Diana Goreva
Accountant
In the middle of winter, accountants faced the problem of obtaining fiscal documents by the tax service. Although the revenue officers recognized the case of a technical failure, some accounting specialists paid attention to the accrual of penalties, although all documents were submitted by the company in due time and there should be no sanctions from the inspectors in this case. Diana Goreva, Acsour’s Accountant, studied out, what to do if an organization finds itself in such a situation, specifically for the “Raschet” magazine
How to avoid accrual of sudden penalty tax? First of all, the company may be protected by paying all tax levies within the prescribed time limit, and only correct filling in of declarations, payment orders and, of course, knowledge of the legislation will secure it against technical errors on the part of the Federal Tax Service of Russia. Because according to representatives of the tax service, the program is set up for an ideal taxpayer with an ideal situation and successfully “passes” only those to whom there are no complaints at all. But there are no such situations in life. What to do in case of an abnormal situation? Let us have a look at a few cases.
Today, according to the Federal Tax Service data, the transition to the centralized software Automated Information System (AIS) “Tax-3”, which continued for the last three years, is being completed. According to the inspectors, the technology will improve the tax accounting system, open access to new services and allow switching to extraterritorial and contactless operation. This principle of work will be useful not only for companies, but also allow the supervisory authority to identify fly-by-night business faster and more effectively.
Owing to the centralization of all taxes and levies, it will be possible to detect the slightest inconsistencies in payments of taxes and levies, excises and customs duties. As a result, all possible information about organizations, their founders and directors, as well as the location of the company will be collected. These changes will apply to the entire business of the country, since as already mentioned, the transition to the software will be made at the federal level. The Head of the Federal Tax Service of Russia Mikhail Mishustin stated that for the full transition, it remains to transfer part of the legal entities.
However, owing to the transition to new software, interruptions in the work of the Federal Tax Service of Russia began from the beginning of the year. The service informed about failures in sending receipts informing about receiving reporting on its official website. But this was not the only problem that accountants faced with, for example, the deadline for submitting reporting on insurance premiums has come, and not all declarations for a specific taxpayer are converted in AIS “Tax-3”. The program sent an error about a big difference in calculations and then sent a refusal. Or another case when the company’s account has been blocked, although there is no obligation to submit declaration and, consequently, the company does not have to pay tax either. The elimination of such errors is not automated and can only be corrected manually. Unfortunately, the number of such errors increases significantly during the transition. A motto of accountants even managed to appear in the Internet: “Not a day goes by that new snags of the Federal Tax Service program happen!”
This is a quite common situation that may arise as a result of lack of knowledge of the specifics of the legislation.
The company has an overpayment of VAT, the accountant wants to set it off against the payment of profits tax. To do this, it is necessary first to write an application to the tax authority. The term for consideration of such requests is 10 days from when the document from the company was received (clause 4 of article 78 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).
Be sure to remember that the tax may only be set off within the relevant budget or state non–budgetary fund (for example, an overpayment of federal tax may only be set off for paying tax, fine, and penalties of federal taxes, but for local and regional taxes – it is prohibited).
If the decision to set off was made after the deadline for paying profits tax, it means that the company has not fulfilled the obligation to pay and penalties will be accrued to it. In accordance with article 44 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation in correspondence with article 78 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation the obligation to pay tax shall cease at the date when the decision on setting off the overpayment is made. In view of this (and since the Tax Code of the Russian Federation does not provide otherwise), penalties are accrued until the date of making a decision on offset, even if the inspectorate violated the term provided for in clause 4 of article 78 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.
If we consider the situation with filling in the payment order for contributions of compulsory pension insurance and of Federal Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund, then it is necessary to first adhere to the legislation, and it says that the insurance premiums are paid per calendar month and are payable not later than the 15th day of the following calendar month (clause 3, article 431 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). According to Appendix No. 2 to the order No. 107n of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated November 12, 2013, in the payment order, the datum “TP” (payments of the current year) should be put in field 106, since this is a payment of the current year, and the datum “MS” (monthly payments) should be entered in field 107. No other data are appropriate.
When everything is done correctly and it is completely unclear where the penalties might have come from, first of all it is necessary to call the inspector, perhaps it is enough just “to pull up the payment” or correct something in the system. Sometimes it is impossible to reach the inspector by phone, then the best way to contact the auditors is to write a letter to the tax service and attach payment orders with the bank’s mark on payment execution. If the Federal Tax Service Inspectorate does not respond to the letter after 30 days, then it is necessary to write a complaint – as a rule, they respond quickly to it.
Accountant
