What requirements does the tax service put forward regarding Electronic document management (transfer, storage, etc.) for legal entities and entrepreneurs?

On August 25, 2015, the Procedure for sending documents used by tax authorities in the exercise of their powers (hereinafter referred to as the Procedure), approved by Order of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated April 15, 2015 No. ММВ-7-2/ [email protected] - the order is valid in 2021 year. The main change is that the list of documents that the tax service can send via communication channels has been significantly increased. What can an organization receive from the Federal Tax Service via the Internet and how to respond to documents? We will discuss these and other questions in detail in this article.

Electronic document management with the Federal Tax Service

Any company or individual entrepreneur can switch to electronic document management with the tax office on its own initiative - the Federal Tax Service only encourages this. However, according to current legislation, certain groups of taxpayers are required to submit reports via the Internet. 50 employees, must submit reports electronically .

The exchange of documents with the Federal Tax Service is carried out through one of the electronic document management (EDF) operator companies, a list of which can be found on the tax service website. Before sending, each document must be signed with a qualified electronic signature (CES) - this applies to both taxpayers and tax officials.

The tax service document is first prepared on paper in the prescribed manner. Late on the next business day, it is converted into electronic format and sent to the taxpayer. The date of sending the document is confirmed by the EDF operator.

Confirmation of receipt of an electronic document

Based on paragraph 5.1 of Article 23 of the Tax Code, entities that must report electronically are also required to ensure the acceptance of documents from the tax inspectorate. The fact that the document has been received must be reported to the Federal Tax Service within 6 days from the time it was sent by the tax authorities. To do this, in response to the received document, you need to send an electronic receipt of its acceptance or a notification of refusal of acceptance.

The implementation of this rule must be treated with the utmost care, especially if a notification of a summons to the tax authority has been received, as well as a requirement to provide documents or explanations. If you neglect the response receipt or send it late, then 10 days after its end, the taxpayer’s bank account may be blocked at the request of the Federal Tax Service. These powers of the tax service are established by the norm of subparagraph 2 of paragraph 3 of Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

It is worth clarifying that the sanctions apply only to those taxpayers who are required to exchange documents with the Federal Tax Service via the Internet. For those who decide to submit reports electronically voluntarily, such sanctions do not apply. In this case, if the tax office does not receive a receipt for acceptance of the document within the prescribed period, it will be sent to the taxpayer by mail.

Refusal to accept documents by a taxpayer may occur for the following reasons:

• if the document does not comply with the approved format;
• if there is no EPC of the tax authority on it or it does not correspond to the actual one;
• if the document was sent incorrectly.

In these cases, a notification of refusal to accept the document is sent to the Federal Tax Service. If the refusal is due to the first or second reasons, Federal Tax Service specialists make the necessary amendments to the document and send it again.

An important point is the date of receipt of the document

The date of receipt of the document has important legal significance, because it is from this date that the period allotted to the taxpayer to perform certain actions is counted. Thus, it is necessary to respond to a request for clarification, which the tax office may send as part of a desk audit, within 5 working days from the date of its receipt. Such a date, according to clause 11 of the Procedure, is considered to be the date indicated in the document acceptance receipt .

For example, a company received a request for clarification that must be satisfied within 5 business days. The document acceptance receipt indicates the date of October 21, 2015. Therefore, the response to this requirement must be sent during the period from October 22 to October 28, 2015 (the period is extended due to non-working days).

What sanctions does a taxpayer face if he fails to comply with the new requirement?

Tax authorities have the right to suspend transactions on a taxpayer’s bank accounts, as well as transfers of his electronic funds. However, p.p. 2 p. 3 art. 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation establishes a list of required electronic requests for the use of such actions by tax authorities. We are talking about failure to fulfill the obligation to transfer a receipt in relation to the following documents:

• requirements for the submission of documents;
• requirements for providing explanations;
• notifications of summons to the tax authority.

The decision to suspend transactions on bank accounts and electronic money transfers is made by the tax authorities within 10 working days from the date of expiration of the established period for transmitting an electronic receipt. Therefore, it actually turns out to be 16 working days from the date of receipt of the electronic request from the tax authority (6 working days are allocated for transmitting the receipt + 10 working days for making the decision to block the account).

Do not forget that such an obligation may also arise for taxpayers who are not payers of the relevant tax, but who have submitted declarations under the TKS. For example, a taxpayer using a simplified taxation system, at the request of the buyer, issued an invoice with a allocated VAT amount and, accordingly, was forced to submit a VAT return in electronic form.

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It should be noted that when receiving requests from tax authorities about the projected amount of tax revenues and requests of a similar nature, the taxpayer can ignore such electronic requests without consequences. A favorable amendment for the taxpayer was included in paragraphs. 1 clause 3 art. 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, concerning the limitation of the time limits for the tax authority to make a decision to suspend transactions on bank accounts and electronic money transfers.

Let us remind you that the tax inspectorate can suspend transactions on accounts and transfers of electronic funds of the taxpayer if the declaration is not submitted within 10 working days from the established legislative deadline (for example, for income tax, the deadline for submitting a declaration is 10.28.14, and 11.13.14 The deadline for submitting a declaration without blocking the account has expired). And the specific period for making such a decision is not specified in the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, so in practice, decisions to block accounts by tax authorities could be made even after three years.

From January 1, 2015, the period for making such a decision was established - within three years from the end of 10 working days following the deadline for submitting the declaration.

The Federal Tax Service of Russia, in a letter dated January 27, 2015, No. ED-4-15/1071, recalled the consequences of taxpayers’ failure to fulfill the obligation to transfer to the tax authority a receipt for accepting a request for the submission of documents - the suspension of transactions on their bank accounts and electronic money transfers.

Movement through the taxpayer's bank accounts will be resumed no later than one day following the earliest of the following dates:

• the day the taxpayer transmits the receipt of documents sent by the tax authority;
• the day of submission of documents (explanations) requested by the tax authority.

Receipt of new documents

Since it is necessary to respond to messages from the Federal Tax Service within a very limited time frame, it is obvious that the accountant needs to constantly monitor new documents. Moreover, daily checking of the data exchange system with the Federal Tax Service for the receipt of new documents is required by paragraph 6 of the Procedure.

However, this does not require logging into the data exchange system every day. Some EDI systems make it possible to track new messages from the Federal Tax Service using other methods. For example, in the Kontur.Extern system developed by SKB Kontur, you can connect an alert via SMS or email. If a new document is received from the tax office, the accountant will receive an email or SMS notification.

How is the date of receipt of documents determined?

Many documents require the taxpayer to perform certain actions. So, for example, the request for explanations indicates how many working days from the date of receipt it is necessary to submit explanations to the inspectorate. That is, the date of receipt of the request has important legal significance.

According to the commented procedure, the day the taxpayer receives the document is determined by the date indicated in the receipt of acceptance (clause 11 of the Procedure). Let's explain with an example. Let us assume that explanations must be submitted to the inspectorate within 5 working days from the date of receipt of the request. The receipt for acceptance of the claim is dated August 26. This means that explanations will need to be submitted between August 27 and September 2, 2015 (weekends are not included in this period).

List of documents that the Federal Tax Service can send via the Internet

The new Procedure for sending documents used by tax authorities in the exercise of their powers provides for 48 items that are allowed to be sent through the information system. Their full list can be found below.

Special cases: documents not included in the list

The list above does not contain two documents that can also be sent to the taxpayer electronically. We are talking about the requirement to submit documents and the requirement to pay taxes . The fact is that for these documents, their own regulations have been developed, which are approved accordingly by orders of the Federal Tax Service No. ММВ-7-2/ [email protected] dated 02/17/11 and No. ММВ-7-8/ [email protected] dated 12/09/10.

To process these requirements, the recipient is given significantly less time - the document acceptance receipt must be sent no later than the next business day after its receipt. The date indicated in the receipt for acceptance of the document is considered the day of its receipt - the period allotted for fulfilling the requirement is counted from it.

Thus, taking into account two types of requirements not included in the above list, the tax service can now send the taxpayer 50 different documents .

About the new reporting procedure via the Internet

Since August 25, 2015, there has been a new procedure for sending documents used by tax authorities in the exercise of their powers in relations regulated by the legislation on taxes and fees, in electronic form, approved by order of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated April 15, 2015 No. ММВ-7-2/ [email protected] (hereinafter referred to as the Procedure).
The new Procedure provides for an updated list of documents sent by tax authorities to taxpayers electronically. PROCEDURE FOR ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION OF DOCUMENTS TO THE TAX AUTHORITIES

Starting January 1, 2015, taxpayers submitting tax returns via the Internet have a new obligation. According to the updated version of clause 5.1 of Art. 23 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation (clause 5.1 introduced by Federal Law No. 134-FZ of June 28, 2013), such taxpayers, upon receipt of documents used by the tax authorities to carry out tax control activities via telecommunication channels (hereinafter referred to as TCS), are required to submit a receipt of receipt documents. The deadline for transfer is within six days from the date of their sending by the tax authority.