the ordinary access court, and the third, applicable to certain staff at the service of the General government which performs public functions by carrying out work on the audit or review or control of these, whether in relation to the public sector, whether in respect of financial institutions and insurance companies, for which certain criteria are specified for the purposes of understanding the requirements which are legally required.

IV

Chapter III "Of The Exercise of Account Audit Activity" is structured in six sections. The first development regulates the obligation of continuous training, the purpose of which is to maintain the appropriate level of demand in relation to the updating of its knowledge, within a continuous financial and commercial environment and progressively more complex, establishing the form and conditions under which the minimum continuous training requirement, encrypted in number of hours, must be kept in place, and the auditors of the registered accounts should continue to be accredited. (a) exercising the right to provide services to an employed person by performing a series of services of activities.

The second section develops the legal system of independence that must be kept by those exercising the audit of accounts, which was substantially amended by Law 44/2002 and 10/2010, in order to strengthen its due (a) observance as to the fundamental support for the demonstration of objectivity, so that the users of the financial financial information audited accept with the utmost assurance and full confidence this information as soon as it has been This is precisely the objective of an independent third party. To this end, it is basically taken as a reference in the regulation here to the set of fundamental requirements of independence and of circumstances which could threaten this situation contained in the Commission Recommendation of 16 May 2002 on the independence of auditors in the European Union, which basically inspired the reform of Law 44/2002. This is aimed at providing this system of permanence, as well as convergence within the European Union, since, according to Directive 2006 /43/EC, the Commission may rely on that Recommendation to adopt relative implementing measures. to independence. It is noted that the auditor's responsibility implies an attitude of vigilance and alert in the detection of possible threats to his or her independence and in taking the necessary safeguard measures to reduce and, if necessary, eliminate.

According to this, on the one hand, the obligation of the auditor of accounts is highlighted, in order to ensure the objective and full realization of all audit work, to refrain from acting when relations are present, situations or services that threaten or compromise their independence, even if they incur any of the incompatibility situations provided for in the legislation. It also establishes, as a minimum, the actions of the auditors to ensure their objectivity and thus avoid those facts or circumstances that may constitute threats to the duty of independence. These situations or threats can be of various kinds, such as self-interest, self-review, advocacy, familiarity or trust, and intimidation. As regards these, the auditors must establish and implement the safeguard measures-written policies, communications, procedures, prohibitions, restrictions, etc.-which, for such purposes, are deemed necessary, which must include the to refrain from audit of accounts when situations or threats of a significant nature are detected which seriously compromise their objectivity, so that they may be liable to induce a third party to conclude that the auditor is not able to exercise an objective and impartial judgment on the issues treated during the performance of the audit work and therefore the independence of the auditor is compromised.

On the other hand, in relation to the legal causes of incompatibility, the regulation develops the recast text in order to specify or detail all those circumstances, relationships or interests that may be constituted. a threat or risk to the auditor's independence and, therefore, to affect the objective and impartial judgment that every auditor has to issue. To this end, the majority of the content of this chapter is answered, thus the development of extremes related to the holding of posts, the consideration of significant financial interest, the delimitation of declared services incompatible in accordance with the provisions laid down in its case by the legal order as well as those which are referred to its impact as measured in terms of relative importance on audited accounts, and the concentration of such fees as parameter not to allow financial dependence on the audited. Similarly, the causes of incompatibility arising from situations in which those who are in certain conditions or situations are developed in relation to auditors, audit firms and audited entities are developed. In this sense, situations can be developed to constitute two entities in a situation of linkage, in coherence with the parameters contained in the Commercial Code and other commercial development regulations, as well as the group of persons who are related to auditors or audit firms, taking as a reference the aforementioned Recommendation and with the particularities regulated in the recast text of the Audit of Accounts Act.

And finally, as far as the recruitment period is concerned, the way in which the tacit extension can be understood is accurate, as well as the scope to which the obligation of rotation imposed on the auditors in order to try to mitigate and, as far as possible, avoid the existence of prolonged and close relations with the audited entity and its staff resulting in excessive reliance on this entity by the auditor which may compromise its independence or induce a third party to question such independence.

The rest of the sections that comprise this chapter regulate the set of obligations required of auditors or audit firms: the duty to provide bail that guarantees permanently and in a manner (a) the extent to which it is necessary to carry out the audit of the accounts, the duties to be kept, the obligation to require all the information necessary to carry out the audit of accounts, the duties of the secrecy, conservation and custody, and the annual transparency report to be published by those who audit entities defined as being in the public interest and audit firms of third countries. With respect to this report, which is incorporated in Law 12/2010, certain questions of the legally established minimum content are developed in order to promote greater disclosure of the essential aspects of the structure, organization and the activity of those who audit, to enable them to know their commitment to the public interest function.

V

As an integral part of the public oversight system, Chapter IV "Of the Audit Activity Control Activity", distributed in four sections, defines the purpose of this activity, as well as the different ways in which they can be used, and provides that the exercise and development of these actions must enable the improvement, as a whole, of the quality of the audit work, to be ensured, to the extent of the possible, by the rational and efficient use of the resources to such willing purposes, than in the review of those works are included in all those who are legally entitled to exercise the audit activity.

It is also regulated the way in which these control activities are initiated, the control plan which serves as a basis for these actions, the way in which they are to be developed, the finding of the actions and results obtained and the completion of the control actions. Technical control measures, which are planned for audit work, in their entirety or in relation to specific parts, or to specific aspects of the audit activity, are intended to carry out appropriate investigations to ascertain those elements of judgment which, where appropriate, serve as the basis for the opening of the relevant sanctioning file. Quality control actions consist of the review of those who carry out such activities carried out on a preventive basis and under the principles of periodicity and generality. The process is introduced here, mainly aimed at formulating requirements and monitoring them. In short, both forms of action respond to a different objective and purpose which clearly affect the approach and direction of the review, while with the actions of technical control it is intended to discard or confirm the the existence of possible non-compliance with the regulatory rules of the audit of accounts, with the actions of quality control is essentially intended to improve the internal control procedures of the auditor and its functioning in the development of the audit activity, in general, and in the development of the work, in In particular, by formulating improvement requirements.

The chapter is completed with one last and fourth section, which regulates the content of the information to be sent periodically to the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts, in order to serve the best development of the supervisory powers and control actions conferred on the Institute and, in particular, the special duty imposed on it in relation to the observance of the independence requirement. It is important to highlight the important work that the Institute of Accounting and Audit of Accounts has to carry out in the maintenance of the Official Register of Auditors, as a basic element of the public oversight system and therefore in the the provision and management of the information provided by auditors in different fields and matters relating to their activity, which should contribute to better knowledge and greater transparency of the audit activity of the accounts.

VI

Chapter V "Of infringements and sanctions and of the sanctioning procedure" includes three sections, in which the specifications of some of the circumstances typified as an infringement, the criteria of Graduation for the quantification of sanctions and certain special rules concerning compliance with sanctions, treatment as a continuous infringement by the commission of several illegal acts, the ideal contest for infringements or a unit of fact the infringements, and the cancellation of the penalties entered in the Official Register of Auditors of Accounts.

Moreover, the set of provisions for implementing the administrative procedure of penalties is laid down, with the aim, as such, in the defence of the general interests, through the application of the corresponding corrective measures where acts contrary to the regulatory regulation of the audit activity by those who carry out them, which are unique to the type of procedure in question, are established. It is stated that, in any event, the Royal Decree 1398/1993 of 4 August, approving the Rules of Procedure for the exercise of the Sanctioning Authority, maintains its supplementary character, while regulating the specialties of this sanctioning procedure, derived from the activity here disciplined.

As such specialties, those relating to the complaint are foreseen, without binding effect in order to the opening of the sanctioning procedure, the treatment of which is subject, through the efficient and efficient planning and use of the available means, due to compliance with the audit powers of the audit activity legally attributed to the Institute of Accounts and Audit of Accounts; the allocation of powers to agree the extension of time limits for to resolve and to make representations; to the conduct of the previous proceedings regulated in this Regulation; the agreement to initiate the procedure for sanctioning the case; the powers of the instructor in the file to obtain reports; the decision of the file, after taking into account the criterion of the Audit Committee of the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts in the case of very serious or serious infractions; the possibility of carrying out complementary actions; and the processing or accumulation, for certain cases, of a single file.

VII

Chapter VI of International Cooperation, grouped in three sections, specifies the mechanisms for collaboration with the competent authorities of the other Member States of the European Union, which may consist of: collaboration in the exchange of information, in the so-called joint inspections consisting of participation in the performance of control actions, and in the obligation to carry out certain communications. The same is established in relation to the competent authorities of third countries, the mechanisms of which will be the ones to be set by the relevant cooperation agreements.

The last of the chapters "Of Corporate Auditors" contains the set of requirements to be met by these corporations and the functions they have to perform, modifying in relation to the previous ones that result from the current legal framework. It is thus highlighted the obligations imposed in relation to the proposal and the conduct of the examination of professional competence; continuing training; as well as the elaboration of ethical standards and codes of conduct, the verification of practices and internal procedures contained in those rules; and the execution of the quality control of auditors when agreed by the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts.

Finally, the first to fourth and eighth provisions of the Regulation incorporate provisions contained in the Regulation adopted by Royal Decree 1636/1990 which is repealed. They are intended to develop the provisions of the first provision of the recast text of the Audit of Accounts Act, relating to the obligation to submit annual accounts to audit, and to the final provision of the accounts. of the recast text, relating to the coordination between the public bodies or institutions and the auditors of those undertakings and entities and the possibility for the said institutions to obtain from the auditors the preparation of a supplementary report to the audit of annual accounts. At the same time, in order to obtain, by the aforementioned bodies and public institutions, greater and better information on the situation and functioning of the entities subject to their supervision, thereby increasing the effectiveness of the development of the of its inspection and control functions, aspects relating to the obligations of the auditors provided for in the second and third paragraphs of the aforementioned final provision of the recast text are developed.

Moreover, by means of the fifth additional provision, the audit work of accounts of public sector entities subject to their specific rules, of which they are carried out in such entities, is distinguished by auditors of accounts entered in the Official Register of Auditors and in accordance with the regulatory rules for the audit of accounts.

On the other hand, new aspects incorporated by Law 12/2010 are regulated, such as those related to the minimum content that the annual report published by the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts should have, according to the mandate for transparency and publicity contained in the fifth additional provision of the recast text of the Audit of Accounts Act, and the necessary publicity to give of the information exchange agreements adopted with third countries.

The rest of the provisions incorporate aspects regulated in the Regulation that is repealed, such as the system of consultations to be made before the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts, the publication and distribution of the Bulletin official of the said Institute, the composition of the collegiate organs of the Institute and those who have the consideration of a representative Corporation of auditors.

This Regulation is supplemented by a set of transitional provisions which aim mainly to facilitate the transition to the new regime which is incorporated here.

This Regulation has been submitted to the previous report of the Spanish Data Protection Agency.

In its virtue, on the proposal of the Minister of Economy and Finance, with the prior approval of the Minister of Territorial Policy and Public Administration, in accordance with the Council of State, after deliberation by the Council of Ministers at their meeting on 28 October 2011,

DISPONGO:

Single item. Approval of the Regulation developing the Audit of Accounts Act.

The Regulation on the development of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Law, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 1/2011 of 1 July 2011, is approved, the text of which is inserted below.

Single repeal provision. Regulatory repeal.

As many provisions of equal or lower rank are repealed, they oppose the provisions of this royal decree, and in particular:

(a) Royal Decree 1636/1990 of 20 December, approving the Regulation implementing the Audit of Accounts Act.

(b) The fourth additional provision of Royal Decree 296/2004 of 20 February approving the simplified accounting system.

Final disposition first. Competence title.

The Regulation implementing the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act is dictated by the exclusive competence of the State in matters of commercial law, in accordance with the provisions of Article 149.1.6. the Spanish Constitution.

Final disposition second. Entry into force.

This royal decree and the Regulation it approves shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the "Official Gazette of the State".

Given in Madrid, on October 31, 2011.

JOHN CARLOS R.

The Vice President of the Government of Economic Affairs and Minister of Economy and Finance,

ELENA SALGADO MENDEZ

REGULATION THAT DEVELOPS THE CONSOLIDATED TEXT OF THE LAW OF AUDIT OF ACCOUNTS, APPROVED BY THE ROYAL LEGISLATIVE DECREE 1/2011, OF JULY 1

CHAPTER I

From Audit of Accounts

Section 1. Application Scope

Article 1. Concept.

1. In accordance with Article 1.2 of the recast text of the Audit of Accounts Act, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 1/2011 of 1 July 2011, the audit of accounts shall mean the activity consisting of the review and verification of the annual accounts, as well as of other financial statements or accounting documents, drawn up in accordance with the regulatory framework for financial information which is applicable, provided that such activity is intended to issue a report on the reliability of such documents which may have effects vis-à-vis third parties.

In this activity, the economic and financial information deducted from the accounting documents examined will be analysed, through the use of appropriate review and verification techniques, in order to issue a report to demonstrate a technical opinion on the reliability of the above information.

2. The audit of accounts shall have to be carried out by an auditor in accordance with the rules of the audit of accounts as defined in Article 6 of the recast of the Audit Law. of Accounts.

3. The particulars listed in this Chapter I to the auditors shall also be construed as having been made to audit firms, as well as to the accounting officer or auditor of accounts expressly designated to carry out the work and to sign the audit report on behalf of those companies.

Article 2. Audit modes of accounts.

1. The audit of accounts, in the light of the financial statements or accounting documents to be examined, shall relate to one of the following:

a) Audit of annual accounts.

b) Audit of other financial statements or accounting documents.

2. For these purposes, other financial statements or accounting documents shall be those drawn up in accordance with the principles and rules contained in the applicable financial reporting framework, expressly laid down for their purposes. elaboration.

In particular, the accounting statements and statements of the annual accounts which are drawn up separately, or even drawn up as a whole, but which relate in this case to a period of time, are included in this concept. less than that of the social exercise.

These states or documents must be signed or formally assumed by those who have assigned the powers for their formulation, subscription or issuance, in the same way as that provided for in the commercial law for the formulation of the annual accounts. Where appropriate, the document on which the formal assumption is made shall accompany the relevant financial statements or accounting documents.

Article 3. Delimitation of the scope.

1. The work carried out on annual accounts, financial statements or accounting documents consisting of the accounts in the form of an audit of the accounts referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article shall not be considered to be included in any of the audit procedures laid down in Article 1 (1). specific verification of specific facts, in the issue of certifications or in the review or application of procedures with a limited scope lower than that required by the regulatory regulatory audit of accounts in order to issue an opinion auditing of accounts technique.

Such jobs and reports will not be taken into account in the audit of accounts regulated in this Regulation.

2. In addition, the work which, without bringing together the characteristics and conditions of a work of this nature, is attributed by provisions of legal status to auditors of accounts entered in the accounts, shall not be taken into account. the Official Register of Auditors.

All works which, without the consideration of auditing of accounts, are attributed by statutory provisions to auditors entered in the Official Register of Auditors of Accounts shall be subject to the provisions of the provision (a) in the case of the case-law of the Court of Auditors of the European Parliament and of the Council of the European Parliament and of the Council of the European Parliament, of the Council of the European Parliament and of the Council of the European Parliament and of the Council of the European Parliament. The preparation and publication of these guides shall be as provided for in Section 7 of this Chapter I of this Regulation. In no case shall the supervisory and control arrangements provided for in the regulatory rules for the audit of accounts be applied to such work.

3. Reports issued by auditors of accounts relating to works not covered by the audit procedures referred to in Article 2 shall not be identified as audit reports for accounts, nor may their wording or presentation be generate confusion with regard to their nature as audit work of accounts carried out in accordance with the regulatory rules of the audit of accounts as defined in Article 6 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act.

Section 2. Annual Audit of Accounts

Article 4. Audit definition of annual accounts.

1. The audit of the annual accounts shall consist of reviewing and verifying for the purposes of ruling whether those accounts express the true and fair view of the assets, the financial situation, the outcome of their operations and, where appropriate, the cash flows. of the audited entity, in accordance with the regulatory framework for financial information that is applicable and in particular with the accounting principles and criteria contained therein.

2. In addition, where the audited entity is required to issue the management report, or has issued it voluntarily, the auditors shall verify the agreement of the data contained therein with those of the annual accounts. examined.

Article 5. The annual accounts audit report.

1. The annual accounts audit report shall be issued by the auditors, subject to the content, requirements and formalities laid down in the regulatory rules for the audit of accounts.

2. In accordance with Article 3.1 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, the audit report of the annual accounts is a business document containing at least the following data, in addition to those required by the regulatory rules referred to in the preceding paragraph:

(a) Identification of the audited entity, of the annual accounts that are the subject of the audit, of the regulatory framework for financial information that was applied in its preparation, of the natural or legal persons who commissioned the audit work and, where appropriate, the persons to whom it is intended; and the reference to which the annual accounts have been drawn up by the administrative body of the audited entity.

(b) A general description of the extent of the audit carried out, with reference to the audit standards in accordance with which the audit has been carried out and, where appropriate, the procedures provided for in them which have not been possible apply as a result of any limitation on the conduct of the audit. It shall also be reported on the responsibility of the auditor or audit firm to express an opinion on those accounts as a whole.

c) A technical opinion with the content and scope set out in the following article.

(d) An opinion on the agreement or not of the management report with the accounts for the same financial year, in the event that the management report accompanies the annual accounts.

e) The date and signature of the auditor or auditor of accounts who had done so. The date of the audit report is the date on which the auditor has completed the audit procedures necessary to form an opinion on the annual accounts.

3. The date of the audit report may not be earlier than the date of the annual accounts by the administrative body.

In cases where the date of the audit report does not match the date of its delivery to the audited entity, documentary evidence of such delivery and of its date in the work papers of the auditor shall be provided.

4. In addition, the audit report shall contain, where appropriate, explicit expression of the reservations or caveats detected in the conduct of the audit work, as well as any aspect which, not constituting a reservation or a caveat, the auditor (i) should or should consider it necessary to highlight in the report as provided for in the regulatory regulation of the audit of accounts.

5. No limitations on their use may be established in the annual accounts audit report.

6. The annual accounts audit report shall be accompanied by all the documents that make up the audit accounts and, where appropriate, the management report. In no case shall the audit report be published in part or in extract, or in a separate manner to the annual audit accounts. The audit report on annual accounts of other unaudited information that is not clearly differentiated from the audited annual accounts shall also not be accompanied, unless such information is identified as unaudited.

Article 6. The auditor's technical opinion in the audit report on annual accounts.

1. The auditor shall state in the report clearly and accurately his technical opinion as to whether the annual accounts of a given financial year express the true and fair view of the assets and financial situation of the audited entity. for the closing of the financial year, as well as the outcome of its operations and, where appropriate, cash flows for the year ended on that date, in accordance with the regulatory framework for financial information that is applicable.

2. The opinion may be favourable, with the exception, unfavourable or rejected. When there are no reservations or caveats, the technical opinion will be considered "favorable". In the case of such reservations, all of them must be made clear in the report, indicating their nature in the opinion paragraph, and the technical opinion will be qualified as "opinion with caveats" or "unfavourable opinion". taking into account what is set out in the audit rules.

3. If, in the course of the activity covered by this Regulation, the auditor of accounts, when the time has come to issue the technical opinion referred to in paragraph 1 above, is required to refrain from making such a statement, The audit report should record the same, stating how many additional details and information are needed; this is called an audit report with a "rejected opinion".

Article 7. Obligation to issue the report and failure to issue or waive the audit contract.

1. The audit report shall be issued by the auditor in accordance with the provisions of the regulatory rules for the audit of accounts and the audit contract concluded for that purpose.

The issuance of the report and its delivery to the audited entity must be performed on the dates provided for contractually, so that it can meet the purpose for which the audit of accounts was contracted. For this purpose, the audit report shall be understood to comply with the purpose for which the audit of accounts was contracted when it contains a technical opinion of those referred to in Article 6 so that it can be known and assessed by the audited entity and third parties that may relate to the audited entity, while permitting compliance with the statutory and statutory requirements required of the audited entity in this respect.

notwithstanding the foregoing, if in the course of the work the auditor detected the existence of circumstances, not attributable to it, which could affect the date of issue of the initially planned report, the auditor details in a letter, which shall be sent to the person who carried out the audit, the circumstances and their possible effects on the issuance of the audit report. This document must be documented in the working papers.

2. In accordance with Article 3.2 of the recast text of the Audit of Accounts Act, the failure to issue the audit report or the waiver of the audit contract will only be possible due to the existence of the audit report. fair cause and in those cases where one of the following circumstances is present:

(a) Existence of threats that could seriously compromise the independence or objectivity of the auditor or audit firm in accordance with the provisions of Section I of Chapter III of this Regulation. Regulation.

(b) Absolute impossibility of carrying out the work entrusted to the auditor or audit firm for circumstances not attributable to them.

For these purposes, it will be considered that there is absolute impossibility for the performance of the audit work:

1. When the entity does not deliver to the auditor of the accounts of the annual accounts formulated, subject to examination, prior written request made to that effect. In any event, it shall be understood that no such delivery has taken place where more than one year has elapsed since the date of reference of the said annual accounts.

2. Where, exceptionally, other circumstances not attributable to the auditor, and other than those of a technical nature, prevent the performance of the audit work in its substantial aspects. In particular and for these purposes, it shall not be considered that there is absolute impossibility in carrying out the audit work when the auditor is unable to implement those audit procedures that are necessary to obtain the audit audit evidence in relation to the information in the annual accounts, in which case the audit report shall be issued in accordance with the rules of audit.

3. In the cases referred to in the preceding paragraph, the auditor shall in a written form detail all the circumstances of the failure to issue the report or the waiver of the audit contract. This document must be sent to the audited entity within a period not exceeding 15 working days from the date on which the auditor was aware of the circumstance referred to, and always prior to the date on which the audit should be issued to meet the purpose for which it was contracted, without prejudice to the possibility of waiving the continuity of the audit contract.

In addition, when the audit is mandatory, this communication must be transmitted within the period indicated in the preceding paragraph, to the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts and to the Commercial Registry of the registered office. corresponding to the audited entity.

4. Once the actions referred to in this Article have been carried out, the auditor's obligations as regards the audit work to be carried out on the annual accounts for the financial year in respect of which they have been carried out may be deemed to be terminated. the circumstances referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article.

Article 8. Annual account audit contract.

1. Prior to the start of the audit work, an audit contract must be signed between the audited entity and the auditor.

The annual accounts audit contract is to be formalised in writing and shall include, in accordance with the regulatory rules for the audit of accounts, at least the identification of the annual accounts which are the subject of audit and the relevant aspects of the audit work to be carried out, relating to the procurement period, the fees, purpose or reason for the assignment and the delivery time of the audit report, without being able to establish limitations to the development of the audit work and any provisions contrary to the provisions of the the above rules or restrictions on the distribution or use of the audit report.

2. When the audit contract is concluded and, in any event, at the time of acceptance of the designation made by the institution, the auditor shall be registered in the exercise referred to in Article 27 (a). If the audit contract is signed with a legal person, the legal person must be registered at that time as an audit firm in the Official Register of Auditors.

Article 9. Joint action by auditors.

When multiple account auditors are appointed to conduct an audit work of accounts, the audit report will be unique and will be issued under the responsibility of all of them, who will sign the report and will be subject to the provisions of the regulatory rules for the audit of accounts.

Relations between the auditors of the appointed accounts and the actions to be followed in relation to the audit work shall be carried out in accordance with the specific audit standard.

In the cases referred to in this Article, the auditors of the appointed accounts shall be responsible for the custody and preservation of all the work papers corresponding to the audit work.

Section 3. Audit of other financial statements or accounting documents

Article 10. Definition of audit of other financial statements or accounting documents.

1. The audit of other financial statements or accounting documents referred to in Article 2 (2) (b) shall consist of verifying and ruling whether those financial statements or accounting documents express the true image or have been prepared, as corresponds to, in accordance with the regulatory framework for financial information expressly established for the preparation of such documents or states.

2. The provisions of Section 2 of this Chapter I for the work and audit report of the annual accounts shall be applicable, with the appropriate adjustment and in the absence of the provisions of this Section, to the work and reports of the audit on other financial statements or accounting documents.

Article 11. Audit report on other financial statements or accounting documents.

The audit report on other financial statements or accounting documents shall contain at least the following:

a) Identification of the entity to which the financial statement or accounting document is audited.

b) Identification of who or who commissioned the work, and, where appropriate, whom it is intended for.

c) Identification of the financial statements or accounting documents that are the subject of audit that are accompanied by the report.

(d) Reference to the fact that financial statements or accounting documents that are audited by accounts have been formally signed or assumed by those who have assigned the powers for their subscription or issuance, as well as the reference to the regulatory framework for financial information applied in the preparation of such statements or documents.

e) Reference to the regulatory regulation of the audit of accounts applied in the work carried out and, where appropriate, to the procedures foreseen in them that it has not been possible to apply as a consequence of any limitation imposed on the audit activity. The responsibility of the auditor to issue a technical opinion on financial statements or accounting documents as a whole shall also be mentioned.

f) Where appropriate, explicit manifestation of the reservations or caveats detected in the development of the work.

g) Technical opinion, with the content and scope set out in the following article.

h) Where appropriate, explicit manifestation of any aspect that, not constituting a reservation or caveat, the auditor of accounts should or should consider necessary to highlight in the report in accordance with the provisions of the regulatory regulations audit of accounts.

i) Signature of the auditor or auditor of accounts that would have done so, with the expression of the date of issue of the report.

Article 12. The auditor's technical opinion in the audit report on other financial statements or accounting documents.

1. The form of the technical opinion referred to in point (g) of the previous Article shall depend on the type of regulatory framework for financial information applicable, in accordance with the provisions of this Article.

In the event that the applicable financial reporting framework is a fair picture framework, the technical opinion shall take the form provided for in Article 6.1 of this Regulation for annual accounts, if referred to in the information contained in the audited specific financial statement or accounting document.

When the applicable financial reporting framework is a compliance framework, the technical opinion shall be based on whether the audited financial statements or accounting documents have been prepared in all respects. significant, in accordance with the regulatory framework for financial information expressly established for the preparation of such documents or states.

2. A financial reporting framework shall be deemed to be of a true and fair view when, in addition to requiring the application of certain principles and accounting rules, it explicitly provides for the possibility of including precise supplementary information. to achieve such a true and fair image, and in exceptional cases, to stop using applicable accounting principles and standards that are incompatible with it.

Where the applicable financial reporting framework requires compliance with certain accounting principles and standards, without the possibility of applying the forecasts referred to in the preceding paragraph, such a framework shall be considered as a compliance framework.

Section 4. Consolidated Account Audit

Article 13. Documentation of the review and evaluation of the work done by auditors and audit firms.

1. In accordance with Article 5 (2) and (3) of the recast text of the Audit of Accounts Act, the auditor of accounts carrying out the audit of the consolidated annual accounts or other financial statements or documents consolidated accounting, assumes full responsibility for the audit report issued, even if the audit of the annual accounts of the participating companies has been carried out by other auditors, and will be required to collect the information necessary, where appropriate, to those who have carried out the audit of the accounts of the entities forming part of the consolidable set, which will be required to supply as much information as requested.

2. For the purposes of Article 5.4 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, the auditor of the accounts of the consolidated annual accounts shall have the documentation relating to the review and evaluation of the work of audit carried out by other auditors in relation to audits of entities that are part of the consolidated set, with the content and detail set out in the audit standards.

3. The details of the documentation referred to in the preceding paragraph shall be in accordance with the characteristics and circumstances of the consolidated set and the relative importance of each of its constituent entities, in accordance with the provisions of this Regulation. in this respect in the audit rules.

4. The statement contained in this section to consolidated annual accounts is also to be understood as referring to other financial statements or consolidated accounting documents. In addition, the reference to other auditors comprises auditors or companies and other audit entities of the European Union and third countries.

Article 14. Access to the documentation of third-country auditors with whom there is no information exchange agreement.

1. In the event that the annual accounts or financial statements or accounting documents of an entity that is part of the consolidated set are significant for the group, taking into account the concept of relative importance in audit, audited by auditors or companies and other audit entities registered and authorised in third countries with which there is no exchange of information agreement on the basis of reciprocity, the auditor of the accounts of the accounts Consolidated will be responsible for implementing the necessary procedures to facilitate the The Accounting and Audit Audit Institute may have access to the documentation of the audit work carried out by those auditors or companies and other audit entities registered and authorised in third countries, including the relevant work papers for the audit of the group.

2. For these purposes, the auditor of the consolidated accounts shall take one of the following measures:

(a) Keep a copy of the documentation of the work done by the auditors or companies and other audit entities registered and authorised in third countries.

(b) agree, in writing, with auditors or companies and other audit entities registered and authorised in third countries, to provide adequate and unlimited access to the documentation of the work carried out by them, with the the auditor of the consolidated accounts may submit all the documents required in this respect by the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts.

For such purposes, the auditor of the consolidated accounts shall be responsible for applying the following procedures:

1. You will contact the third-country auditor in writing, indicating that, according to the legislation in force in Spain, there is an obligation to allow access to the Accounting and Audit Institute of the documentation of the work carried out by him as part of the audit of the consolidated accounts.

2. º Request written confirmation regarding whether there are legal or other impediments to the referral of the work documentation and, if appropriate, a detailed explanation of such impediments along with the justification legal status of the same. In the event that there are impediments, they will assess the communication of such a situation to the Accounting and Audit Institute.

3. Where there are legal or other impediments to the referral of the documentation of the work done by the auditors or companies and other audit entities registered and authorised in third countries, the auditor of the accounts of the the consolidated accounts shall keep the documentation relating to the procedures applied for access to such documentation and those impediments. In the event that the impediments are not legal, the auditor of the accounts of the consolidated accounts shall document the evidence showing such impediments.

The existence of such impediments does not constitute an absolute impossibility for the conduct of the audit work of consolidated accounts as provided for in Article 7 of this Regulation.

Section 5. Public Interest Entities

Article 15. Entities of public interest.

1. For the exclusive purposes of the regulatory rules for the audit of accounts, they shall be considered to be of public interest, the following:

(a) Securities issuing entities admitted to trading on official secondary securities markets, as well as credit institutions and insurance institutions subject to the supervisory and control regime attributed to the The Bank of Spain and the Directorate-General for Insurance and Pension Funds or the autonomic bodies with powers of management and supervision of the insurance institutions, as referred to in Article 2.5.a) of the recast of the Law of Audit of Accounts.

(b) Collective investment institutions which, for two consecutive financial years, at the closing date of each of them, have at least 150 members or shareholders, the management companies that administer such Institutions as well as investment services companies

(c) Mutual guarantee companies, payment institutions and electronic money institutions.

(d) Pension funds which, for two consecutive years, at the closing date of each of them, have at least 500 members and the management companies that administer those funds.

e) Those entities other than those referred to in the preceding paragraphs whose net amount of the turnover or average template for two consecutive years, at the closing date of each of them, is greater than 200,000,000 euros or 1,000 employees, respectively.

(f) The groups of companies in which the entities referred to in the preceding paragraphs are integrated.

2. The entities referred to in paragraphs (b), (d) and (e) of this Article shall lose the consideration of public interest entities if they fail to meet for two consecutive years, at the closing date of each of them, the requirements set out in those paragraphs.

In the case of the first social exercise of incorporation, transformation or merger, the entities referred to in this paragraph shall have the status of entities of public interest if they meet, at the close of that financial year, the following: requirements listed in the previous section.

Section 6. Regulatory Regulatory for Account Audit Activity

Article 16. Regulatory rules for the audit of accounts activity.

Regulatory rules for the audit of accounts activity contain the principles and requirements that auditors must observe in the exercise of such activity.

Regulatory rules for auditing of accounts shall be understood to be contained in the recast text of the Audit of Accounts Act and in this Regulation, as well as in the audit, ethics and control rules. of the internal quality of the auditors.

Article 17. Audit rules.

1. The auditing standards referred to in Article 6.2 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act constitute the principles and requirements to be observed by the auditors in the conduct of the audit work of accounts and on which the actions necessary to express a responsible and independent technical opinion should be based.

2. The technical rules for auditing shall aim at the regulation of aspects not covered by the international audit standards adopted by the European Union.

In addition, while international auditing standards have not been adopted by the European Union, the technical auditing standards are the principles and requirements to be observed by auditors in the European Union. performance of their audit accounts and on which the necessary actions should be based to express a responsible and independent technical opinion.

In the exceptional circumstances of circumstances not provided for in the regulatory regulation of the audit of accounts, they shall be considered to be the usual uses or practices of the auditors of accounts, understood as the repeated, constant and widespread acts observed by those in the conduct of the audit of accounts, and provided that they are not inconsistent with the provisions of the said rules.

Article 18. Additional exceptions and requirements.

1. The Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts, heard by its Audit Audit Committee, shall, where appropriate, decide on the exceptional circumstances in which no international audit standard adopted by the Union is applicable. European, or part thereof, where that is the result of laws or regulations relating to the scope of the audit of accounts, provided that the requirements and the procedure for communication referred to in Article 26 (2) and (3) of the Directive 2006 /43/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 May 2006 on auditing (a) the legal basis for the annual accounts and consolidated accounts, amending Council Directives 78 /660/EEC and 83 /349/EEC and repealing Council Directive 84 /253/EEC.

In these exceptional cases, the Accounting and Audit Institute shall communicate to the European Commission and to the other Member States the national laws or regulations and their justification, at least six months before their approval and entry into force, or, in the case of a legal or regulatory provision already in place at the time of the adoption of an international standard of audit by the European Union, within a period not exceeding three months from the date of the said adoption of the international audit standard.

Once the previous communication has been made, the exceptional cases in which no international standard of audit, or part of it, adopted by the European Union, is applicable, in accordance with the provisions of this paragraph, shall be published by means of a resolution of the Audit Accounts Institute.

2. Additional requirements may also be imposed on the audit standards adopted by the European Union, in accordance with the Community rules applicable to them.

It will be up to the Accounting and Audit Institute to resolve these exceptional cases, as well as to communicate the additional requirements to the European Commission and the Member States prior to their adoption.

The adoption of these additional requirements will be carried out by means of a resolution of the Accounting and Audit Institute stating that the corresponding paragraphs of the technical standards of the Pre-existing audit of the adoption by the European Union of international audit standards on the same subject, or by the publication of new technical standards for auditing limited to those additional requirements, in which elaboration will be as foreseen in section 6. of this Chapter.

Article 19. Standards of ethics.

1. The accountability and performance of the auditors should be governed by the principle of public interest that carries out the audit of accounts. In this respect, auditors in the exercise of their activity must take into account and act in any event subject to the following ethical principles: professional competence, due diligence, integrity and objectivity, without prejudice to the duty of independence in Section 2 of Chapter III of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act:

(a) Professional competence: Account auditors must maintain their theoretical and practical knowledge at the level required to ensure that audited entities and financial information users are fully supported. Trust an optimal service.

These acquired knowledge must be maintained over time, so that the auditors will have to carry out continuous training and continuous updating activities.

b) Due diligence refers to the special duty of care and attention that auditors must provide when they know and apply the regulatory regulation of the audit activity, so that the findings achieved in the performance of the audit work are properly supported and justified.

(c) Objectivity implies, for auditors, to act impartially and without conflicts of interest that could compromise their independence. In no case shall auditors be able to engage in undue influence, favouritism or prejudice, or have any other interests which may affect the way in which they are to be raised and carried out an audit, or which may affect the the formation of an impartial trial.

d) The principle of integrity imposes on auditors the obligation to be honest in the exercise of their activity. Integrity also implies that the auditors must act with righteousness and commitment in any event that may result in a conflict of interest.

2. The auditors must act in accordance with the rules governing the audit of accounts, taking into account not only the letter but also the spirit in which they are inspired.

Auditors and audit firms will promote a work and corporate environment of integrity and respect for the principles and standards of ethics that govern the audit of accounts.

Article 20. Rules of internal quality control of auditors and audit firms.

Internal quality control standards shall be designed to establish the principles and requirements to be followed by the auditors in the implementation of an internal quality control system to enable them to ensure reasonably that the audit activity of accounts is carried out in accordance with the requirements of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, this Regulation and the rules of audit and ethics.

Section 7. Elaboration of technical, ethical and internal quality control standards

Article 21. Initiative and elaboration.

1. In accordance with Article 6.4 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, the technical standards for auditing, standards of ethics and internal quality control standards shall be drawn up, adapted or revised, with the agreement of the general principles and practice commonly accepted in the countries of the European Union, as well as with international auditing standards adopted by the European Union, by public law corporations representative of those carrying out the audit of accounts, and under the responsibility of the public oversight system to which refers to Article 27.3 of the recast text of the Audit of Accounts Act.

2. By way of derogation from the above paragraph, the technical standards for auditing, standards of ethics and internal quality control standards developed, adapted or reviewed by such public law corporations shall not be valid until which are published by the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts in its Official Gazette.

Article 22. Public information.

1. In the case of the establishment of technical standards for auditing of accounts, standards of ethics or internal quality control standards, as well as adaptations or revisions thereof, the Accounting and Audit Institute shall proceed to the submit them to public information, by sending them for insertion into the Official State Gazette of the timely review, publishing them in the Official Gazette of the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts.

2. The public information procedure will last for two months and during this period the file will be available to those interested in their examination, both in the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts and in the law corporations. the public representatives of the auditors, the relevant allegations being deducted. The two-month period of public information may be extended in the light of the exceptional circumstances and circumstances which may arise in a particular rule.

Article 23. Publication and entry into force.

1. No later than three months after the completion of the public information procedure or, where appropriate, from the date of submission of the appropriate adaptation or review, the Accounting and Audit Institute shall, by resolution, the relevant publication in its Official Gazette for its entry into force, or shall communicate to the public corporations representative of the auditors, the reasons for which its publication does not proceed, proposing the relevant modifications, if any.

2. If the proposed amendments are accepted by the public law corporations representative of the auditors, the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts shall proceed to the publication referred to in the previous paragraph.

3. Additionally, the Accounting and Audit Institute will proceed to send the resolution for insertion into the Official State Gazette of the timely review.

Article 24. Supervision by the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts.

1. The Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts, as the person responsible for the public oversight system, may require the public law corporations to be representative of the auditors, where it considers it necessary, to draw up, adapt or revise the technical standards of audit, standards of ethics and internal quality control standards.

2. In the case of six months from that requirement without the aforementioned public law corporations having regard to it, it shall be understood that they accept the application of the international audit standards adopted by the Union. European or whose practice is commonly accepted at European Union level, which will enter into force through its publication by resolution of the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts, in accordance with the responsibility attributed to the European Union. Article 27 (3) (b) of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act.

This resolution will be adopted upon the issuance of the favorable report of the Audit of Accounts Audit Committee and the Audit of Accounts, and provided that the lack of attention to the requirement referred to in paragraph 1, it may lead to the absence of rules or the existence of rules contrary to the rules of the European Union or regulatory of the audit of accounts contained in the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act and in This Regulation.

CHAPTER II

Access to the exercise of account auditing activity

Section 1. First Official Record of Auditors of Accounts

Article 25. Exercise of the activity.

1. It is the responsibility of the public oversight system to manage and control access to the exercise of the audit of accounts.

2. The audit of accounts may be carried out by natural or legal persons who, together with the requirements referred to in Articles 8 to 10 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act respectively, are registered as exercising in the case of natural persons, in the Official Register of Auditors of the Accounts Institute of Accounts and Audit of Accounts, and have provided bail in respect of damages which may be derived from the non-compliance of your obligations

Article 26. Sections of the Register.

The Official Register of Auditors shall consist of three sections, one for natural persons, one for companies and a third for auditors, companies and other audit entities from third countries to Those referred to in Article 30.

For these purposes, the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts shall establish, by resolution, the application models for registration in those sections.

Article 27. Natural persons.

In the natural persons section, auditors shall be entered with a specification of the situation in which they are located, depending on their relationship to the audit activity of accounts, in one of the following:

a) Exercising.

(b) Not exercising which provides services for an employed person.

c) Not exercising.

Article 28. Situations.

1. Only auditors of accounts registered as exercising may act as responsible and signatory to the audit of accounts activity as defined in Article 1 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act.

Auditors of exercisable accounts shall register as such in some or some of the following modalities: individually, as an audit firm partner of accounts, or as a designated auditor of accounts expressly by an audit firm to sign audit reports in the name of that company.

2. In order to register for this exercise, the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts must be requested in writing, accompanying the application with the supporting documentation of the requirements set out in Article 8.1 of the text. recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, as well as of the security required and constituted in accordance with Article 55 of this Regulation and, where appropriate, the continuing training provided for in Article 40 of this Regulation. In the case of auditors or auditors who are expressly designated by the company to sign audit reports on their behalf, the audit firm shall be responsible for forwarding such evidence.

3. In the case of a non-performing person providing services, other persons may choose to register those who are actively collaborating with an auditor for the financial year or with an audit firm of accounts in tasks directly linked to the audit of accounts activity.

To register for this situation you will need to apply in writing to the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts.

If you do not exercise this option or do not credit the fulfilment of the requirements referred to in the previous paragraph, they will be included in the non-exercising situation.

4. As non-exercisers, auditors who do not carry out the audit of accounts in the terms referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article or have not chosen to register in the situation described in the above shall be entered in the accounts. paragraph 3 above. The attachment to this situation must be requested in writing from the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts and accredit, where appropriate, the fulfilment of the requirements set out in article 8.1 of the recast of the Law of Audit of Accounts.

Article 29. Companies in the Official Register of Auditors.

1. Audit firms domiciled in Spanish territory or in that of a Member State of the European Union which they credit may be entered in the Official Register of Audit Auditors by means of the contribution to the Accounting Institute and Audit of Accounts of the relevant application and supporting documentation of compliance with the requirements set out in Article 10.1 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act.

2. Audit firms shall report to the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts of the designations that they do to the auditors to carry out audits and to issue audit reports on their behalf, as well as their variations. They shall also communicate who or who are appointed, at all times, to represent audit firms in their relations with the Official Register of Auditors. It is understood that those who have not been notified to the Accounting and Audit Institute are not designated.

3. It shall be presumed, unless otherwise stated, that the audit partners of the exercising accounts are appointed to carry out audits and to sign reports on behalf of the company.

4. The communications made by the Accounting and Audit Institute in the exercise of its powers to the audit partners and the auditors expressly designated to carry out audits and to sign reports on behalf of the audit firm shall be carried out at the address of the audit firm on the record in the Official Register of Auditors, unless otherwise expressly stated.

Article 30. Separate registration of certain auditors as well as companies and other audit entities from third countries.

Shall be entered in a separate section in the Official Register of Auditors, auditors and companies and other third-country audit entities issuing audit reports on annual accounts or consolidated annual accounts of an entity incorporated outside the European Union and whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market in Spain, as provided for in Articles 9.3 and 10.4 of the recast of the Act of Audit of Accounts.

To register in this situation, the Institute of Accounting and Audit of Accounts must be requested in writing and, together with the application, credit the fulfilment of the requirements set out in Article 9.3 of the recast text. of the Audit of Accounts Act

Article 31. Relationship of auditors to accounts.

1. The Accounting and Audit Audit Institute shall make publicly available, at least annually and in an up-to-date manner, the ratio of auditors to the name, address, registration number, situation in which they are registered, and in the case of exercising, professional domicile, internet address and registration number of the company or audit firms with which it is related, public law corporation to which they belong, if any, and all other registration as auditor of accounts with the competent authorities of other Member States and as an auditor in third countries, indicating the competent authorities for the registration, and where applicable the registration numbers.

2. The Accounting and Audit Institute shall make publicly available, at least annually and in an up-to-date manner, the relationship of the registered audit firms, in which it shall necessarily comprise for each of them:

(a) Name, registered office, legal form, address of each office in which you perform your activity, registration number and address of the Internet.

(b) The name, address and registration number of each of the partners, with the indication of who or who perform the administrative or management functions.

(c) Name, address and registration number of the auditors at the service of the company, with the identification of those expressly designated to carry out audits and to sign audit reports on behalf of the auditors of the company and the period of validity of the registration.

(d) If the company is linked to the entities referred to in Articles 17 and 18 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, it shall provide information on the names and addresses of those entities, or the address specific internet where such information is expressly stated.

(e) All other entries as an audit firm with the competent authorities of other Member States and third countries, indicating the competent authority for the registration and, where appropriate, the number of record.

f) Corporation in public law to which they belong.

3. The Accounting and Audit Institute shall make publicly available, at least annually and in an updated manner, a separate relationship of auditors and companies and other audit entities from third countries to which they relate respectively Articles 9.3 and 10.4 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, with the indication that they are not authorised for the exercise of the audit activity of accounts in Spain, and shall include at least information on the name or social reason and address of each of them, and without prejudice to the provisions of the legislation Community in this respect.

4. The Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts shall transmit to the Central Trade Register and to the Directorate-General of the Records and the Notary the relations of auditors and audit firms referred to in Articles 355 and 356, respectively, of the Regulation of the Commercial Registry, approved by Royal Decree 1784/1996 of 19 July 1996. Those lists shall include, in addition to the audit firms, those auditors of registered accounts who have not expressly expressed their wish to be excluded from the above mentioned relations.

5. The Institute for Accounting and Audit of Accounts shall also transmit to the Decanate of the Courts, the relations of the natural persons, in situations of exercising and providing services for other persons, and legal entities registered in the Official Register of Auditors of Accounts who have expressed their willingness to be appointed as conformed administrators, in accordance with the provisions of Article 27 of Law 22/2003 of 9 July, Insolvency.

Article 32. Low in the Registry.

1. The auditors shall cause temporary or permanent discharge in accordance with the cases in the Official Register of Auditors, in the following cases:

a) By death.

(b) For non-compliance with any of the requirements set out in Articles 8 and 9 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act.

c) By voluntary waiver.

d) By penalty.

In the event that the auditors do not properly maintain the security provided for in Article 55 of this Regulation, they are automatically assigned to the situation of non-exercisers.

2. The audit firms shall, in addition to the cases referred to in points (c) and (d) of the previous paragraph, lower the audit firms in the Official Register of Auditors when they do not comply with any of the requirements laid down in Article 10.1 of the the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, as well as in the case of the dissolution of the company or where the company had not provided the security provided for in Article 55 of this Regulation or such security was insufficient, without prejudice to the provided for in Article 11.2 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act.

3. The application for a voluntary discharge in the Official Register of Auditors shall be addressed to the President of the Accounting and Audit Office. The resolution referred to in Article 26 may provide for the form and conditions for the application by electronic means.

The processing of the corresponding application shall be subject to the provisions of Law 30/1992 of 26 November of the Legal Regime of Public Administrations and of the Common Administrative Procedure.

Section 2. Authorization for the audit of accounts

Article 33. Authorization.

1. The authorisation referred to in Article 8 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act shall be granted to those who meet and credit the following conditions:

a) Haber obtained a formal university degree.

b) Haber followed courses of theoretical teaching.

c) Having acquired a practical training.

d) Having passed a professional fitness test organized and recognized by the State.

2. They shall be exempt from compliance with the condition laid down in paragraph 1 (a), who fulfil the conditions of access to the university provided for in the legislation in force and provided that the practical training acquired, as referred to in point (c) of the previous paragraph, comply with the provisions of Article 35.2.

3. The application for authorization and registration in the Official Register of Auditors of Accounts shall be addressed to the President of the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts. By means of the resolution referred to in Article 26, the form and conditions for the application by electronic means may be established.

The processing of the corresponding application will be subject, in the absence of this Regulation, to the provisions contained in Law 30/1992, of 26 November, of the Legal Regime of the Public and the Common Administrative Procedure.

Article 34. Theoretical teaching courses.

1. The theoretical teaching courses required in paragraph (b) of Article 8.2 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act shall relate to the following subjects:

a) Regulatory framework for financial information.

b) Financial analysis, referring to accounting statements.

c) Managing cost and accounting accounting.

d) Risk management and internal control.

e) Audit of accounts and access rules to this.

(f) Regulations applicable to the audit of accounts and auditors and audit firms.

g) International auditing standards.

h) Standards of ethics and independence.

i) And to the extent required for the exercise of audit accounts activity:

1. Company law, other entities and governance; insolvency, tax, civil and commercial law; labour law and social security; information technology and computer systems.

2. General economics, business economics and financial economics; mathematics and statistics, and fundamental principles of financial management of companies.

2. These courses will be organized and taught by the universities or public law corporations representative of auditors. In any case, the aforementioned courses must be approved by the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts. To this end, the audit body, heard by the Audit Committee, shall, by means of a resolution published in its Bulletin, establish the characteristics and conditions to be met by those courses for approval.

In the alternative, the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts will be responsible for the organization and implementation of these courses.

3. For the purposes of considering compliance with the requirement relating to the monitoring of theoretical teaching courses, the civil servants or employees referred to in Article 8.4 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act shall accredit exceeding the relevant selective tests, as well as the knowledge required for such an improvement sufficiently includes the materials referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article.

Corresponds to the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts, by resolution, the establishment of the conditions that must gather the aforementioned selective tests to recognize the persons who carry out the effects provided in this section.

Article 35. Practical training.

1. In accordance with Article 8.2.b) of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, practical training must be extended for a minimum period of three years in the work carried out in the financial and accounting fields, and shall cover in particular annual accounts, consolidated accounts or similar financial statements. At least two years of such practical training shall be carried out with an auditor or an audit firm, who are authorised to audit accounts, in the course of this activity in any Member State of the Union. European and in relation to the tasks related to the different phases of this activity.

For these purposes, the requirement of practical training shall not be understood to have been fulfilled until the performance of effective work in that field has been established during at least 5,100 hours, of which 3,400 must correspond to tasks related to the different phases that make up the audit activity of accounts. From this last number of hours, up to a maximum of 20 per cent can be justified by dedication to other tasks related to the audit of accounts.

The practical training to be carried out with an auditor or an audit firm, and in relation to the tasks relating to the different stages of this activity, will be carried out, in general, after the completion of the theoretical course of training covered by the previous Article. For these purposes, only a maximum of 425 hours before the completion of the said course and a maximum of 850 hours during the course of the course of the course of the course will be taken into account for the audit of the accounts and the substantial realization of all the tasks related to the auditing of accounts.

The provisions of this paragraph shall be without prejudice to the provisions of the second transitional provision of this Regulation.

2. For people who, meeting the rest of the requirements set out in Article 8.1 of the Recast Text of the Audit of Accounts Act, lacking a university degree, meet the requirements of access to the university provided for in the Current rules, practical training must be extended for a minimum period of eight years in work carried out in the financial and accounting field, in particular in the control of annual accounts, consolidated accounts and financial statements analogues, of which at least five years have been carried out with a person authorised for the exercise of the audit activity of accounts and in the exercise of this activity.

For these purposes, the requirement of practical training shall not be understood to have been fulfilled until it has been established that effective work has been carried out in auditing accounts for at least 8,500 hours and has made substantial progress. all tasks relating to the audit of accounts. Of this number of hours, up to a maximum of 20 per cent may be justified for other tasks related to the audit of accounts. In addition, in this case, at least 50% of the number of hours of practical training must be carried out after the completion of the theoretical teaching courses in the previous article.

The provisions of this paragraph shall be without prejudice to the provisions of the second transitional provision of this Regulation.

3. Auditors and audit firms shall provide annual information to the Accounting and Audit Institute of accounts of the practical training carried out by the persons at their service, in detail and distribution, and within the time limit. to be determined by resolution of the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts.

4. Certificates issued in order to prove the requirement of practical training with a person authorized to audit accounts for the purposes of the examination of professional competence as laid down in the following Article shall be a reference to the contractual link which may have existed, as well as to the effective time worked on audit of accounts, in accordance with the detail and content provided for in the decision referred to in the preceding paragraph, and without prejudice to the powers of the verification that they could be carried out in the process of convening referred to in Article 37.2.

5. For the purposes of considering compliance with the requirement relating to practical training, civil servants or employees referred to in Article 8.4 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act shall provide a certificate issued by the the competent body of the centre, body or public entity which has legally assigned the audit functions referred to in that paragraph, in which the performance for three effective years of work is demonstrated in sufficient detail for the audit of annual accounts, consolidated accounts or financial statements the like of public sector entities, financial institutions or insurers, or the direct supervision or control of audits and auditors of accounts of those documents.

Article 36. Fitness test.

1. The examination of professional competence shall be carried out in order to verify the training of the candidate for the exercise of the audit of accounts, and shall consist of two phases:

(a) The level of theoretical knowledge achieved in respect of the subjects referred to in Article 34.1 shall be verified at the first stage.

(b) In the second phase, which may be accessed only by those who have passed the first stage of the examination, the ability to apply the theoretical knowledge to the practice of the audit of accounts shall be determined.

2. Those who hold an official certificate valid throughout the national territory, as referred to in Article 34 of the Organic Law 6/2001, of 21 December, of Universities, shall be exempt from the courses of theoretical and training courses. the first stage of the examination, in those matters which have been completed in the studies required to obtain those titles, in the form and conditions to be established. For the distribution of these titles, the universities will be able to request the collaboration of a representative Corporation of auditors.

It will be up to the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts, heard by the Audit of Accounts Committee, by means of a resolution published in its Bulletin, to establish the conditions of the aforementioned dispensation.

3. The requirement relating to the improvement of the examination of professional competence by public servants or employees falling within the scope of Article 8.4 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act shall be deemed to have been met with the the accreditation referred to in Article 34.3.

Article 37. Call and court.

1. As provided for in Article 8.2.c) of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, the examination of professional competence shall be carried out by means of the single convocation system, on a joint proposal from the public law corporations. representative of the auditors and, in the alternative, the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts, after approval, in any case, by the latter of the respective call, which shall be published by order of the Minister of Economy and Finance. The content of the programme shall be that provided for in each call order.

The management and development of each call will jointly correspond to the aforementioned corporations governed by public law and, where appropriate, and subsidiary to the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts. The rules and criteria for coordination between the corporations shall be established by specific ministerial order or in each order of call.

2. The call shall, in general, have a biennial periodicity and only persons who satisfy and credit the requirements laid down in Article 8.1.a) and (b) and (2) (a) and (b) of the recast of the Law of the European Union may have access to the tests. Audit of Accounts. In this respect, the court appointed for that purpose may require the documentation to be specified in order to verify compliance with those requirements.

3. The court shall be appointed in each order of call and shall, in accordance with that order, be responsible for the development and qualification of the aptitude tests.

Shall be constituted by a President, who shall be a representative of the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts designated as one of the Deputy Directors-General or assimilated to that body, an even number of vowels and a secretary.

Such vowels shall include a representative, at least, of each public law corporation representative of the auditors to its proposal and among its members.

Likewise, it will be among the vowels, on the proposal of the aforementioned corporations, a professor of expert university in the areas of knowledge related to some of the subjects included in the program, and representatives of the The Institute of Accounting and Audit of Accounts designated by the officials of that body, in such a way that the number of vowels represented by the representatives of the aforementioned Institute, together with the professor of university, is equal to the number of members of the public representative of public law corporations auditors.

The secretary, who will act with voice and without a vote, will be appointed on a proposal from the corporations. In the event that there is no unanimous agreement of the corporations in the proposal on the expert or the secretary, this will be done by the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts.

4. An alternate tribunal shall be appointed in any order of call.

5. As far as is not provided for in this Article and in the relevant orders referred to in paragraph 1, the rules governing the operation of the court shall be governed by the provisions of the administrative bodies of the general public. Public in Articles 22 et seq. of Law 30/1992, of 26 November, of the Legal Regime of Public Administrations and of the Common Administrative Procedure.

Article 38. Authorisation of auditors from other Member States of the European Union.

1. The aptitude test to be carried out by auditors authorised in other Member States of the European Union, referred to in Article 9.1 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, in order to be able to register for the Official Register of Auditors of Accounts, shall deal with the Spanish legislation applicable to the audit of accounts, among the matters set out in Article 34.1 of this Regulation, the knowledge and application of which is specifically required for exercise the audit activity of accounts in Spain, in so far as such knowledge is not it has been accredited in the Member State where the auditor is authorised.

2. To this end, the Ministry of Economy and Finance shall appoint an Evaluation Commission, which shall be responsible for checking the status of auditor of accounts in the home Member State, the design of the aptitude test, on the basis of the Spanish legislation relating to the matters referred to in Article 34, and its assessment, as well as the proposal to the Institute for Accounting and Audit of Accounts for Access to the Official Register of Auditors. The decision on the appointment of the said commission shall establish the right of examination to be met in order to attend the aptitude test, as well as the rules of management and convocation that are necessary.

3. The Commission of Evaluation shall present the same composition as that provided for in the Court referred to in Article 37 above.

4. The provisions of this Article shall be, as far as the system of operation of the evaluation committee is concerned, to be in accordance with the provisions laid down for the collective bodies of the public authorities in Articles 22 et seq. of Law No 30/1992. of 26 November, of the Legal Regime of Public Administrations and of the Common Administrative Procedure.

5. The aptitude test shall be carried out on a general basis with a biennial frequency and depending on the number of applications submitted. In any event, no more than 12 months may elapse from the date of the submission of the application for the proficiency test by the person who accredits his status as an auditor of an approved account in a Member State of the European Union to the resolution of such application by admission or refusal for the conduct of the aptitude test.

Article 39. Authorisation of auditors from third country accounts.

In order to obtain authorization from the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts, auditors from third country accounts, as long as there are conditions of reciprocity, and credit requirements equivalent to the (b) and (c) of the consolidated text of the Audit of Accounts Act, as well as the obligations of continuing training and of permanent residence or establishment in Spain or of a representative with a view to the in Spain, as referred to in Article 9.2 of the recast of the Law on the Audit of Accounts shall exceed the aptitude test referred to in Article 38 above.

The verification of compliance with the requirements, the design of the aptitude test, its assessment as well as the proposal for authorisation of registration in the Official Register of Auditors, shall be the responsibility of the Commission of Assessment referred to in the previous Article.

CHAPTER III

From the exercise of the audit of accounts activity

Section 1. Ongoing Training

Article 40. Continuing training.

1. For the purposes of Article 7.7 of the consolidated text of the Audit of Accounts Act, the auditors of accounts entered in the Official Register of Auditors, in the position of exercising, with the exception of those referred to in the Article 9 (3) of that recast text, or of non-exercisers providing services for an employed person, shall carry out continuing training activities for an equivalent period of at least one hundred and twenty hours over a period of three years, with a minimum of Thirty hours per year.

2. The auditors of accounts entered in the Official Register of Auditors of Accounts in non-exercisable shall not have to comply with this obligation, as long as they are maintained as such. Where a non-performing auditor requests to move on to the position of his or her staff, he shall provide proof of the completion of one hundred and twenty hours of continuing training in the three-year period ending on the date of his/her request, of which at least 50 hours must be justified as carried out in the 12 months preceding that date.

In addition, the auditors must comply in the period between their registration as an exercise and the end of the corresponding annual period of calculation a minimum of hours equal to the proportion that such an interval represents. on minimum mandatory requirements in one year.

3. The minimum continuous training requirement shall be waived for the new access auditors for the period, less than the year, from their entry in the Official Register of Auditors and the date of surrender of the first information.

4. If, for reasons of force majeure, the auditor is unable to comply with the obligation referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article for a period of more than two months, the Accounting and Audit Institute shall, upon request of the auditor, may not require the obligation of minimum training proportional to that period, provided that it is credited during the following year, and the auditor provides documentary justification of such impossibility.

Article 41. Continuing training activities.

1. The continuing training obligation referred to in the previous Article shall be deemed to be fulfilled by carrying out the following activities, covering the matters referred to in Article 34.1

a) Participation in courses, seminars, conferences, congresses, meetings or meetings, as speakers or assistants.

b) Participation in committees, commissions or working groups, the object of which is related to accounting and auditing principles, standards and practices.

c) Participation in exam courts or aptitude tests to be overcome to access the status of auditor of accounts.

d) Publication of books, articles, or other documents on topics related to the core subjects that constitute the core of the auditor's knowledge.

e) Realization of teaching activities in universities, as referred to in the Organic Law of Universities and in training courses for auditors approved by the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts.

f) Realization of self-study courses, either through electronic or other means, provided that the organizer of the course has established the appropriate control to ensure its realization, use and improvement.

g) Realization of specialization studies leading to a degree awarded by a University, in accordance with the provisions of the Organic Law of Universities.

2. At least 20 hours of continuous training in one year and 85 hours over the three-year period should be carried out in matters relating to accounting and auditing of accounts.

3. The activities referred to in paragraphs (a), (e) and (f) of the previous paragraph shall be organised, and where appropriate, by public law corporations representative of those who carry out the audit of accounts. They may also be organised by universities, and those centres, entities, audit firms or groups of auditors in numbers not less than 15 united for that purpose, which are recognised by the Institute for Accounting and Audit Accounts.

In the alternative, the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts will be responsible for the organization and implementation of these activities.

4. The activities referred to in paragraphs (b) to (d) of paragraph 1 shall be justified to the Public Law Corporation representative of the auditors to which the auditor belongs.

The activities included in paragraphs (a), (b), (c) and (f) shall be certified by the competent person of the organizing or tribunal. The activities referred to in paragraph (d) shall be accredited by means of the publication of that publication.

5. The Audit and Accounting Institute may, by means of a resolution, be heard by the Audit Audit Committee, lay down the rules for the calculation of the activities referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, amend the list of such activities, activities and to establish the conditions to be met by the centres, entities and groups of auditors to carry out the continuing training activities referred to in this Section, including those concerning committees, committees or groups of auditors. work referred to in paragraph 1 (b), as well as the form and time limit for referral to the Institute of information for those activities.

6. Participation as an assistant in continuing training activities that have an evaluation of the knowledge obtained will have a value equal to 150 percent of the time of computable presence. This end shall be included in the call including in the corresponding declaration the certification of the score or note obtained.

Participation as speakers in teaching activities will compute for twice as long as these have been and for the first time it has been delivered.

Article 42. Rendering of the information.

1. The public law corporations representing auditors, the Universities, as well as the centres, entities and groups of auditors authorised to carry out the continuing training activities, as provided for in the Article referred to in paragraph 1 shall be sent to the Accounting and Audit Office in November of each year, an annual statement of the activities completed in the 12 months preceding 30 September of each year and of the activities referred to in paragraphs (b) to (d) of Article 41, which have been justified by the auditors to their respective corporation in that period. The auditors shall also send to the Accounting and Audit Office an annual statement of the continuing training activities, other than those referred to in the preceding paragraph, which are complementary to the carried out in accordance with that subparagraph, or which are necessary to supplement, justify or remedy that information, in the terms provided for in the resolution referred to in the previous Article.

2. By means of the resolution referred to in the previous Article, the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts shall establish the time-limits, form and models of the declaration referred to in paragraph 1 above.

3. Auditors shall retain the documentary justification for the continuing training activities carried out over the last five years.

4. The Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts may carry out the appropriate checks, requiring any necessary information from public law corporations representative of auditors, universities, institutions, entities or groups of recognised auditors, as well as auditors, in order to verify the documentary evidence of continuing training activities. These actions may include the physical presence of staff of the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts during the development of the activities.

If the verifications of a given activity result in the failure to comply with the conditions and requirements required by this Regulation, the Accounting and Audit Institute may not recognize this activity. the effects of compliance with the continuing training obligation under this section.

Section 2. Independence

Article 43. General principle of independence.

1. In accordance with Article 12 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, auditors and audit firms shall be independent, in the exercise of their function, of the audited entities, and shall be subject to the following conditions: refrain from acting when their independence in relation to the review and verification of annual accounts, financial statements or other accounting documents may be compromised.

Auditors and audit firms shall refrain from participating in the decision-making process of the audited entity in the terms set out in Article 13 of the recast of the Audit Act. of Accounts.

In any event, the auditor or audit firm shall be understood to have participated in the decision-making process of the audited entity when they have collaborated or formed part of the decision-making body of that entity or where the decision has been based on reports, works or recommendations issued by the auditor or audit firm.

Additionally and in any event, auditors or audit firms shall refrain from carrying out the audit in those cases where they incur a cause of incompatibility, in accordance with the provisions of the legal and this Regulation.

2. In any event, it is understood that there is no interest or influence that could undermine the auditor's objectivity in carrying out his audit work.

Audit auditors and audit firms shall refrain from carrying out an audit of accounts if there is any financial, economic, employment, family or other relationship, including services other than those of audit provided to the audited entity, between the auditor or the audit firm and the audited entity, so that it can be concluded that it compromises its independence.

Account auditors must maintain an attitude of professional scepticism in whose virtue they should always be alert to situations that may pose a threat to independence as well as to continually consider their independence in relation to the audited entity.

3. Where, in accordance with the provisions of this Section, auditors or audit firms are required to refrain from carrying out the audit, they shall also carry out the communications referred to in Article 7.2.

4. The particulars contained in this Section to audited entities and auditors shall be construed as being made to persons and entities referred to in Articles 15 to 18 of the recast of the Audit Act respectively. Accounts.

5. For the purposes of this Section, and in the event of changes in the conditions or status of registration in the Official Register of Auditors, the rules for transmission and succession shall be subject to the provisions of this Section. contained in the fourth additional provision of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act.

Article 44. Threats to independence.

1. In order to ensure that the independence of auditors and audit firms is not compromised, they should apply the procedures necessary to detect and identify any threats to the independence arising from or arising from the audit. the circumstances, including the grounds for incompatibility provided for in Article 13 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, which are in relation to the audited entity, as well as the existing relationships with the persons or entities and in the period referred to in Articles 14 to 18 of the recast of the Law of Audit of Accounts.

2. The independence of auditors and audit firms may be affected by, inter alia, the following types of threats:

(a) Own interest: for the existence of a financial or other conflict, including the one motivated by the existence of common economic relations or interests.

b) Self-review: for the need to carry out procedures involving reviews or evaluations of results, judgments or criteria previously issued by the auditor in relation to the performance of the audit work with data or information that the audited entity considered when making decisions with effect on the financial information contained in audited accounts, documents or statements.

(c) Advocate: for the maintenance of a position for or against the audited entity, including that which may be maintained in relation to third parties.

d) Familiarity or confidence: by excessive influence and proximity arising from the characteristics, conditions and circumstances of the relationship with the shareholders, directors or directors of the audited entity.

e) Intimidation: by the possibility of being deterred or conditioned by inappropriate pressure caused by the audited entity.

For the identification of the existence of the different types of threats to independence, the auditor and the audit firm shall analyse and assess the activities and services as well as the different the situations and circumstances of which such threats arise taking into account their actual nature and the risk assessment associated with each of them.

3. Once the independence threats have been identified in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraphs, the auditors and audit firms shall assess their importance in determining, separately and in aggregate, the degree of risk in which their independence may be compromised.

The importance of threats depends on factors, quantifiable or not, such as the condition, position or influence of the persons or entities involved, the nature of the factor or circumstance that causes the threat, the concurrency of other circumstances from which other threats may arise, the services and relationships maintained with the audited entity and the context in which the audit of accounts is carried out.

A threat will be considered significant if, according to the factors that compete separately and together, the degree of risk is increased to the extent that its independence is compromised.

In the event that the auditor, once the assessment indicated above, concludes that the identified threat is not significant for its objectivity, it will not be necessary for the auditor to apply the safeguard measures referred to in the following Article, without prejudice to the obligation to document in their working papers the procedures and assessments carried out in this respect.

Article 45. Safeguard measures.

1. In cases where, in accordance with the previous Article, auditors and audit firms have identified threats that they consider to be significant to their objectivity, they should establish and implement the safeguard measures. necessary to eliminate or, where appropriate, to reduce to an acceptable degree under the aforementioned threats. For these purposes, the safeguard measures which may be provided by the management and control structure of the audited entity shall also be taken into account.

In any case, the safeguards to be applied must be related and proportionate to the nature and level of importance associated with the identified threat.

In the event that the safeguard measures applied do not eliminate the identified threats to independence or reduce to an acceptably low degree of risk of lack of independence, the auditors and companies of the the audit shall not be carried out in accordance with the provisions of Article 43 (2) and (3

.

For these purposes, it is understood that it is reduced to a degree acceptably under the risk of lack of independence in those cases in which, according to the circumstances and factors that exist in relation to the entity audit, the audit work in particular as well as the training and knowledge required on the subject, it could be concluded that the auditor is able to exercise an objective and impartial judgment on the issues dealt with during the carrying out the audit work and therefore the independence of the audit is not compromised auditor.

2. Measures and procedures for the detection and communication of threats to independence, as well as those relating to potentially applicable safeguards, members of quality control systems and procedures, shall be formalised. by auditors and audit firms in writing and shall be communicated to the persons and entities referred to in Article 17 and 18 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, as well as to the other staff members of the audit firm. professional services of any nature to the audited entity, whatever their link contractual.

3. The threat identification procedures and the adoption of safeguard measures shall in any case be applied for each audit work of accounts and shall be documented and incorporated into the working papers for that audit. work. Such documentation shall include the justification and conclusions reached on the importance of the identified threats to independence and the subsequent assessment of the degree of risk of lack of independence. The details of the safeguard measures applied to eliminate or, where appropriate, to reduce the risk of independence to an acceptably low level should also be documented.

Article 46. Causes of incompatibility.

1. Charge Performance:

For the purposes of Article 13 (a) of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, it is understood by:

(a) "administration fee" means the one held in the entity by whom it forms part of the administrative or equivalent body of the audited entity, in accordance with the applicable rules according to its legal nature.

(b) Management position: the one who belongs to the management body of the audited entity, or who, whatever the legal relationship with the entity, has powers of responsibility, in hierarchical dependence and direct functional of the administrative body of the audited entity or its delegated adviser or equivalent position.

(c) Job position: the occupation by whom he/she provides his/her paid services and within the scope of organisation and management of another person, whether natural or legal, according to labour law.

d) Internal supervision charge: the one who has the authority to direct and review or control the policy and procedures of the audited entity.

2. Financial interest:

For the purposes of Article 13 (b) of the consolidated text of the Audit of Accounts Act, the participation or commitment of holding of participation in the institution is defined by direct financial interest. audited, holding or holding of securities issued by the audited entity, acceptance of rights to participate in the profits or results of the audited entity, as well as the ownership of derivative financial instruments and economic interests of any nature, relating to units, securities and Benefits mentioned. It is also understood to include voting rights that can be controlled or exercised, as well as the granting or guarantee of loans to the audited entity and the acceptance of loans or guarantees from the audited entity when this is not an entity financial.

The term indirect financial interest refers to the situations in which the auditor, or the persons or entities referred to in Articles 50 and 51, has any of the financial interests to which he/she is refers to the preceding paragraph in entities other than the audited entity that have, in turn, one of those financial interests in the audited entity or in entities, including collective investment institutions, in which the audited entity has those interests.

Audit auditors and audit firms shall assess whether the financial, direct or indirect interest is significant to any of the parties, and whether it therefore affects their independence.

In any event, the financial interest shall be deemed to be significant when any of the following circumstances are present:

a) When you assume more than 10% of the auditor's personal estate.

(b) When it reaches, directly or indirectly, at least 5% of the share capital, voting rights or assets of the audited entity, or 0,5% when the audited entity has the consideration of an entity of interest public.

For the purposes of your calculation, the criteria set out in Article 3 of the Regulations for the Form of Consolidated Annual Accounts, approved by Royal Decree 1159/2010 of 17 September 2010, shall apply.

(c) Although the percentage provided for in point (b) is not reached, where, as a result of that interest, and by means of entities linked to the audited entity or to the audit entity, it is in a position to influence the management of the audited entity or the audit result.

It shall be presumed, unless proof to the contrary, that the independence of the auditor and audit firm does not compromise the holding of an indirect financial interest in the audited entity through a pension fund, collective investment institution or equivalent investment instrument, provided that no relation is related to the audit of the annual accounts or financial statements of the fund manager or manager or the auditor or the company of accounts audit has or may be capable of influencing investment decisions.

It shall also be presumed that it does not compromise the independence of the auditor or audit firm to obtain or maintain a loan granted by the audited entity, provided that it is within the social object of the audited entity. entity and is performed under normal market conditions. In such a case, the auditor or audit firm shall assess the impact of its indebtedness, and if it represents an excessive volume in relation to its assets, for the purposes of determining the existence of threats to its assets. independence.

3. Financial Economic Area Officers:

For the purposes of Article 13 (c) of the consolidated text of the Audit of Accounts Act, it is understood by the financial economic area of the audited entity that they hold a liability position in relationship with the management or supervisory authority of that area or who, whatever their legal relationship or position in the entity, may exercise a determining influence on the accounting policies of the audited entity.

4. Material or preparation of financial statements or other accounting documents:

For the purposes of Article 13 (d) of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, they are included in the activity of carrying out material or preparation of financial statements or other documents accounting for any service or activity relating to the preparation of such statements or accounting documents, as well as the cooperation or participation in their preparation or preparation or in that of the data or information which has been used as a basis for prepare those states or documents.

5. Valuation services:

For the purposes of Article 13.e of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, valuation services imply assuming assumptions as to the application of certain methodologies and techniques, or combination of the two, to fix or attribute a certain value, or a range of securities to an asset, a commitment or a business activity as a whole. A valuation service shall also be deemed to lead to the assessment of amounts in the annual accounts, financial statements or other accounting documents where that service and its outcome have served as a basis for the accounting or accounting records. valuation support attributed to an asset, liability or any of these assets in the audited entity's annual accounts, financial statements or other accounting documents.

For these same purposes, assessment services are considered to lead to the determination of significant amounts when:

(a) These, separately or jointly, exceed the levels or figures of relative importance to be set by the auditor or audit firm in the conduct of the audit work of the annual accounts or other financial statements and for the issuance of the relevant audit report, as provided for in the audit standards; or

b) The option applied in the assessment, to another alternative, where the difference between the amounts derived from both alternatives does not exceed those levels or figures.

The valuation does not carry a significant degree of subjectivity when the elements used in the valuation are predetermined by normative provisions, provided that they do not allow the option of different alternatives, assumptions or methodologies that may lead to substantially different results.

6. Internal audit services:

For the purposes of proving that the provision of internal audit services referred to in Article 13 (f) of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act does not, in principle, result in the auditor's incompatibility and of the audit firm, they shall be required to record in the contract concluded for that purpose that the audited entity assumes responsibility for the establishment and maintenance of the internal control system, for the determination of the scope, risk and frequency of internal audit procedures, of consideration, decision and execution of the results and recommendations provided by the internal audit, as well as the fact that the auditor is not involved in the decision-making on the management and control of the provision of the internal audit services.

The provisions of this paragraph are without prejudice to the possibility of the auditor and the audit firm to review the results provided by the institution's internal audit for the purposes of the work of the institution. auditing of accounts.

7. Advocacy services:

For the purposes of Article 13 (g) of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, it is understood that two Boards of Directors are not different when there is a coincidence in the majority of their members. In the event that the two Boards of Directors are made up of a number of members, they shall be considered different when, at least, half of the members of one of them is half of the other Council.

8. Fees with a significant percentage:

For the purposes of Article 13 (h) of the recast text of the Audit of Accounts Act, the provision of services by the auditor or audit firm should not give rise to the creation, actual or apparently, of the a financial dependency with the audited entity.

In this respect, it is understood that there is a significant percentage of the total annual revenue of the auditor or audit firm, when the fees received from the audited entity and the entities to which it is Article 48 of this Regulation, taking the average of the last three years, amounts to more than 15 per 100 of the total annual revenue. This percentage shall be 20 per 100 for auditors of natural persons and for audit firms with fewer than six partners, provided that they have not audited entities of interest in any of the above three years. public.

In the case of audit firms or auditors who start their business, by registering them in the Official Register of Auditors in the exercise of their duties, in the first three years of the financial year This activity shall mean that the percentage is significant when the fees received from the audited entity and the entities referred to in Article 48 of this Regulation, taking the average of the first three years, are more than 40 per cent. 100 of the total annual revenue.

9. Financial Information Technology Systems:

For the purposes of proving that the provision of services referred to in Article 13 (i) of the consolidated text of the Audit of Accounts Act does not, in principle, result in the incompatibility of the auditor and the company audit, they shall be required to record in the contract concluded for that purpose that the audited entity assumes responsibility for the overall internal control system, or that the service is provided in accordance with the specifications laid down by that system. entity, also noting that the entity assumes responsibility for the design, execution and assessment, including any decision in this respect, and the functioning of the financial information technology system, by which assessments or data are generated from the annual accounts or other financial statements.

The instructions and specifications set out by the audited entity should likewise be documented in the case of the design and implementation of these systems.

For such purposes, it shall be deemed not to be incompatible, provided that the audited entity assumes responsibility, the assessment of the internal controls of the system as to its design, implementation and execution by a third party for an entity audited or performed by itself, either as part of the audit work or to propose recommendations to the management of the audited entity.

Article 47. Elimination of financial interest.

1. In the event of a financial interest in the terms of Article 46.2, the auditor and the audit firm in order to comply with the independence requirement and therefore be able to accept the audit order, they shall take the appropriate measures and procedures to liquidate, undo or eliminate such interest prior to the acceptance of the appointment or appointment.

2. In the event of a financial interest having been acquired, for any reason that occurred after acceptance, the auditor or audit firm shall, within one month, proceed to liquidate, undo or eliminate such interest. since he became aware of that circumstance. In the event that this interest could not be resolved within the previous period due to circumstances not attributable to the auditor, this period may be extended even if, in any event, the auditor must be resolved before the audit report is issued. If they are unable to do so, they shall refrain from carrying out the audit work and carry out the communication referred to in Article 43 (2) and (3

.

Article 48. Bind to audited entity.

1. For the purposes of Article 12 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, auditors and audit firms shall consider and assess the existence of entities linked to the audited entity, in accordance with the following paragraph, in accordance with the criteria for action and procedures referred to in Articles 44 and 45.

In the event that threats to independence are detected, auditors and audit firms may take into consideration the significant character, measured in terms of relative importance, of the control, decision-making and significant influence as referred to in the following paragraph, in order to assess the importance of such threats and, therefore, to consider the degree of risk in which independence is compromised.

2. For the purposes of Articles 13 and 15 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, it is understood that an entity is linked to the audited entity when one of the following circumstances is present:

(a) Exists a control relationship, determined by the existence of a group by the control relations referred to in Article 42.1 of the Trade Code, and in accordance with the rules and assumptions contained in the Articles 2 and 3 of the Rules for the Form of Consolidated Annual Accounts, approved by Royal Decree 1159/2010 of 17 September 2010.

b) Exist unit of decision, as provided for in the General Accounting Plan approved by Royal Decree 1514/2007 of 16 November, in particular, paragraph 1. of the Standard for the elaboration of the annual accounts 13. and section 24.5 of the contents of the memory, as well as the rules that are dictated in its development.

(c) Exist joint control or significant influence on its management, when the two requirements and assumptions laid down in Articles 4 and 5 of the Regulations for the Forwarding of Consolidated Annual Accounts are met. by Royal Decree 1159/2010 of 17 September 2010.

Article 49. Incompatibilities arising from situations involving close family members of the undersigned auditor.

1. For the purposes of Article 16.2.b) of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, the performance of employment positions shall be deemed to affect the development of significant information contained in the annual accounts, states financial or other audited accounting documents, where the figures or data corresponding to the balances, items or areas referred to in that preparation or information exceed the levels or figures of relative importance fixed by the auditor accounts and audit firm in carrying out the audit work of those states or documents and for the issuance of the relevant audit report, as provided for in the audit standards.

2. For the purposes of Article 16.2.c) of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, a related entity shall be deemed not to be significant for the audited entity when the figures or information corresponding to the audit participation or control that the audited entity has in that entity does not exceed the figures or levels of relative importance to be set by the auditor or audit firm in carrying out the audit work of the institution audited and for the issuance of the relevant audit report, in accordance with the provisions of the audit.

Article 50. Incompatibilities arising from situations involving persons or entities directly related to the auditor or audit firm.

1. For the purposes of Article 17 (1) (a) of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, it shall be understood that the partners belonging to the same audit firm, and the auditors, are linked to the auditor of the undersigned accounts. accounts or audit firms which, without belonging to the same company, are bound by any type of agreement, arrangement or relationship between the provision of services to each other or to third parties.

The audit firms shall also be deemed to be linked to each other when the relationships and assumptions referred to in Article 48 are met.

2. For the purposes of Article 17.1.b) of the recast text of the Audit of Accounts Act, it is presumed that they have the capacity and ability to influence the final assessment and outcome of the audit work, the following: people:

(a) Those who participate directly and in a relevant way in the acceptance and performance of the given audit work; that is, in any case, the auditor of the signatory or the designated account to carry out the audit in the name of a the audit firm, the manager or managers, the partners who are professionals from other disciplines who have provided decisive or significant results for the audit work, and the persons in charge of quality control of the audit job.

(b) Partners, auditors or otherwise, who have a direct responsibility for supervision, management or assessment of the performance of the audit work, including those who can prepare, revise or directly influence the audit assessment of the work and conclusions reached by the persons referred to in point (a) above.

3. For the purposes of Article 17 (2) (a) of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, it shall be understood that the auditor or audit firm does not enjoy sufficient independence when they are present in the persons to whom they are Article 17 (1) of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act refers to the circumstances provided for in Article 13 (c) of that recast text and provided that, by reason of the structure and size of the audit firm, there may be some close links or links between the undersigned auditor or audit firm and those auditors in which those links are present, so that it could be concluded that the audit work or its outcome could have been different from the one that could have been achieved in the absence of such links.

In any case, it is understood that these links or close ties are present when any of the following circumstances arise between the auditor of the signatory accounts or the audit firm and the auditor of the accounts in which the latter are present. links:

(a) When, not belonging to the same audit firm, they are directly or indirectly linked by any type of agreement or agreement of a professional nature or relationship of service provision to each other or to third parties, whatever the temporary duration.

(b) Where they belong or are linked to the same audit firm with fewer than six partners.

(c) Where, in the case of a single audit firm, they provide services, on a permanent or sporadic basis, in the same office, or in the same sector of activity.

(d) When the auditor of accounts in whom the related links incurs have direct responsibility for supervision, management, valuation or otherwise, as referred to in paragraph 2.b) of this article.

Article 51. Incompatibilities arising from situations that are present in other persons or entities belonging to the network of the auditor or audit firm.

1. For the purposes of Article 18 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, an entity or a person shall be understood to be part of the same network as the undersigned auditor or audit firm on whose behalf it is established. the audit, when any of the following are present:

(a) Form part of the same group for the purpose of the control relations referred to in Article 42 of the Code of Trade, and in accordance with the rules and assumptions contained in Articles 2 and 3 of the Rules of Procedure; Formulation of Consolidated Annual Accounts, approved by Royal Decree 1159/2010 of 17 September.

(b) Where they are or are part of the same decision unit, as provided for in the General Accounting Plan approved by Royal Decree 1514/2007 of 16 November, in particular paragraph 1 of the Standard for the drawing up of the annual accounts 13 and paragraph 24.5 of the content of the report, as well as the rules to be laid down in its development.

(c) Where they are linked by the existence of joint control or significant influence on their management, in accordance with Articles 4 and 5 of the Rules for the Form of Consolidated Annual Accounts approved by the Royal Decree 1159/2010 of 17 September.

2. For the purposes of Articles 18.2 (a) and (b) of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, the provisions of Articles 49.1 and 50.3 respectively shall be respectively.

Article 52. Extension and revocation of the audit contract.

1. After the end of the period for which the auditors and audit firms have been hired to carry out the audit of accounts, they may be extended expressly, even in succession, for maximum periods of up to three years.

2. In order for the audit contract to be tacitly extended for a period of three years, the auditor or audit firm and the audited entity shall not state their will to the contrary before the end of the last financial year by the audit firm. which were initially contracted or previously carried over, without prejudice to the information of such extension in the General Meeting of Partners. The foregoing does not absolve from the duty to communicate such a fact in the Commercial Registry corresponding to the registered office of the audited entity, by agreement or certificate signed by the person who has legal or statutory competence in the audited entity, in a time limit which may not exceed the date on which the audited annual accounts for the last financial year of the contracted period are submitted for deposit.

3. The termination of the contract of audit or revocation of the appointment of auditor by the competent bodies shall be caused by the existence of a fair cause, without prejudice to the circumstances which may cause the non-issuance of the the audit or the waiver of the continuation of the audit contract, as provided for in Article 7. As provided for in Article 19.1 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, differences of opinion on accounting treatments or audit procedures are not a fair cause.

In the cases of termination of the audit contract or revocation of the appointment of auditor as set out in Article 19.1 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act and Articles 264.3 and 266 of the text recast of the Capital Companies Act, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 1/2010 of 2 July, the auditors and audit firms, as well as the audited entities, will be required to inform the Institute of Accounting and Audit of Accounts within a period of 15 days after the date of production.

Article 53. Rotation.

For the purposes of Article 19 (2) of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, the rotation of the undersigned auditor of the audit report of the consolidated annual accounts shall be compulsory when seven years from the first year or year in which those accounts were audited, and correspond to the group of companies that has the status of an entity of public interest or the net amount of the group's business figure exceeds 50,000,000 euro.

In the event that, in accordance with this Article, the undersigned auditor of the audit report of the consolidated annual accounts had to rotate or be replaced, and also the auditor of the dominant entity that The following consolidated annual accounts shall also be required for rotation in relation to this dominant entity.

Article 54. Bans after the completion of the audit job.

1. In accordance with Article 20 of the recast text of the Audit of Accounts Act, for the two years following the completion of the relevant audit work of accounts, the auditors of the audit report and the audit report audit firms on whose behalf the audit is carried out may not be a part of the administrative or management bodies of the audited entity, or occupy a job or have a direct or indirect financial interest in the institution audited, significant for either party, in the terms provided for in Article 46.2 of this Regulation.

Such situations may not be present in relation to entities linked to the audited entity in the terms provided for in Article 48.2 (a) and (b).

2. For the purposes of Article 20 (1) (a) of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, the prohibition provided for in the preceding paragraph shall also be extended to the members, auditors or otherwise of the audit firm which have ability and ability to influence the final assessment and outcome of the audit of accounts conducted in accordance with the provisions of Article 50.2.

3. For the purposes of Article 20.1.b) of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, it shall be understood that there are reciprocal influences between, on the one hand, the audit firm's partners or designated auditors who have ceased to have a link or interest with the audit firm before incurring the prohibitions referred to in that Article and, on the other hand, the auditor of the signatory accounts or the audit firm on whose behalf the report was signed, which they merit the objectivity of these, when any of the following circumstances are present:

(a) Where, without belonging to the same audit firm, the said partners and the undersigned auditor or audit firm on whose behalf the report was signed, they are directly or indirectly linked by any type of agreement or agreement of a professional nature or relationship of provision of services to each other or to third parties, whichever is the temporary duration.

b) When the aforementioned partners and the auditor of the undersigned accounts were or were linked to the audit firm on whose behalf the audit report was signed, provided that the audit report was less than six partners.

(c) Where, having belonged or been linked to the same audit firm, they provided services, on a permanent or sporadic basis, in the same office, or in the same sector of activity.

(d) Where such partners have the direct responsibility for supervision, management, valuation or otherwise, as referred to in Article 50.2.b) of this Article.

Section 3

Article 55. Bail.

1. The security referred to in Article 23 of the consolidated text of the Audit of Accounts Act shall be constituted in the form of a cash deposit, securities of public debt, and the endorsement of financial institutions registered in the special registers of the Ministry of Finance. The Bank of Spain and the Economic and Financial Affairs and the Bank of Spain and the Bank of Spain will have to guarantee, up to the limit that results from the application of paragraphs 2, 3 and 4, the compensation of personal and direct liability. arising from the economic damage and damage to the auditors and audit firms may cause, as a result of non-compliance with the obligations acquired in the exercise of the audit of accounts, claims arising before the limitation period elapses.

The security lodged must be sufficient and, where appropriate, updated to respond at any time to the limit required in paragraphs 2 and 3 below, and must be maintained during the period in which the action may be exercised. of responsibility. In the event of termination of the audit of accounts, the auditor or the audit firm must also maintain the security lodged during the said period, and may be requested to return the security after the said deposit has expired. period.

2. The security for the first year of the activity, which shall be of a minimum in the successive years, shall be EUR 300 000 in the case of natural persons. That amount, in the case of audit firms, shall be multiplied by each of the audit firms, whether or not they are auditors, and auditors appointed to sign audit reports on behalf of the company, having, also, the minimum character in successive years.

3. After the first year of the activity, the minimum security referred to in the preceding paragraph shall be increased by 30% of the turnover exceeding the amount equivalent to that of the minimum security and corresponding to the audit activity of accounts from the previous year.

4. In the event that the security is constituted by an individual or collective liability insurance policy, in which case the corresponding individual certificate of insurance shall be provided, it shall specifically cover liability. as defined in Article 22 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, and in the terms and conditions set out in this Article.

The coverage must be made individually for each insured person and for the exercise of the audit activity of accounts, without being admissible clauses that determine a coverage below the limit that results from the application of paragraphs 2 and 3 above for each claim irrespective of the fact that this limit is covered jointly.

5. The auditors or audit firms shall, on an annual basis, justify the validity and adequacy of the security lodged within the period referred to in Article 79.1. They must also communicate any circumstances that cause the extinction, loss or reduction of the effectiveness of the security, as well as any changes made to the terms initially agreed, within a period of 15 days to be counted. since that circumstance occurred.

For the purposes of verifying the validity or adequacy of the security, the Accounting and Audit Institute may perform the appropriate checks.

6. The inadequacy of the security, whatever the way in which it is constituted, or its lack of validity, in its case, will be cause that it will automatically prevent the exercise of the activity of auditing of accounts and will entail the attachment to the the situation of non-exercisers for natural persons and the absence in the Official Register of Auditors of Accounts for companies, after three months after the occurrence of such a circumstance or the time limit for the purpose of the sub-healing required by the Institute for Accounting and Audit of Accounts referred to in Article 11.2 of the recast text of the Audit of Accounts Act, and without prejudice to the infringement which, where appropriate, may be committed in accordance with the provisions of Article 34.h of that recast text.

7. The amount and form of the security referred to in this Article may be amended by Order of the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

Section 4. Information to be required

Article 56. Duty to require and supply information.

Audited entities will be required to provide information that is necessary to carry out the audit work of accounts; also, who or those who perform such audit work will be required to require how much information you need for the audit report to be issued.

In cases where auditors or audit firms were unable to obtain the required information and such information was relevant to the development of the audit work of accounts and the issuance of the report, must record the requirement for information in their work papers, as well as, where appropriate, the responses of the audited entity to that requirement.

Section 5. Top Secret and Custody Duties

Article 57. Duty of secrecy.

The duty of secrecy provided for in Article 25 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act shall apply even after the auditor or the auditor has been discharged from the Official Register of Auditors. audit firm as well as the partners of the audit firm, or has ceased to be linked to the auditors or audit firms by the persons involved in the performance of the audit.

Article 58. Duty of conservation and custody.

1. The auditors and audit firms shall keep and maintain the documentation for each audit of accounts carried out by the auditors and the audit firms for the period of five years from the date of the audit report. including the work papers of the auditor constituting the evidence and the support of the findings in the report. In the event of a complaint, judgment or dispute in relation to the audit report or in which the relevant documentation referred to in this paragraph may constitute evidence, provided that the auditor or the company of the the audit is aware of such a circumstance, the time limit shall be extended to the final judgment or judgment, or the end of the procedure, or until five years have elapsed since the last communication or intervention of the auditor in relation to the conflict in question.

During the time limits referred to in the preceding paragraph, auditors and audit firms shall be responsible for taking the necessary measures for the safeguarding and preservation of the documentation. concerning each audit work of accounts.

2. The obligation referred to in the preceding paragraph shall also apply to auditors and audit firms which, as provided for in the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act and in this Regulation, cause low in the Official Register of Auditors.

3. The loss or deterioration of the documentation relating to each audit of accounts must be communicated, as well as its reasons, within ten days, from the moment of the occurrence of the event, to the Institute of Accounting and Audit of Accounts.

Article 59. Protection of personal data.

The processing of personal data carried out by auditors and audit firms as a result of the exercise of their activity, including that of the data contained in the documents or papers of The work of the European Commission, which was used for this purpose, is subject to the provisions of the Organic Law 15/1999 of 13 December on the protection of personal data and its development provisions.

In the preservation of the data referred to in the previous article, the auditors and audit firms will implement the security measures provided for in the regulations for the development of the Organic Law 15/1999, 13 December.

In the event that auditors and audit firms externalize the conservation and custody services of the documentation, compliance with the provisions of Article 12 of the Organic Law should be complied with. 15/1999.

Section 6. Annual Transparency Report

Article 60. Annual transparency report.

1. The annual transparency report is an information report on essential aspects of the structure and activity of the auditor or audit firm that are relevant to understanding the organisation, level of activity and processes of audit. control of the auditor or audit firm for the purpose of knowing the commitment to the public interest in its work.

It will be drafted in a descriptive way, exposing objective facts without reference to opinions or value judgments that could guide the vision that is intended to be offered.

2. The annual transparency report shall be published within three months of the end of the calendar year, in the case of auditors, or of the financial year in the audit firm. In accordance with Article 26 of the recast text of the Audit of Accounts Act, the annual transparency report shall contain at least the following information:

(a) In the case of an audit firm, the legal form of the company shall be indicated.

The structure of the property shall be described, with an indication of the percentage of participation in the share capital and of the voting rights corresponding to the entire audit partners of accounts registered in the Registry Officer of Auditors of Accounts and non-audit partners.

(b) Where the audit firm or the auditor is linked to the entities or persons with whom the same network is formed, a description of those entities and persons, as well as the circumstances, shall be included; the statutory arrangements or clauses governing such a link.

c) Indication of the structure of the governing bodies of the audit firm.

The identity of its members, the functions attributed and the charges they carry, if any, within the company, as well as a description of the governing body's operating rules, shall be indicated.

d) Description of the internal quality control system of the auditor or audit firm in relation to the audit activity of accounts.

A summary of the organisational structure responsible for the implementation of the internal quality control system shall be included, with the identification of its controller, the methodology applied and its scope.

A statement of the auditor or the audit firm's administrative body shall be included on the effectiveness of the operation of the quality control system. The date on which the last quality control referred to in Section 3 of Chapter IV of this Regulation has been carried out shall also be reported.

(e) Relation of entities of public interest for which audit work has been carried out in the last financial year, indicating the financial year to which the annual accounts or financial statements or other financial statements correspond audited accounting documents.

(f) Information on the procedures and protocols of action followed by the auditor or audit firm to ensure its independence, with reference to internal reviews of the compliance with the duty of independence.

g) Information about the policy followed by the auditor or audit firm in relation to continuing training.

The activities and continuing training courses carried out in the last financial year will be reported in order to maintain and update the theoretical knowledge and skills necessary for the development of their activity, compliance with the provisions of Article 41.

h) Total volume information of the annual turnover, with a breakdown of revenue as derived from the audit activity of accounts or other services provided other than that activity,

(i) Information on the basis for the remuneration of the partners, indicating the criteria for determining fixed and variable remuneration, if applicable, and their relationship with the achievement of the quality objectives.

3. The content and structure of the transparency report may be developed by means of a resolution of the Accounting and Audit Institute.

4. The provisions of this Article shall also apply where an auditor or audit firm voluntarily publishes the annual transparency report. In such a case, the publication of such a report shall be carried out for at least three consecutive years.

CHAPTER IV

From controlling the audit of accounts activity

Section 1. General Provisions

Article 61. Purpose and nature of the audit activity control of accounts.

1. It is up to the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts to exercise the control of the audit activity of accounts through the actions of technical control or investigations and of quality control or inspections, with the objective to verify that the auditor or audit firm in the performance of its business is subject to regulatory regulation of that activity.

2. The exercise of the control of the activity is oriented to the fulfillment of the objectives indicated in the second and third sections of this chapter, dedicated, respectively, to the actions of technical control and quality control.

3. The initiation of the action to control the activity does not presuppose the existence of irregularities by the auditor or audit firm investigated or inspected.

Article 62. Applicable rules.

The audit activities of the audit of accounts shall be governed by the specific provisions on this subject in the regulatory framework of the audit of accounts and, failing that, in Law 30/1992, of 26 November, of the Legal Regime of Public Administrations and of the Common Administrative Procedure.

Article 63. The scope of the audit activity control of accounts.

1. All auditors and audit firms entered in the Official Register of Auditors are subject to the control actions of their activity in accordance with the criteria of the audit activity control plan. of the accounts referred to in Article 64

2. The audit activity control may refer to the internal quality control system of the auditors and audit firms, to certain aspects of the audit activity, or to specific audit work, which is considered in its all or referred to specific parts of them.

Article 64. Control plan for the audit of accounts activity.

1. The Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts, taking into account the technical and human resources available, shall draw up annually a plan to monitor the audit of accounts, which shall include the technical and control control plans of the quality.

2. The technical control plan shall provide for the conduct of investigations on the basis of the following criteria:

a) Results or other information resulting from quality control actions.

b) Target data resulting from the information provided to the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts by auditors and audit firms.

(c) Data obtained through complaints or any other type of information that may be known to the Institute, including those from public law corporations representative of auditors and other bodies or public institutions.

The technical control plan may be reviewed when advised by the existence of facts that make relevant modifications to the information available for the configuration of the plan, facts resulting from modifications to the plan. the auditing of accounts legislation, which causes or creates a lack of confidence in the financial economic information to be provided by undertakings or entities and those arising from any existing risks not covered by the audit the preparation of the same.

3. The quality control plan shall schedule the conduct of the inspections to auditors and audit firms, in view of the guiding principles of these actions as set out in Article 74, and in the light of the monitoring needs compliance with the improvement requirements.

4. The activity control plan shall be approved by the President of the Accounting and Audit Institute, once submitted for consideration by the Audit Audit Committee, and published in the report referred to in paragraph 1. next. In the event that the said Plan cannot be adopted or issued, it shall be extended for the period immediately preceding, provided that such extension does not contravene the minimum frequency of checks on quality control. expected.

5. The Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts shall include in the report referred to in the seventh additional provision of this Regulation the annual audit activity plan for the audit of accounts, the results of the implementation of the plans of quality control and technical control and the conclusions reached of the control system.

Article 65. Powers for the exercise of control actions.

1. In the development of the audit activity of the audit of accounts, the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts may require and examine, in addition to the work papers, any book, record, document, whatever its support, or information which, in accordance with the purpose pursued, considers it necessary for the proper fulfilment of its powers, and to which the provisions laid down in Article 58 shall apply. The auditor or audit firm and, where appropriate, the entities referred to in Articles 17 and 18 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, shall be obliged to provide it, as well as to cooperate with the Institute of Auditors. Accounting and Audit of Accounts in these control activities.

The Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts and the public employees who provide services at the Institute will be subject to the obligation to keep the secret of how much information they know in the exercise. of such activity.

2. Public law corporations representing auditors and those who, in accordance with the additional third provision of the consolidated text of the Audit of Accounts Act, are involved in the execution of quality control shall, in the course of the financial year of that function, of the same powers and obligations as the staff of the Accounting and Audit Institute referred to in the previous paragraph.

Article 66. Initiation of control actions.

1. The audits of the audit of accounts shall be initiated on their own initiative by the President of the Institute of Accounts and Audit of Accounts, under the control plan referred to in Article 64.

2. The commencement agreement shall indicate the object and scope of the control measures, as provided for in Articles 71 and 75. It shall also designate the person (s) responsible for carrying out the control actions.

This agreement may be adopted on an individual basis, for an auditor or audit firm, or jointly, for a number of auditors or audit firms. The communication of the start date to the auditor or audit firm shall be made by the staff appointed for the relevant investigation or inspection.

3. Prior to the commencement of the control agreement, the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts may perform the necessary actions to determine, with the means available to it, the facts or circumstances of the knowledge by any means and which may be the cause of a control initiation agreement.

Article 67. Development of control actions.

1. The auditor or audit firm shall make available or send to the staff of the Accounting and Audit Institute designated for that purpose, within the time limit set out in each case, all the working papers and, where applicable, the books, records, documentation or information which, in the light of the intended purpose, is required. Where the information is available on computer media, the appropriate means to enable the examination and verification of such information shall be made available to the Institute of Accounts and Audit of Accounts.

In the controls of the audit activity of accounts, it will be understood that there is no more documentation and information, in relation to the one previously required by the Institute of Accounting and Audit of Accounts, than the one provided by the auditor or audit firm. To this end, the work papers or documentation submitted or submitted shall be carried out by means of diligence.

2. In the course of the control action, the auditor or audit firm may be required to submit to the audit firm any control action which makes the clarifications or explanations concerning the working papers or the other documents provided that they are deemed appropriate.

3. At any time during the development of the control actions, the auditor or audit firm under control may request information on the state of processing of these actions.

Article 68. Place and time of the control actions.

The audit activities of the audit of accounts shall be carried out in the places and schedules referred to in Article 28.2 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act.

When the activities of control of the activity are carried out in the registered office, agencies, branches, offices, offices, premises, or in any other place where the activity of the auditor of accounts or society is developed the audit shall be carried out in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 1 (2) of Regulation (EU) No 79/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of the European Parliament and of the Council of the European Parliament and of the Council of the European Parliament and of the Council. designated personnel to perform the physical space and auxiliary means necessary for the facilitate the performance of such actions.

Article 69. Documentation of the control actions.

1. The control actions of the audit of accounts shall be documented, in particular, in communications, measures and reports.

2. The communications are the documents through which the commencement of the actions or other facts or circumstances regarding the development of the same are notified or the requirements of information or other requests are made to the auditors of the audit accounts and companies.

3. The proceedings are documents that extend to record facts, requirements or manifestations of the persons with whom the actions are carried out. Communications may be incorporated into the content of the proceedings to be extended.

Of the measures that will be extended, a copy will be given to the person with whom the actions will be understood. If it refuses to receive it, it shall be referred to it by any of the means admitted to law, and if it refuses to sign the due diligence, or may not, this circumstance shall be entered in the same circumstance, without prejudice to the delivery to that person of the corresponding duplicate.

4. The control reports shall contain the results of the technical control or quality control actions carried out.

Section 2. Technical Control Actions

Article 70. Definition and subject of technical control actions.

In accordance with the provisions of Article 28.1 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, technical control shall consist of the investigation of certain audit work of accounts or aspects of the activity of the audit, in order to determine facts or circumstances that may result in the lack of compliance of the audit activity or audit work with the provisions of the regulatory regulation of the audit of accounts.

Investigations may refer to certain aspects of the audit activity of accounts or to specific audit work, considered in its entirety or referring to specific parts thereof, and shall be carried out by the staff of the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts designated for that purpose.

Article 71. Scope of technical control actions.

According to the purpose provided for in Article 28.1 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, technical control actions may be used by the staff of the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts of techniques and procedures considered most appropriate to the circumstances and with the necessary scope in each case to determine the existence or otherwise of facts or circumstances that may result in a failure to comply with the rules regulatory for the audit of accounts activity.

Article 72. Completion of technical control actions.

1. Investigations shall be documented with the issuance of a report, which shall be forwarded to the auditor or audit firm so that, where appropriate, it shall make any claims it deems appropriate within a period of 15 days.

This report, considering the scope and extent of the actions taken, shall contain at least the description of the verifications and reviews carried out, and the general conclusions reached, highlighting, where appropriate, possible breaches of the regulatory rules for the audit of accounts.

2. After the time limit referred to in the previous paragraph has been reviewed and, if appropriate, the arguments put forward, the President of the Accounting and Audit Office shall adopt an agreement, which shall contain some of the decisions following:

a) The file of the technical control actions, without further processing.

(b) The initiation of the corresponding sanctioning procedure, where the actions carried out are indicative of the commission of any of the offences established in the recast of the Law of Audit of Accounts.

3. The decision of the President of the Accounting and Audit Institute, referred to in paragraph 2 above, shall be notified to the auditor or audit firm.

Section 3. Quality Control Actions

Article 73. Definition and purpose of quality control actions.

As provided for in Article 28.1 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, quality control shall consist of the periodic inspection or review of auditors and audit firms, the audit of which shall be objective is to improve the quality of audit work, mainly through the formulation of improvement requirements.

Article 74. Guiding principles of quality control actions.

1. The inspections shall be governed by the principles of generality and periodicity and shall be of a preventive nature.

In compliance with these principles, all auditors in the exercise and audit firms ' situation shall be subject to a review of quality control on a regular basis. Such periodicity shall be at least once every three years for auditors and audit firms carrying out audit work in respect of entities considered to be in the public interest referred to in Article 15. The remaining auditors in the situation of the exercising and audit firms shall be subject to review of quality control once, at least, every six years. The management and supervision and, where appropriate, the execution of such quality control checks shall be carried out by the staff of the Accounting and Audit Office.

The inspections may be carried out at a frequency lower than that laid down in the preceding paragraph when, in the opinion of the Accounting and Audit Institute, the size of the activity of the auditor or the auditor audit firm or the volume of the audit activity or other circumstances so require.

2. By virtue of their preventive nature, inspections shall in no case be directed to the determination of facts or circumstances which may constitute infringements of the regulatory rules of the audit of accounts and shall give rise to the formulation of improvement requirements.

3. Where the enforcement of the inspections is agreed with public law corporations representative of auditors or third parties in the terms set out in the additional third provision of the recast of the Audit Act The principle of the independence of those who carry out the inspections in respect of auditors or audit firms subject to quality control shall be guaranteed.

Article 75. Scope of quality control actions.

1. The inspections shall include at least the verification of the internal quality control system of the auditors and audit firms, the review of the procedures documented in the audit files, with the aim of to verify the proper implementation of that control system, as well as the review and verification, where appropriate, of the annual transparency report referred to in Article 26 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act.

2. Inspections may be carried out with a general or partial scope.

3. The improvement of the quality of the internal control system of auditors and audit firms shall be sought through the formulation of improvement requirements, in the terms set out in the following Article.

Article 76. Completion of quality control actions.

1. The inspections shall be documented with the issuance of an interim report, which shall be forwarded to the auditor or audit firm so that, where appropriate, it shall make any claims it deems appropriate within a period of not less than 15 years. days.

This report, having regard to the scope and extent of the actions taken, shall contain at least the description of the verifications and reviews carried out, the general conclusions reached, highlighting, where appropriate, the deficiencies detected in the internal quality control system of the auditor or audit firm, and where the provisional improvement requirements are applicable.

2. The time limit referred to in the preceding paragraph shall be transmitted and, if appropriate, the arguments submitted shall be issued with a final report containing the aspects referred to in the preceding paragraph in each case. circumstance.

3. The President of the Accounting and Audit Institute, taking into account the final report, shall adopt an agreement containing one of the following decisions:

a) The file of quality control actions, without further processing.

(b) The requirement for compliance with the requirements for improvement within the time limits set for this purpose, the monitoring of which shall be carried out in the terms referred to in the following Article.

For these purposes, the audited auditor or audit firm may present a plan of actions, which details the policies and procedures necessary for the fulfilment of the improvement requirements in the deadlines for the President's agreement. In such a case, the plan shall be forwarded to the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts within the time limit specified in the agreement which may not be less than one month.

In addition, in any of the reports and decisions referred to in this article, other recommendations concerning aspects detected in the internal quality control system may be included, without giving rise to requirements for improvement, it is appropriate to improve or modify. These recommendations shall not be susceptible to the monitoring referred to in the following Article.

4. The decision of the President of the Accounting and Audit Institute, referred to in paragraph 3 above, shall be notified to the auditor or audit firm.

5. Without prejudice to the above paragraphs, in the case of quality control actions carried out on auditors and audit firms that do not carry out audits of entities considered to be in the public interest, referred to in Article 15, a single report may be issued with the content referred to in paragraph 2 and the conclusions shall be checked before the audit has been issued to the auditors and audit firms. Such a report may be made within a period of not less than 15 days. Having regard to the report and, where appropriate, the allegations or after the time limit for the submission of the report has elapsed, the President of the Accounting and Audit Office shall adopt the agreement to which the report shall be submitted. refers to paragraph 3 of this Article.

The provisions of the preceding paragraph may apply where quality controls or partial inspections referred to in Article 75.2 are carried out.

Article 77. Track improvement requirements.

1. For the purposes of the foregoing Article, auditors and audit firms shall, within the time limits specified, justify the implementation of the improvement requirements that have been formulated, where appropriate.

2. The monitoring of these improvement requirements shall be carried out in the framework of the control plan referred to in Article 64, and shall give rise to a report to be communicated to the auditor or audit firm in order to ensure that he/she considers appropriate within a period of not less than 15 days.

3. In the light of the report referred to in the previous paragraph, the President of the Accounting and Audit Office shall take one of the following decisions:

a) The file of quality control actions, without further processing.

b) The initiation of the corresponding sanctioning procedure.

The decision of the President of the Accounting and Audit Institute, referred to in this paragraph, shall be notified to the auditor or audit firm.

Against the decision of the President of the Accounting and Audit Institute, he will be able to appeal to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, in accordance with the provisions of Law 30/1992, 26 of November, the Legal Regime of Public Administrations and the Common Administrative Procedure. The resolution of the appeal will terminate the administrative path.

Section 4. No. Reporting and reporting duty

Article 78. Public complaint.

1. Any person may, in writing, bring to the attention of the Accounting and Audit Office the existence of facts which may constitute an infringement as defined in the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, by providing information and data in its possession and by making express reference to the regulatory standards of the audit activity which may have been breached in the performance of the auditor or audit firm.

2. The file of complaints shall be agreed upon as unfounded, or where the facts reported do not possess sufficient entity or significance or are of impossible investigation.

The Institute of Accounts and Audit of Accounts may fix, with selective criteria of efficiency, relevance and significance, the orientation of its control activity in relation to complaints about the performance of the same auditors or audit firms in relation to the accounts of the same entity for the same financial year or for different periods.

3. The complainant may be asked to provide other evidence or means of evidence in his possession.

4. The complainant shall not be considered to be interested in the administrative action to be initiated as a result of the complaint, or legitimised for the interposition of resources in relation to the results of the complaint.

5. Public law corporations representing auditors shall communicate to the Accounting and Audit Institute the facts of which they have been aware that they may be the constituent of infringements of the law. regulatory for the audit of accounts activity. The principles of the above paragraphs shall apply in the processing of such communications.

Without prejudice to the instruments and procedures for collaboration between Public Administrations, the public bodies and institutions will in general cooperate with the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts to facilitate the exercise of its supervisory and disciplinary powers of auditors and audit firms of accounts.

Article 79. Information to be submitted by auditors and audit firms.

1. The auditors of accounts entered in the Official Register of Auditors of the accounts in their position shall send to the Accounting and Audit Office in October each year, and in respect of the preceding 12 months, the next information:

(a) Professional address, address of the offices that keep open and address of the website or, failing that, email.

b) Corporation in public law to which, if any, they belong.

(c) The name and last name of the auditors who, in the case of their service, are entered in the Official Register of Auditors, indicating their registration number, the corporation to which, if applicable, belong to the nature and modality of the relevant contractual link.

(d) Name and surname of persons who are not registered in the Official Register of auditors have provided their services in the field of the audit of accounts, with an indication of the period or periods in the accounts. which have provided such services, as well as the hours effectively engaged in the audit of accounts, and specifying the nature and modality of the relevant contractual link.

e) Social reason and registration number of the company or audit firms to which it relates. Name and name or social name of the persons or entities belonging to the same network referred to in Articles 50 and 51 or an indication of the place where such information may be publicly obtained.

(f) All other entries as auditor of accounts with the competent authorities of other Member States and as auditor in third countries, with indication, of the competent authorities for the registration, and where appropriate record numbers.

g) Business volume in hours and euros billed, from account auditing activity.

h) The ratio of the audited entities, the time of the contract, the date of issue of the report, the undersigned auditor, the type of opinion, the hours and fees invoiced, distinguishing:

1. º Those that correspond to the audit of accounts of other services other than the audited entity and the entities related to it referred to in Article 48 of this Regulation.

2. º Those corresponding to services provided to the audited entity by the persons and entities belonging to the network of the auditor or audit firm referred to in Articles 50 and 51.

In particular, the internal audit and design and implementation of the financial information technology systems shall be communicated to the entities whose accounts are audited.

The relationship referred to in this letter shall be made with a separate indication of the audited entities that have the consideration of entities of public interest.

(i) Indication, where appropriate, of the Internet address or website where the annual transparency report is expressly stated in accordance with Article 60.

2. The audit firms shall send the information referred to in points (b) to (i) of the previous paragraph in respect of the preceding 12 months, and in respect of the previous 12 months, to the Accounting and Audit Office. as:

(a) Social address, legal form, address of each office in which you conduct your activity and address of the website or, failing that, email.

(b) Name and surname of the members, with indication, for those belonging to the Official Register of Auditors of Accounts, their registration number and the public law corporation to which they belong, if any.

(c) Social capital, with an indication of its distribution between the partners and, where applicable, of that part of the capital represented by shares without voting rights.

d) Name and last names of administrators and directors.

(e) Identification of the auditors at the service of the company that are expressly designated to carry out audits and to sign audit reports on behalf of the company and the duration of the appointment.

f) Statutory modifications that have occurred.

3. Any variation occurring during the financial year, in relation to the information referred to in paragraphs 1, a), b) and f) and in paragraph 2, shall be brought to the attention of the Accounting and Audit Institute, within the (a) 15 days from the date on which that or, as the case may be, the case has occurred since the legal effects have taken place, irrespective of the absence in the Official Register of Auditors of the accounts which it brings, in accordance with the provisions of the Article 11 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, provided that the variation carries with it the failure to comply with any of the requirements referred to in Articles 8 and 9, for auditors of natural persons, and 10 for audit firms, for such recast text.

The information referred to in paragraph 1 (h) may be required of auditors and audit firms with a higher frequency of time.

4. Without prejudice to the provisions of Community legislation, auditors and companies and other audit entities of third countries referred to in Articles 9.3 and 10.4 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, forward the same information and at the same intervals as those referred to in the preceding paragraphs, with the exception of those from third countries whose supervisory systems have been declared equivalent by the European Union, forward the information with the content and periodicity to be established by means of a resolution of the Institute of Accounting and Audit of Accounts.

5. The models to be completed in relation to the information mentioned above and the time limits for the reference of such information shall be adopted by resolution. These models shall be completed by auditors and audit firms and referred to the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts by electronic means.

6. The Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts, for the appropriate and necessary compliance with the powers that it has legally assigned, may require auditors and audit firms to audit accounts, at any time, any information that is legally or legally required to be provided to them, as well as how much public information about the audited entities is deemed appropriate.

CHAPTER V

Of violations and sanctions and of the sanctioning procedure

Section 1. General Provisions

Article 80. Applicable rules.

It will be up to the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts to impose sanctions on the responsible subjects referred to in Article 31 of the consolidated text of the Audit of Accounts Act and exercise it. in accordance with the provisions of Chapter IV of that recast text and Title IX of Law 30/1992 of 26 November 1992 on the Legal Regime of Public Administrations and the Common Administrative Procedure.

In what is not foreseen in this Regulation, the Rules of Procedure for the Exercise of the Sanctioning Authority, approved by Royal Decree 1.398/1993, of August 4, will be applied in an extra way.

Section 2. Infractions and sanctions

Article 81. Excuse, refusal or resistance to control action.

For the classification of the offences as defined in Articles 33.c) and 34.l) of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, the following criteria shall apply:

1. They shall be deemed to be negative or resistance to the exercise of the powers of control or discipline, as well as the lack of any reference to the documentation or information required for the exercise of the powers conferred on the exercise of control and discipline. of the audit of accounts, all the actions and omissions of the entities or persons referred to in Article 31.1 (a), (b) and (c) of the consolidated text of the Audit of Accounts Act, which tend to delay, or unduly prevent the exercise of the same.

2. In any event they shall be considered negative or resistance to the exercise of the control or discipline powers:

(a) The failure of the person required by the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts or of the staff appointed for the performance of the control actions, in accordance with the provisions of Chapter IV of this Regulation, at the place, day and time, which would have been pointed out in time and form for the initiation, development or termination of the proceedings, unless it is sufficient to cause sufficient justification.

(b) unduly deny or hinder the access or permanence of the designated personnel for the performance of the control actions at the registered office, premises and offices where the activity of the person or entity is carried out subject to control or the required documentation is found, as well as hindering the location of such sites.

c) Attitudes involving threats or coactions to the staff designated for the performance of the control actions or who are directed to unduly delay such actions.

3. In any event, the following shall be considered to be a failure to provide the documentation or information required in the exercise of the powers conferred on the Accounting and Audit Institute:

(a) The refusal to display or make available any class of documents required for them, which are of importance for the performance of the control actions provided for in Chapter IV of this Regulation.

b) The omission or refusal to send or make available the books, records, documents or any information necessary for the performance of the control actions provided for in Chapter IV of this Regulation, which they are required by the personnel to whom the control actions are entrusted, as well as the alteration or manipulation thereof.

Article 82. Failure to comply with the obligation to conduct an audit of accounts on certain assumptions.

Not to be considered committed to the infringement as defined in Article 34.a) of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, when the circumstances of Article 7 are met.

Article 83. Breaches of audit standards in relation to an audit report.

constitutes a single infringement of those referred to in Article 34.b) of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, the non-compliance or the set of breaches of audit standards that are declared to be proven in relationship to an audit work, provided that they are likely to have a significant effect on the outcome of their work and, therefore, in their report.

Article 84. Identification of the auditor of accounts in their work.

The violation of Article 34.g shall be deemed to be committed against the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act when the issued report does not correspond to a work of those covered by the audit procedures of the accounts as referred to in Article 2, provided that their performance has not been attributed to an auditor or audit firm by the legal provisions in force.

This shall not be considered to constitute the infringement referred to in the preceding paragraph, the mere mention of the status of auditor of accounts in any type of report which does not correspond to a work of the the auditing of the accounts referred to in Article 2, provided that their wording or presentation cannot give rise to confusion as to the nature of the work.

In any event, it shall be understood that it does not create confusion about the nature of the work or report when the mention in it to the status of auditor of accounts is exposed for purely informative purposes and is expressly indicated that it does not has carried out an audit of the accounts of those covered by the audit procedures for the accounts referred to in Article 2.

It will be understood that confusion can be generated about the nature of the work or report as an audit of accounts when, by reason of its content, wording or presentation, it could be understood that a report of auditing of the accounts of those regulated in Articles 5 and 6 or 10 and 11.

Article 85. Carrying out audit work without being registered as an exercise in the Official Register of Auditors.

1. The serious infringement as defined in Article 34.h) of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act shall be deemed to have been committed from the moment when the appointment of an audit is accepted without being registered as an exercise in the Official Register of Auditors. Auditors of Accounts.

2. Where the serious infringement referred to in paragraph 1 above is committed, if the offender agrees to the condition of exercising prior to the signature of the audit report and the notification of the initiation of a control action, it must take into account, for the purposes of the graduation of the penalty to be applied, the mitigating circumstance of having carried out, on its own initiative, actions aimed at remedying the infringement or reducing its effects, established in the Article 37 (1) (g) of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act.

Article 86. Criteria for the graduation of sanctions.

1. The penalties provided for in Article 36 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act which are applicable to each offending subject shall be considered to be divided into three degrees, from greater to lesser, respectively, lower, according to the following criteria:

(a) Where the sanction provided for in order to correct a particular infringement may consist of the withdrawal of the authorisation and the final discharge in the Official Register of Auditors, in the suspension of the authorisation and The three types of sanction measures shall, in principle, constitute the upper, middle and lower grades, respectively, of the penalty applicable.

(b) Where the sanction provided for in order to correct a particular infringement may consist of the suspension of the authorisation and the temporary discharge in the Official Register of Auditors or the imposition of a fine, the first type of measure Penalties shall, in general, constitute the highest level of the penalty applicable and shall be regarded as being split into a pecuniary nature in two equal tranches, which shall, in principle and in accordance with their amounts, constitute the average and lower, respectively, of the applicable sanction.

(c) Where the penalty provided for correcting a particular infringement is exclusively pecuniary in nature, it shall be deemed to be divided into three equal tranches, which shall constitute, in accordance with their amounts, the upper, middle and lower, respectively, of the applicable sanction.

The criteria referred to in this paragraph shall be applied in the light of the circumstances of the offences committed and in the responsible persons.

2. The penalty to be imposed on each offending subject shall be marked in one of the three grades referred to in the preceding paragraph, taking into account the nature and importance of the offence committed and, where appropriate, the remainder of the the graduation criteria provided for in Article 37.1 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act resulting from them.

3. Without prejudice to the provisions of other provisions of this Regulation, for the individual determination of the penalty to be applied, the following criteria shall be taken into account, inter alia:

(a) Only consideration shall be given, for the purposes of assessing the application of the aggravating circumstance laid down in Article 37 (1) (f) of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, to the existence of imposed on the offender who are registered in the Official Register of Auditors and until the date on which they are to be cancelled in the course of the time limits laid down in Article 88.

b) The exclusive concurrency of attenuants shall result in the imposition of a penalty in the immediate lower grade than initially applicable.

Article 87. Special rules.

1. The person responsible for two or more infringements shall be subject to all the penalties corresponding to those infringements for simultaneous compliance where appropriate by reason of their nature.

In the event that the simultaneous enforcement of the sanctions imposed, by reason of their nature and effects, is not possible, they will be fulfilled in succession, starting with the most serious, and within the limitation period. of penalties referred to in Article 40 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act.

In any case, the penalties provided for in Article 36 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act and the ban on auditing referred to in Article 37.3 of the text are considered to be simultaneous compliance. recast of the Audit of Accounts Act.

2. By way of derogation from the above paragraph, breaches of the duty of independence in relation to the same audited entity, established as a very serious or serious infringement of Articles 3 (b) and (b), shall be punishable as a continuous infringement. 34.c) of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, respectively, when it relates to the issuance of two or more audit reports of annual accounts, financial statements or accounting documents issued by that entity, corresponding to other successive financial years, provided that such infringements result from a the same and unique occasion or situation or a preconceived plan.

In such a case, the applicable penalty must be imposed on its top half.

3. Where a single event constitutes two or more infringements or where an infringement is a means of committing another offence, the penalty provided for in the most serious infringement shall be applied in its upper half, without it being able to exceed the penalty resulting from the sum of which it would be applicable if the various infringements were to be punished separately. Where the penalty so computed exceeds this limit, the penalty shall be the sum of those that would be imposed on the individual infringements.

4. For the purpose of assessing the existence of a single event, it shall be required to be identical to the implementing acts constituting the breaches of the audit standards for the offences committed.

5. For the purposes of Article 31.2 of the recast text of the Audit of Accounts Act, it shall be understood that, among other cases, a reasonably justified legal or technical discrepancy is found when its action has been adjusted to the criteria expressed or published by the Institute of Accounts and Audit of Accounts in the resolutions and replies to consultations relating to circumstances equal to or similar to those referred to in the technical audit standards in respect of which the discrepancy arises.

Article 88. Cancellation of the registration of the penalties in the Official Register of Auditors.

1. The entries in the Official Register of Auditors of the penalties imposed by the Commission for very serious infringements, except for the withdrawal of the authorization and the final discharge thereof, shall be cancelled ex officio three years since their compliance.

2. The entries in the Official Register of Auditors of the penalties imposed by the commission of serious infringements shall be cancelled ex officio two years after their compliance.

3. The entries in the Official Register of Auditors of the penalties imposed by the Commission for minor offences, except for a private one which shall not be entered in any case, shall be cancelled ex officio after one year from the date of entry into the their compliance.

4. Penalties shall be deemed to be fulfilled, for the purposes of the beginning of the calculation of the time limit for the cancellation of the entries in the Official Register of Auditors, from the end of the period of the discharge or from the payment of the fine on an ordinary basis. or executive, in the case of financial penalties.

5. The auditor or audit firm may request the cancellation in the Official Register of Auditors of the penalties entered in the register after the time limits have elapsed since the date of compliance referred to in the preceding paragraphs.

Section 3 of the sanctioning procedure

Article 89. Time limit for the procedure and extension of time limits.

1. The total time limit for resolving and notifying the sanctioning procedure shall be one year from the adoption by the Chair of the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts of the opening agreement, in accordance with the provisions of the 30.3 of the consolidated text of the Audit of Accounts Act, without prejudice to the suspension of the procedure and the possible extension of the total time limit and the partial periods provided for in the various procedures of the procedure, as established in Articles 42.6 and 49 of Law No 30/1992 of 26 November 1992 on the legal framework of the Public administrations and the Common Administrative Procedure.

2. In the cases referred to in the previous paragraph, the competence to agree on the extension of the total deadline for resolving and reporting shall be the responsibility of the Chair of the Accounting and Audit Institute.

3. In the case of a limitation of the infringement and the expiry of the procedure for the duration of the total period of one year, plus the extensions provided for in Article 30.3 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, or by the (a) the period of six months provided for in Article 39.2 of the said recast text where the expiry of the said period has also determined the limitation of the infringement, the express decision shall be taken to contain the statement of the circumstances that are present, with an indication of the facts produced and the applicable rules. The resolution shall be notified to the auditor or audit firm of accounts subject to the procedure.

4. The competence to agree on the extension of the various partial deadlines in the processing of the procedure, including the hearing after the formulation of the motion for a resolution, shall be the responsibility of the instructor.

Article 90. Previous and prescription actions.

1. Prior to the opening of the sanctioning procedure, the President of the Institute of Accounting and Audit of Accounts may order the performance of the previous actions necessary for the purpose of determining the preliminary if circumstances warrant such an opening.

2. Where substantiated and duly documented evidence of infringement is obtained in the course of any action to control the audit of accounts, the penalty procedure may be initiated without the completion of its processing.

3. Where it is concluded that the infringement has been prescribed by the previous control action, the President of the Accounting and Audit Office shall agree to the file of actions and the non-provenance of the initiation of the sanctioning procedure, notifying the parties concerned of the agreement or resolution adopted. Those identified in the opening agreement as allegedly responsible shall be considered to be interested.

Article 91. Opening Agreement.

1. The power to issue the opening agreement shall be the responsibility of the President of the Accounting and Audit Institute. The opening agreement shall contain the content provided for in Article 13.1 of the Rules of Procedure for the Exercise of the Sanctioning Authority, with the following specialties:

(a) The appointment of an instructor shall be made by an official assigned to the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts. The official who carried out the previous control actions may be appointed as an instructor.

(b) If the complexity of the procedure so advises, the President of the Accounting and Audit Office, when issuing the opening agreement or at any time in the course of the procedure, may appoint one or more several assistant instructors. The assistant instructors shall act under the direction of the master instructor and must meet the same conditions as those required for the single or principal instructor, and their appointment shall be notified to those concerned on the same terms. the person, with the express indication of the system of recusal established.

2. The opening agreement shall be communicated to the appointed instructor and shall be notified only to the persons concerned. Those identified in the opening agreement as allegedly responsible shall be considered to be interested.

3. Where appropriate, the opening of the file shall be communicated to the complainant, provided that the file has been requested by the complainant.

4. Where the suspected person responsible is an auditor or audit firm authorised originally in a Member State of the European Union, the competent supervisory authority of that State of origin shall be notified of the agreement. the opening of a sanctioning procedure.

Article 92. Instructor's faculties.

The instructor may request that a number of technical or legal reports be issued, depending on the complexity of the procedure, in order to carry out the instruction of the procedure.

Article 93. Motion for a resolution.

1. Once the dossier has been submitted, the instructor shall formulate the motion for a resolution, setting out in a reasoned manner the facts which have been proven, the legal status of the instructor and the infringement which may, if any, constitute the a statement of the persons or entities that are responsible, and the sanction proposed; or the declaration of non-existence of an infringement or liability shall be proposed.

2. In the event of the appointment of assistant instructors, the motion for a resolution shall be submitted by the lead instructor.

3. The motion for a resolution shall be notified to the parties concerned, the hearing proceedings being agreed. The notification shall be accompanied by a list of the documents in the proceedings so that the parties concerned can obtain the copies they deem relevant.

4. After the hearing, the instructor will raise the corresponding motion for a resolution, along with all the actions, to the President of the Accounting and Audit Institute.

Article 94. Resolution.

1. The President of the Accounting and Audit Office, subject to the submission of the file in those cases where the infringements are classified as very serious or serious, to the consideration of the Audit Committee of Accounts, will dictate a resolution within three months from the date of the meeting of the said Committee.

2. The President of the Accounting and Audit Office may order the carrying out of further action, in accordance with Article 20.1 of the Rules of Procedure for the Exercise of the Power Sanctioning, both before and after the submission of the file to the consideration of the Audit Committee of Accounts, in case such a procedure is obtained. Additional actions shall be carried out within a period of not more than one month and the persons concerned shall have a period of hearing of seven days from the day following that of the notification of the outcome of those proceedings. complementary. This result shall be subject to the consideration of the Audit Audit Committee, if this has been previously requested by the Audit Committee.

The deadline for resolving the procedure will be suspended from the date of the agreement for the completion of the supplementary actions, until the date of the meeting of the Audit Audit Committee, and the deadline for issuing a resolution to the referred to in the preceding paragraph shall start counting from that date of the meeting.

3. Other facts other than those specified in the motion for a resolution shall not be considered in the resolution except those resulting from the additional action taken, where appropriate, in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph, and without prejudice to the different legal assessment that may be made in relation to the one made in the motion for a resolution.

4. In any event, where the President of the Accounting and Audit Office considers, both before and after the submission of the dossier to the consideration of the Audit Audit Committee, in the event that the If the infringement is more serious than that determined in the motion for a resolution, the parties concerned shall be notified to provide all the relevant arguments within a period of 15 days. This shall be deemed to be the case:

(a) Where it is considered to be punishable conduct that in the motion for a resolution would have been considered as non-sanctionable.

b) When the rating of a minor to severe or very severe, or severe to very serious, violation is changed.

Article 95. Accumulation of files and grouping of offenders.

1. As many sanctioning procedures will be initiated as audit work, where there is evidence of an infringement. However, where identity is present in the grounds or circumstances determining the assessment of several infringements, the opening and instruction of the various procedures may be accumulated.

2. Penalties imposed on audit firms and on the auditor of the accounts signatory to the report on his or her behalf, which are co-responsible, may be imposed in the same resolution, as a result of a single procedure, infringement, in accordance with Articles 31 and 36 of the recast text of the Audit of Accounts Act.

The same way of imposing sanctions on several auditors or audit firms that have acted together, when the penalties result from the same infringement.

CHAPTER VI

Cooperation with Member States of the European Union and international cooperation

Section 1-Duty of collaboration with the competent authorities of the Member States of the European Union

Article 96. Duty of collaboration in the exchange of information.

1. The Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts shall collaborate with the competent authorities of other Member States by exchanging accurate information for the performance of their duties in accordance with the provisions of Article 42.1. of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act.

2. Precise information may be considered, among other information, contained in the following documents:

(a) Data from the auditor or audit firm required for the registration in the Official Register of Accounts Auditors of the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts.

b) Registration date on the record and other relevant information.

c) Record low date, low and other relevant information.

d) Report and documentation related to inspections of quality control systems that are being carried out or completed.

e) Report and documentation related to investigations that are being carried out or completed.

f) Information about sanctioning processes that are being performed or have ended.

Article 97. Request for information.

1. The request for the exchange of information should include an explanation of the reasons for such a request and the purpose for which the information exchanged is to be used and should refer to information necessary for the compliance of its functions and cannot be obtained by other means.

2. The information to be exchanged shall be transmitted in the form and the maximum period to be established between the competent authorities of the Member States.

3. In the case where the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts receives a request for information, such information shall be exchanged in the language of the original document to be submitted. In cases where it is established between the competent authorities of the Member States, it shall be accompanied by an unofficial translation into English.

Article 98. Use of the information exchanged.

1. Without prejudice to the provisions of legal status, the Institute of Accounts and Audit of Accounts may only use the information received for the exercise of its powers and in accordance with the purposes for which it may have granted their consent to the competent authority which refers the information.

When the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts, in compliance with the duty of collaboration established in the applicable legislation, is required to submit information received from one competent authority from another Member State to another competent authority in the Spanish territory, prior communication to the competent authority from which the information has been received shall be necessary.

When the information received contains personal data, it must also be in accordance with the provisions of the Organic Law 15/1999 of 13 December on the Protection of Personal Data and its provisions development.

2. Where the information received is requested by another competent authority of another Member State, the Accounting and Audit Institute may forward that information only with the prior consent of the Member State of which it has received the information to be transmitted.

3. The Accounting and Audit Audit Institute shall not forward the information received from a competent authority of another Member State to a competent authority of a third country.

In this case, the request shall be transferred to the competent authority from which the requested information originates.

Article 99. Collaboration in the performance of control actions.

1. Where the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts agrees, at the request of the competent authority of another Member State, to carry out a control action or to enable the competent authority's staff to participate in a performance With the staff of the Accounting and Audit Institute, it will be up to this Institute to decide if it exercises the direction of the corresponding action taken on Spanish territory.

2. In any event, the competent authority which has requested the performance of the control action shall be notified of the results of the actions to be carried out.

Article 100. Refusal of the referral of information or the performance of a control action.

In the cases referred to in Article 43.2 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, in which the Institute does not provide the information requested by the competent authorities of other Member States, or does not a control action or allows the staff of the competent authority of another Member State to participate in a control action together with the staff of the Accounting and Audit Office, the latter shall communicate the reasons for such action. Circumstance to the requesting competent authority within one month from receipt of the receipt of the request.

Article 101. Communication duties.

1. When the discharge of an auditor or audit firm of the Official Register of Auditors of the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts is agreed, the latter shall communicate the corresponding discharge and the reasons for the discharge. the competent authorities of the Member States in which the auditor or audit firm is authorised to carry out the audit of accounts.

This communication shall be made within a period of 15 days from the entry in the Official Register of Auditors.

2. Where the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts concludes that they may be carried out or may have been carried out in another Member State, activities contrary to the national provisions transposing the Directive 2006 /43/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 May 2006 on the statutory audit of the annual accounts and consolidated accounts, shall communicate it to the competent authority of that Member State within the maximum period of 15 days count on the conclusion that such actions may be contrary to the applicable provisions, and without prejudice to the powers that the Accounting and Audit Institute may exercise.

3. Where the Accounting and Audit Institute receives a communication from the competent authority of another Member State on the existence of indications of actions in Spain which may be considered as contrary to the recast text of The Audit of Accounts Act, this Regulation and its implementing rules shall take appropriate action, without prejudice to the communication to the competent authority of the outcome of its actions.

Section 2. Supervision of auditors, companies and other audit entities of third countries

Article 102. Waivers.

The auditors of accounts of third countries referred to in Article 9.3 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act as well as the companies and other audit entities of third countries to which the Article 10 (4) may be exempted from the quality control actions attributed to the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts in Article 28 of that recast text, subject to reciprocity, where they are subject to public oversight, quality control and investigation and penalties that have been declared equivalent by the European Commission, in the terms set out in the relevant cooperation agreements.

Section 3. Coordination with competent authorities of third countries

Article 103. Exchange of information.

1. The exchange of information referred to in Article 43.1 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act as well as the collaboration for the performance of control actions shall be carried out with the content, deadlines and forms established in the corresponding cooperation agreement. The cooperation agreement may take the form of a control action or permit, where provided for in the relevant Decision of the European Union and in the terms contained therein, the staff of the competent authority of the a third country to participate in a control action with the staff of the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts.

The cooperation agreement should provide for the guarantees that the regulatory regulations provide for the protection of personal data and the duty of secrecy.

2. Each request for information received from a competent authority in a third country shall be assessed to determine whether the request for a referral of information can be addressed by indicating otherwise the information that may be provided.

3. To avoid unnecessary delays, parts of the information can be submitted as available and if the shipment is appropriate.

4. A request for information must be rejected when:

(a) Access to the request for information may contravene the applicable laws and regulations or other provisions.

(b) The referral of the information can be considered to be contrary to the public interest.

c) The remission of information may harm sovereignty, security or public order.

(d) Judicial proceedings on the same facts and against the same auditors or audit firms have been initiated before the Spanish authorities.

5. If a request for information cannot be addressed, the requesting competent authority shall be informed of this, indicating the reasons for the impossibility.

6. Where the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts agrees with the competent authority of a third country to carry out a control action or to allow the competent authority's staff to participate in a control action together with the competent authority of a third country, with the staff of the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts, this control action shall be carried out, as a general rule, under the direction of the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts when carried out on Spanish territory.

CHAPTER VII

Of public law corporations representative of auditors

Article 104. Public law corporations representative of auditors.

Representative public law corporations of auditors are considered to be the public law entities of which the auditors and audit firms are a party that comply with each and every one of the following requirements:

a) That in its statutes it is listed as the only, or one of the activities of its members, the audit of accounts.

b) That at least 10 percent of the auditors registered in the Official Register of Auditors belong to the corporation.

(c) That at least 15 percent of the auditors registered in the Official Register of Auditors, in the situation set out in Article 27.a), are members of the corporation.

Article 105. Functions.

It is up to the public law corporations representative of auditors to perform the following functions:

a) Develop, adapt and revise the standards of audit, ethics and internal quality control, on its own initiative or at the instance of the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts.

b) Propose and jointly perform the professional aptitude tests referred to in Article 36, and as provided for in Article 37.

(c) Organize and, where appropriate, provide courses of theoretical training for those referred to in Article 34.2, once they are approved by the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts.

d) Organise and, where appropriate, conduct continuing training activities, which are to be carried out by auditors, in accordance with the terms laid down in Article 41, as well as to carry out the verifications and communications referred to in Article 41; that article and 42.

e) To press the cooperation of its members in the practical training required for the examination of aptitude, monitoring their proper compliance, in accordance with the provisions of Article 35, having to give the go-ahead in the certificates they are issued by their members, where such provision is provided for in the rules.

f) Elaborate on the deontological standards and codes of conduct to be followed by its members.

g) To verify compliance with the internal practices and procedures of its members in the exercise of the audit of accounts, if their failure to comply with disciplinary measures in their respective cases has been observed. Statutes.

h) Propose to the Accounting and Audit Institute the opening of the sanctioning procedure, in the terms referred to in Article 78.5 or, where appropriate, to communicate those issues or issues identified in the exercise of their functions which may result in the failure to comply with the regulatory rules for the audit of accounts.

i) Collaborate with the Accounting and Audit Institute on all issues related to the audit of accounts. In particular, they may carry out, under the supervision and direction of the Accounting and Audit Institute, the quality control of auditors or audit firms when the Institute so agrees, provided that the audit firm does not persons directly entrusted with a quality control performance on an auditor or audit firm have not been involved in the implementation and design of the internal quality control system of the same auditors or auditors; or audit firms for the three years immediately preceding the execution of the audit of quality.

(j) Other than those provided for in its Statutes which are intended to achieve the best compliance with the provisions of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act and in this Regulation.

Article 106. Access to the documentation and communication duty of public law corporations representative of auditors.

1. For the purposes of Article 105 (g) and (i) above, public law corporations representing auditors may have access to the documentation relating to each audit, subject to the obligation laid down in the Article 25.2 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act.

2. The public law corporations must bring to the attention of the Accounting and Audit Institute the action plans and the actions initiated as referred to in points (g) and (i) of the previous article, as well as the result of same.

Additional disposition first. Audit of the entities ' annual accounts by reason of their size.

In development of the additional provision first, paragraph 1.f) of the recast text of the Audit of Accounts Act, and without prejudice to other legal provisions, entities, whatever their nature In the case of the legal framework for financial information which is applicable to it, it shall be required to submit to the audit, in accordance with the terms laid down in Article 1.2 of the aforementioned recast of the Audit of Accounts, the annual accounts of the social exercises in which, according to The provisions of Article 257 of the recast of the Capital Companies Act, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 1/2010 of 2 July 2010, do not present the circumstances provided for in order to make an abbreviated balance sheet, normal model.

Additional provision second. Audit of annual accounts of the entities receiving grants or aid from the budgets of the general government or EU funds.

1. Developing the provisions of the first paragraph (1) (e) of the recast text of the Audit of Accounts Act, and without prejudice to other legal provisions, entities, whatever their nature (a) legal and whenever they have to make annual accounts in accordance with the regulatory framework for financial information applicable to them, which during a social year would have received grants or aid from the budgets of the Administrations Public or European Union funds, for a total cumulative amount exceeding EUR 600 000, be required to audit the annual accounts for that financial year and the financial years in which the operations are carried out or to carry out the investments corresponding to the said grants or aid, established in Article 1.2 of the aforementioned recast text of the Audit of Accounts Act.

2. Grants or aid, for the purposes of this provision, shall be deemed to be received at the time when they are to be recorded in the books of the company or entity in accordance with the provisions of the accounting rules to be applicable to you.

3. They shall be construed as grants or aid, for the purposes of this provision, those referred to in Article 2 of Law 38/2003 of 17 November, General of Grants.

Additional provision third. Audit of annual accounts of entities that engage with the public sector.

1. Developing the provisions of the first paragraph (1) (e) of the consolidated text of the Audit of Accounts Act, and without prejudice to other legal provisions, entities, whatever their nature legal and whenever they have to make annual accounts in accordance with the regulatory framework for financial information applicable to it, which during an economic year would have concluded with the Public Sector the contracts referred to in Article 2 of the Law 30/2007, of 30 October, of Public Sector Contracts for a cumulative total amount exceeding EUR 600 000, and representing more than 50% of the net amount of its annual turnover, shall be obliged to audit the annual accounts for that social year and the annual accounts of the following on the terms set out in Article 1 (2) of the said recast text of the Audit of Accounts Act.

2. The actions referred to in the preceding paragraph shall be deemed to have been carried out for the purposes of this provision, at the time the corresponding collection right is to be recorded in the accounting books of the institution, in accordance with the (a) in this respect, in the regulatory framework for financial information that is applicable.

Additional provision fourth. Appointment of auditors to institutions subject to the obligation to audit their annual accounts, for the circumstances provided for in the first, second and third provisions of this Regulation.

The appointment of auditors in the entities subject to the obligation to audit their annual accounts, in the circumstances provided for in the first, second and third provisions of this Regulation, shall be made by those entities. persons or bodies to whom such competence corresponds, in accordance with the rules applicable to each of them according to their legal nature, before the end of the social exercise for auditing.

The periods of appointment and recruitment of auditors shall be governed by the provisions of Article 19 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act. Auditors may not be revoked before the end of the period for which they were appointed, unless they are deemed to be a fair cause, as such, in any event, the termination of the obligation to audit the annual accounts of the institution.

Additional provision fifth. Audit in public sector entities.

1. The audit work on annual accounts or other financial statements or accounting documents of entities that are part of the state, regional or local public sector and are legally assigned to the public control bodies of the economic and financial management of the public sector in the exercise of its powers are governed by its specific rules, not resulting from the application of those works as established in the regulatory regulation of the audit of accounts.

The provisions of the preceding paragraph are equally applicable to the work of collaboration which may be carried out by auditors or audit firms registered in the Official Register of Auditors, by virtue of contracts concluded by those public control bodies and in implementation of the annual planning of audits of those bodies.

The reports referred to in this paragraph which may be issued by auditors or audit firms on public entities may not be identified as an audit of accounts, nor may their wording or presentation be generated. confusion regarding their nature as an audit work of accounts.

2. By way of derogation from the preceding paragraph, in cases where the contracts concluded between the public control bodies and the auditors of accounts entered in the Official Register of Auditors are included, together with the carrying out the public audit, issuing an audit report on the accounts provided for in Article 1 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, which is intended to meet certain requirements laid down in sectoral or sectoral rules for other reasons of a commercial or financial nature, such as competition for tenders or to obtain resources in financial markets, audit reports of accounts which may be issued by auditors or audit firms for such purposes, shall be subject to the provisions of the regulatory rules of the audit accounts activity.

3. The audit work of accounts carried out by an auditor or audit firm entered in the Official Register of Auditors of Accounts on the annual accounts or financial statements or other accounting documents of institutions state, regional or local public sector which, in accordance with its implementing rules, are legally obliged to submit their annual accounts to the audit of accounts provided for in Article 1 of the recast of the Law of Audit of Accounts are subject to the provisions of the regulatory regulation of the audit activity of accounts. In particular, the audit work carried out by an auditor or audit firm entered in the Official Register of Auditors on the annual accounts of commercial companies is included in this paragraph. belonging to the public sector concerned subject to the obligation to submit their annual accounts to audit in accordance with commercial law.

Additional provision sixth. Membership of several public law corporations and income in the Registry of certain corporations.

1. When auditors or audit firms belong to more than one public law corporation representative of auditors, they shall be required to choose one of them for the purposes of this Regulation. The information referred to in Article 79 (1) (b) and (2) (b) shall only be mentioned by the public law corporation for which it has been chosen.

2. The entry of the natural persons into the Official Register of Auditors under the Higher Council of Official Colleges of Spain shall be carried out by means of carrying out and exceeding the professional aptitude test, the development is carried out in Chapter II, Section 2. of this Regulation, by those who meet the requirements set out in Article 8 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act.

Audit companies that meet the requirements set out in Article 10 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act may also be registered in that Official Register of Auditors.

3. The entry of the natural persons into the General Register of Auditors under the General Council of Colleges of Economists of Spain will be carried out by the completion and improvement of the professional aptitude test, whose development is carried out in the Chapter II, Section 2. of this Regulation, by those meeting the requirements set out in Article 8 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act.

Audit companies that meet the requirements set out in Article 10 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act may also be registered in that Official Register of Auditors.

Additional provision seventh. Transparency and publicity.

The Institute of Accounts and Audit of Accounts shall draw up and give publicity annually to a report reflecting its performance, both in the field of accounting and in the audit of accounts, as well as its management.

For account audit activity, it will be included, at least:

a) The Accounting and Audit Institute's programs or plans for action.

b) The Activity Report, which will reflect the general results and conclusions reached in the control of the activity and an explanatory summary of the actions developed in the exercise of their competencies disciplinary.

c) Your situation and evolution.

Additional disposition octave. Coordination mechanisms with bodies or public institutions with control or inspection powers.

1. Developing the provisions of the first paragraph of the consolidated text of the Audit of Accounts Act, in its first paragraph, and without prejudice to other legal provisions, is established as one of the systems or coordination procedures between the bodies or public institutions which have legally assigned supervisory and supervisory powers over undertakings and entities which submit their annual accounts to audit accounts and auditors of those undertakings and entities, the power to require the abovementioned undertakings and entities to the application to its auditors, which shall be included in the annual accounts audit contract, a supplementary report to the audit of annual accounts which contributes to the best performance of the said tasks monitoring and control. For this purpose, the auditors shall draw up such a supplementary report to the audit report of the annual accounts, which shall be carried out within the scope of that audit and whose preparation shall be subject to the corresponding audit report. audit technical standard.

2. The obligation of auditors of accounts of entities subject to the supervision regime to promptly communicate in writing to the Banco de España, the National Securities and Exchange Commission and the General Directorate of Insurance and Pension Funds, as well as to the autonomic bodies with powers of management and supervision of the insurance institutions, as appropriate, any relevant fact or decision on the audited institution or institution, referred to in the second paragraph of the final provision First of the recast text of the Audit of Accounts Act, it must be fulfilled within a maximum period of 10 days from the moment when there is effective knowledge that such facts or decisions have occurred.

3. Also, the obligation of the auditors, referred to in the third paragraph of the first provision of the consolidated text of the Audit of Accounts Act, to send a copy of the audit report of the annual accounts to the accounts. supervisory authorities referred to in the preceding paragraph, in the event of the expiry of the one-week period from the date of delivery of that audit report to the audited entity by the auditor, without the auditor having made the audit report the reference to the said authorities must be fulfilled within 10 days of the end of the mentioned week.

4. The data, reports, background and other information obtained by the Bodies and Public Institutions pursuant to this additional provision may be used only for the purposes of control and supervision entrusted to them. Institutions. The information which the Bodies and the Public Institutions, for the performance of their duties, must provide to the auditors of the undertakings and entities subject to their supervision and control shall be exempt from the duty of secrecy. which, if any, such Bodies and Institutions are subject to, in accordance with their respective legal regulations.

Additional provision ninth. Formulation of queries.

1. Persons with powers for the formulation of annual accounts or their verification may carry out duly documented consultations with the Institute of Accounts and Audit of Accounts with regard to the application of the rules contained in the framework. (a) a regulatory framework for the financial reporting applicable and the regulatory framework for the audit of accounts, within the scope of that Institute's competence.

2. The consultation will have to understand all the background and circumstances necessary for the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts to be able to form due judgment. Otherwise, the Agency may reject the queries that are made.

3. The reply shall be of a mere information and shall in no case constitute an administrative act, and the persons concerned may not appeal against it.

4. The competence to resolve the consultations shall be from the President of the Accounting and Audit Office, who, for the relevance and interest of the questions referred to in a particular consultation, may submit them to the Committee for consideration. the Audit of Accounts or the Accounting Board, within the framework of their respective competencies.

5. Without prejudice to the fact that repeated consultations on the same subject may call on the Accounting and Audit Institute to draw up a general application resolution, the consultations may be published in the Bulletin of the Institute or on its website, provided it is considered to be of general interest.

The publication of such resolutions or consultations shall in no case contain data relating to the domicile of private legal persons, individual or professional entrepreneurs affected by the resolution or consultation.

Additional provision 10th. Official Gazette of the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts.

1. It is up to the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts to publish, publish and distribute the Official Gazette of the Agency, showing the technical, economic and administrative functions in this respect.

2. This Bulletin shall contain:

(a) All data the publication of which is required by the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act, this Regulation or any other provision.

b) Information regarding the Official Register of Auditors.

(c) Any information is considered to be of interest to the Institute for its relationship with the accounting and audit activity of accounts, including provisions relating to such matters.

3. The publication of the Bulletin shall, at least, be quarterly and shall be made by means of the media providing the greatest access to its content.

4. In case the Bulletin is the subject of electronic publication, the necessary technical measures will be taken to prevent the automatic indexing and recovery of publications through search engines from the Internet.

Additional provision eleventh. Agreements for the exchange of information with third countries on the basis of reciprocity.

The Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts will publish in its Official Gazette and on its website a list of third countries with which information exchange agreements exist, on the basis of reciprocity, as provided for in Article 43 of the recast of the Audit of Accounts Act.

Additional disposition twelfth. Composition of the Chartered Bodies of the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts.

1. The Audit of Accounts Committee shall be chaired by the President of the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts and composed, together with him, by 13 members appointed by the Minister of Economy and Finance, with the following distribution:

(a) On a proposal from the President of the Court of Auditors, a representative of the Court of Auditors.

b) On a proposal from the Minister of Economy and Finance, a representative of the General Intervention of the State Administration.

(c) On a proposal from the Minister of Justice, a member of the judicial or tax career or a lawyer of the State or a business registrar.

d) On a proposal from the Governor of the Bank of Spain, a representative of the Bank of Spain.

e) On a proposal from the Chairman of the National Securities Market Commission, a representative of that body and an investment analyst.

f) On a proposal from the Director-General of Insurance and Pension Funds, a representative of that Directorate-General.

g) On a proposal from the presidents of public law corporations representing auditors, four representatives of auditors.

(h) A proposal by the President of the Accounting and Audit Institute, a university professor and an expert of recognized accounting and auditing of accounts.

Will act as secretary of the Audit of Accounts Committee, with voice and no vote, the Secretary General of the Accounting and Audit Institute.

The Chair may invite the Audit Committee meetings to experts in the field, when deemed appropriate.

2. The Accounting Board shall be chaired by the President of the Accounting and Audit Office, which shall have a vote of quality, and shall be composed, together with him, by four vowels appointed by the Minister for Economic Affairs and Finance with the next distribution:

(a) A proposal by the Governor of the Bank of Spain, a representative of the Bank of Spain.

b) On a proposal from the Chairman of the National Securities Market Commission, a representative of the Securities Market Committee.

(c) On a proposal from the Director-General of Insurance and Pension Funds, a representative of that Directorate-General.

(d) A proposal by the Minister for Economic Affairs and Finance, a representative of that department, who will attend the meetings with a voice and without a vote.

He will act as secretary of the Accounting Council, with a voice and no vote, the Deputy Director General of Standardization and Accounting Institute of the Accounting and Audit Institute.

3. The Accounting Advisory Committee shall be chaired by the President of the Accounting and Audit Office and composed, together with him, by a maximum of twenty vowels appointed by the Minister for Economic Affairs and Finance, with the following: distribution:

(a) On a proposal from the Minister of Justice, a representative of that department.

b) A proposal by the Minister of Economy and Finance, a representative of the General Intervention of the State Administration and a representative of the General Directorate of Taxation.

(c) On a proposal from the Governor of the Bank of Spain, a representative of the Bank of Spain.

d) On a proposal from the Chairman of the National Securities Market Commission, a representative of that Commission, a representative of the accounting information users and a representative of the associations or organisations representative of the economic information issuers of the companies.

e) On a proposal from the President of the National Statistics Institute, a representative of the Institute.

f) On a proposal from the Director-General of Insurance and Pension Funds, a representative of that Directorate-General.

g) On a proposal from the President of the General Council of Colleges of Economists of Spain, a representative of that Council.

(h) On a proposal from the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Board of Governors of Spain, a representative of the Council.

i) On a proposal from the President of the Institute of Jurors of Accounts of Spain, an audit professional.

(j) On a proposal from the President of the Accounting and Audit Institute, a representative of the Institute, a representative of the university, a representative of the associations of principles and criteria accounting officers and a maximum of five persons of recognised standing in accounting matters.

Will act as secretary of the Accounting Advisory Committee an official of the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts, appointed by its President.

4. The collegiate bodies provided for in this additional provision shall be governed by the provisions of Chapter II of Title II of Law No 30/1992 of 26 November 1992 on the Legal Regime of Public Administrations and the Administrative Procedure. Common.

First transient disposition. Theoretical training courses.

1. For the purposes of considering compliance with the requirement relating to the follow up of the courses of theoretical education referred to in Article 34 of this Regulation, the training courses of auditors approved by the Institute of Accounting and Audit of Accounts, in accordance with the above rules, without prejudice to the obligation of persons who have made them to update the knowledge acquired and to examine in the first phase of the examination of the subjects they would not have been in their day.

2. Those who hold the securities referred to in the third transitional provision of the consolidated text of the Audit of Accounts Act may complete their training on the basis of the relevant qualification and obtain the waiver referred to in the Article 36 of that Regulation by certifying that, by means of an academic certificate of study, the necessary materials are exceeded in an official certificate valid throughout the national territory, as laid down in Article 34 of the Regulation. Organic Law 6/2001, of 21 December, of Universities, provided such possibility is referred to in the approval by the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts.

3. As long as the international auditing standards referred to in Article 34.1 of this Regulation are not adopted by the European Union, courses of theoretical training shall promote their general knowledge.

Second transient disposition. Practical training.

The requirements of Article 35 of this Regulation on the obligation to acquire practical training shall be required from 1 January 2015.

The practical training acquired up to that date must be accredited in accordance with the regulations in force until the date of entry into force of this Regulation contained in Article 25.3 of Royal Decree 1636/1990, of 20 December, by which the Rules of Procedure for the Development of the Audit of Accounts Act are adopted.

Transitional provision third. Information to be submitted.

The obligation to submit information to the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts by electronic means referred to in Article 79 of this Regulation shall be required as of 1 January 2013.

Transitional disposition fourth. Bail.

1. The security to be provided by auditors and audit firms shall comply with the arrangements referred to in Article 55 as from 1 January 2013.

2. Civil liability insurance policies which are signed from the date of entry into force of this Regulation may not fail to cover the liability for audit reports of accounts signed up to that date, within the limits provided for in Article 35 (2) and (3) of the Audit of Accounts Regulation, approved by Royal Decree 1636/1990 of 20 December 1990.

Transient disposition fifth. Periodicity in quality control.

The periodicity referred to in Article 74.1 of this Regulation shall begin to be counted from the beginning of the year following the entry into force of this Regulation.

Transitional disposition sixth. Other audit work entrusted by statutory provisions to auditors.

All works which, without the consideration of auditing of accounts, are attributed by legal provisions to the auditors of accounts entered in the Official Register of Auditors of Accounts, will continue to be applied the specific technical standards published by resolution of the Institute of Accounts and Audit of Accounts, until they are approved jointly by the corporations representing the auditors, as referred to in Article 3.2 of the This Regulation shall be published by the Accounting and Audit Institute of Accounts.

Transitional disposition seventh. Sanctioning procedures.

The administrative sanctioning procedures covered by this Regulation initiated prior to its entry into force will continue to be governed by the rules contained in the previous regime, without prejudice to the Article 128 of Law 30/1992, of 26 November, of the Legal Regime of Public Administrations and of the Common Administrative Procedure.

Transient disposition octave. Continuing training.

The obligation under Article 42 of this Regulation to provide information on continuing training activities and courses will be required from 1 October 2013 and for the previous 12 months.

Single end disposition. Public law corporations representative of auditors and audit firms.

As soon as they comply with the requirements set out in Article 104 of this Regulation, they shall be considered representative for the purposes of the regulatory provisions of the audit of accounts, at least:

a) General Council of Spanish Economists ' Colleges.

b) Superior Council of the Official Colleges of Spain.

c) Instituto de Censados Jurados de Cuentas de España.

(d) The General Council of Economists, which is established in accordance with the second transitional provision of Law 30/2011 of 4 October on the creation of the General Council of Economists, replacing corporations with (a) and (b), which shall be dissolved in accordance with that provision.