New regulations for checking VAT returns: what do you need to know about it?

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Published: 07/21/2017

Reading time: 7 min

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As is known, when calculating VAT payable to the budget, a company has the right to reduce it by input VAT received in invoices from its counterparties. But if, during the verification of the information provided, the Federal Tax Service considers the counterparty to be an unscrupulous taxpayer, then it has the right to refuse to issue a deduction or refund VAT from the budget.

To reduce their risks and prevent such a negative scenario, taxpayers are recommended to exercise due diligence when choosing business partners and check them in advance. In particular, it is worth making sure that the counterparty is not a fly-by-night company and actually conducts business activities.

This aspect is especially important due to the fact that the Federal Tax Service has significantly tightened control over paid VAT since 2015. When the tax authorities receive a VAT return, the data from it is cross-checked for all buyers/sellers. As a result, an entry from the seller’s Sales Book must necessarily be found in the buyer’s Purchase Book.

If during this audit it is revealed that there are discrepancies regarding the VAT amount or invoice details, the taxpayer will be required to make clarifications.

And if the counterparty meets the criteria of a one-day business, the deduction may be cancelled.

Therefore, under conditions of total control over the calculation of VAT, the likelihood of removing part of the deductions increases many times over.

How to find out from the counterparty
Independent verification of the counterparty
Searching for information in the register of disqualified persons
Contacting the tax office
Contour-Focus

Who doesn't pay VAT

We will look at who is exempt from VAT and under what conditions in the diagram below.

The income of enterprises when combining UTII with the OSN and entrepreneurs using the simplified tax system are exempt from paying VAT. The figure below shows the categories that do not have the right to apply the simplified tax system

Companies, when combining UTII and OSN, must keep separate VAT records and fulfill a number of requirements:

File returns and pay taxes on time.
When purchasing goods and services with VAT for an enterprise on the OSN, take into account deductions when calculating the tax amount.
Include the amount of VAT in the cost of goods when purchasing using UTII with VAT.

If these rules are observed, the organization is exempt from paying VAT. But when spending on utility bills or rent, the amount of “input” is distributed in proportion to the use of the product (work, services) by type of activity.

There are exceptions according to which entrepreneurs using the simplified tax system pay VAT:

When importing goods into Russia from abroad.
During operations under property trust management agreements.
When an invoice is issued with VAT. If the supplier did not indicate VAT in the invoice, then the buyer on the simplified tax system is not worried about this fact.

How to find out whether a counterparty must pay VAT

To avoid incurring losses, it is advisable to find out whether the counterparty is a VAT payer. There are 2 ways to find out:

Request documents from the counterparty (extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, a photocopy of the submitted VAT return for the last period with the stamp of the regulatory authority on acceptance, constituent documents of the organization, certificate of state registration, copy of licenses). Such documents will help you obtain the necessary information. Don’t be afraid of losing a client, be afraid of getting a problematic counterparty.

Please independently check the correctness of the details in the invoice, the accuracy of registration data, bankruptcy information, and information about the manager. Next, we'll look at how to do this.

What is due diligence?

When choosing new counterparties for cooperation, the company must check their reliability. It is worth making sure that the company is not a fly-by-night company and was not created to cash out funds, that it conducts real business activities and pays taxes to the state treasury.

Tax legislation does not directly oblige companies to check counterparties who pay VAT. However, a tax invoice issued by a supplier after withdrawal of the tax payer certificate will be considered invalid. The buyer will not have the right to deduct input VAT.

According to legal norms, the violating supplier will be held accountable, and not the buyer who entered into a contractual relationship with him. The latter is not obliged to check the timely payment of taxes by counterparties, and therefore “sanctions” cannot be applied against him in the event of an unfavorable outcome.

In practice, the “injured” client will not go unpunished. He will be deprived of the right to deduct input tax from the VAT base, he will fall under special control of the Federal Tax Service and may be forced to prove his case in court.

Working with VAT

Searching for information in the register of disqualified persons

() allows you to check, using the full name, name and details of a legal entity, whether the manager is on the list of disqualified persons.

You can also look for the leader in the list of those who are prohibited from leading the organization.

Some of the signs that a company is a one-day company are: the fact that several legal entities are registered at its legal address (the so-called “mass registration addresses”, verification of this criterion can be carried out at the address); the fact that its head is the founder of several legal entities at the same time (you can check this data at the address).

The service “Information on legal entities that have tax arrears/do not submit reports” allows you to identify legal entities with arrears to the budget. If a company is on this list, this increases the risk that it will not remit VAT and it will be impossible to offset it in the future.

Subjects of taxation

So, let's find out who is a VAT payer in the Russian Federation and who is not recognized as such. The most important component of the VAT collection infrastructure are those who actually make this tax – VAT subjects.

According to the modern interpretation of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the following are recognized as VAT payers:

Companies and organizations representing all forms of ownership permitted by law, engaged in any type of commercial or industrial activity (except for those mentioned in the relevant articles of the Tax Code).
Companies with the participation of foreign founders doing business in the Russian Federation.
Private family and individual firms.
Branches of companies conducting independent activities (on separate accounting records).
Foreign, possibly international companies receiving income on our territory.
Non-profit organizations when they carry out transactions with goods or property.
IP.
All categories of taxpayers, including individuals if they are recognized as VAT payers, in the case of transporting goods when crossing the customs border of the Russian Federation.

This situation is recorded in Article 143 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

In addition (by law), state or municipal bodies are not official VAT payers, except in a few cases when they:

They act as independent independent entities and at the same time do not perform their main functions.
They carry out operations or transactions in their own interests, excluding the fulfillment of their duties.

We will talk about the availability of a register database and certificates of registration of VAT payers in the Russian Federation, checking their status, and searching below.

This video will tell you who is the subject of VAT:

How to find out whether a counterparty is a VAT payer

Companies and organizations representing all forms of ownership permitted by law, engaged in any type of commercial or industrial activity (except for those mentioned in the relevant articles of the Tax Code).
Companies with the participation of foreign founders doing business in the Russian Federation.
Private family and individual firms.
Branches of companies conducting independent activities (on separate accounting records).
Foreign, possibly international companies receiving income on our territory.
Non-profit organizations when they carry out transactions with goods or property.
IP.
All categories of taxpayers, including individuals if they are recognized as VAT payers, in the case of transporting goods when crossing the customs border of the Russian Federation.

Systems "Contour-Focus" and "Contour.Sverka"

The Kontur-Focus system is a comprehensive tool that allows you to check the counterparty before starting cooperation with him. It is also intended to reduce the risk of refusal to deduct VAT. The accountant himself uses this system. He can independently select a list of criteria for checking counterparties for reliability. These could be the following criteria:

Recent company registration.
The company is going through bankruptcy or liquidation.
The managers include disqualified persons.
The counterparty is the defendant in the debt collection case.
Enforcement proceedings are ongoing against the company.
The company was not found to be conducting any activity at all.
Negative financial indicators with a tendency to worsen.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION! If the counterparty receives a negative assessment based on a number of criteria at once, it makes sense to refuse to enter into contracts with him. The system has a number of advantages. It provides tracking of assessment dynamics and quick receipt of all information.

There is also the “Contour.Sverka” system. It provides automation of information reconciliation between issued and received invoices. The system allows you to check the accuracy of the information provided, the presence of errors and discrepancies. However, to use the service, not only the company itself, but also its counterparty must register.

Who pays VAT and is the payer

Value added tax is an indirect tax, which is why calculations with the budget raise many questions.

To calculate the amount of tax payable, it is necessary to calculate the difference between the VAT on goods or services sold and the tax received from suppliers.

However, this only applies to VAT payers. Who are they?

Firstly, paying taxes is the responsibility of Russian citizens according to the Constitution, as well as the social responsibility of business. Secondly, non-payment is subject to fines, penalties, suspension of the enterprise’s activities, and criminal penalties.

Who is the VAT payer?

In accordance with the provisions of Article 143 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, payers of value added tax are organizations, individual entrepreneurs and persons who moved goods across the borders of the Customs Union.

The Tax Code also provides for exemption from taxpayer obligations of a company as a whole (Article 145 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation) and exemption from tax of certain types of activities, goods, services and business transactions (clause 2 of Article 146 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, Articles 149 - 150 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). In addition, in the relevant chapters of the Tax Code, enterprises under special tax regimes (USNO, UTII, Unified Agricultural Tax, PSN) are exempt from the calculation and payment of VAT.

Do organizations, such as LLCs, need to pay VAT?

Yes, OJSC, CJSC, LLC pay value added tax if they are not on special regimes and their revenue for three months exceeds 2 million rubles.

(Article 145 of the Tax Code).

With less revenue, the company has the right to notify the tax office of the exemption, attaching an extract from the balance sheet and sales book.

If your LLC is a VAT payer -

sells dentures or glasses,
sells tickets to theaters and concerts,
provides medical services,
carries out passenger transportation on city routes,
provides meals to schoolchildren and patients,
provides utility services and maintenance work for apartment buildings (for management companies and homeowners' associations)
or implements some other rarer operations,

then there is no need to pay tax in these areas (Article 149 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). But you will still have to submit declarations and transfer money to the budget for other types of activities.

In any case, the import of goods is subject to taxation, except for the rare items listed in Article 150 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Do I need to pay VAT as an individual entrepreneur?

Yes, individual entrepreneurs are taxpayers under this chapter of the Tax Code and are exempt from payment in the same cases as legal entities.

There is no need to submit declarations and pay tax for individual entrepreneurs on the simplified tax system, UTII, PSN, Unified Agricultural Tax or individual entrepreneurs receiving revenue of less than 2 million rubles. in three months.

The same relaxations apply to certain types of goods and services as for LLCs, but in this case entrepreneurs must report in other areas.

In addition, whether an individual entrepreneur pays value added tax depends on the implementation of import operations: when importing goods into the territory of the Russian Federation, declarations and payments to the budget are required. Article 150 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation lists rare exceptions to this rule.

Does an individual pay VAT?

No, individuals in most cases are not VAT payers.

By virtue of Article 143 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, such an obligation arises for them only when they import across the border of the Customs Union a consignment of goods to be sold on the territory of the Russian Federation. But even in this case, they most often must have the status of an individual entrepreneur.

As for individuals who regularly carry out economic activities without registering as an individual entrepreneur or legal entity, they may be required to pay tax by decision of the Federal Tax Service. Judicial practice (Resolution of the Arbitration Court of the Volga-Vyatka District dated 21.

12.

2005 N A28-12960/2004-565/23) shows that, by virtue of Article 11 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, individuals who carry out entrepreneurial activities without forming a legal entity, but do not have registration as individual entrepreneurs in violation of the requirements of Russian legislation, do not have the right refer to the lack of individual entrepreneur status when collecting tax arrears from them. It should be noted that the only qualifying feature in this case is the systematic receipt of profit from the sale of goods, works or services.

In addition, there are categories of individuals such as lawyers and notaries. They have the right to work without forming a legal entity and without having the status of an individual entrepreneur. Their VAT payment situation is much more complicated than that of other individuals.

By virtue of Article 11 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation (as amended by the Federal Law dated.

2006 N 137-FZ “On amendments to part one and part two of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation and to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation in connection with the implementation of measures to improve tax administration”) from January 1, 2007, all lawyers who established law offices do not are recognized as individual entrepreneurs. This means that from this date they are a priori not VAT payers. When they provide services to citizens and organizations within the framework of their professional activities, they do not calculate or pay value added tax.

Whereas notaries have transactions that are exempt from tax and transactions that are subject to tax.

The first includes all notarial acts for which Russian legislation provides for a mandatory notarial form and for which a state fee is charged, as defined in Article 22 of the “Fundamentals of the Legislation of the Russian Federation on Notaries.” For all other notarial actions, namely:

certification of various contracts for the alienation of real estate,
certification of donation agreements,
certification of leasing agreements,
certification of other contracts,
certification of powers of attorney and other documents,

The notary must calculate and pay VAT. Therefore, he keeps a sales book and a purchase book and always submits tax returns.

Does the organization pay VAT on advances?

Yes, in the same period when the advance was received. A separate invoice is prepared for each payment. Theoretically, it is now possible not to issue invoices to tax-defaulting buyers; in practice, it is more convenient and safer to issue them in any case.

However, if the seller is exempt from VAT or the advance is received for the sale of goods or services taxed at a zero rate, there is no need to pay tax on the advance.

Also, by virtue of paragraph 13 of Article 167 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, advances received for operations with a long production cycle are exempt from VAT (the product or service will be delivered to the buyer no earlier than six months from the date of receipt of the advance payment).

When does the buyer pay VAT?

Then, when the seller company is not a payer of this tax, for example, it is under a special tax regime. To be more precise, no deduction is used when calculating tax.

Therefore, it makes no difference to whom to sell the product, but there are differences when purchasing products. Sometimes defaulting sellers meet buyers halfway and pay voluntarily.

In this case, the paying buyer may have to defend his right to deduction in court.

How to check if an organization is a VAT payer?

Officially, no way. The Federal Tax Service clarified in letter No. ED-4-2/ that it is not obliged to provide data on the taxation system of the partner enterprise.

She classifies this information as a tax secret, and considers the counterparty risk to be an ordinary commercial risk.

So tax officials recommend assessing the overall reliability of a partner through open channels.

Source:

What law regulates the work of ASK VAT

In 2013, a VAT control tool was prepared. Order of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated October 1, 2013 N ММВ-7-6/ [email protected] “On putting into commercial operation…. Automated system for monitoring VAT refunds” launched a program for monitoring VAT returns .

In 2014, for the system came into force Federal Law No. 134-FZ of June 28, 2013 “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation in Combating Illegal Financial Transactions” (as amended and supplemented) introduced a number of changes to basic laws, including the Tax Code.

Article 80 in paragraph 3, paragraph two, states “Tax returns are submitted to the tax authority ... in established formats in electronic form via telecommunication channels through an electronic document management operator that is a Russian organization and meets the requirements approved by the federal executive authority...”.

The remaining changes were needed to define the business control process and responsibility for violations. For example, clause 8.1. Art. 88 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation states: “When contradictions are identified……. value added tax declarations...... the tax authority also has the right to request from the taxpayer invoices, primary and other documents related to these transactions.”

VAT payer verification

So, is it possible to check whether a company is a VAT payer? Not all participants in production or commercial activities may be tax payers. Some taxation systems provide exemption from VAT payer obligations.

And in addition, there are tax benefits for VAT, which can, under certain conditions, exempt you from paying this tax. In these cases, the Federal Tax Service may refuse to deduct input VAT or refund it. Therefore, it is recommended to check with suppliers whether they are subject to VAT, or check them on this subject.

Checking the taxpayer counterparty includes:

Verifying that it is properly registered with the Federal Tax Service and that the correct details are available.
Verification of its real economic activity (to avoid contacts with fly-by-night companies).
Checking the viability of a director of a partner company as a manager.

Services

This can be done without leaving the office, on the tax website, which has several verification services built into it. On which you can:

Find out whether the invoice is filled out correctly. Check whether your partner’s details entered into it are correct (checking the correctness of filling).
Check the existence of the company using the entered TIN and OGRN data of the partner company and find out information about its management (business risks).
Find out whether this is a bona fide taxpayer and whether he has tax debts (information about debts of legal entities).

Federal Tax Service

The Federal Tax Service, whose responsibility is to check VAT from taxpayers, will leave no chance for tax violators:

Correctness of calculation.
Timeliness and completeness of tax payment.
Correct filling of declarations.

What they do in two ways:

Cameral.
Traveling.

This video will tell you whether an entrepreneur who uses the simplified tax system is a VAT payer:

Methods for checking a VAT payer

Exempt from paying VAT: organizations and individual entrepreneurs whose tax base, calculated in the prescribed manner, during the previous three consecutive tax periods excluding VAT did not exceed 1 million rubles. In the latter case, it must be borne in mind that the provision of VAT exemption is the right of the taxpayer to take advantage of this exemption, and not his obligation. Therefore, if the counterparty under the contract receives such an exemption, then in order to avoid adverse tax consequences, it is necessary to request a copy of this exemption from him. In addition, it should be taken into account that the initial price in the contract may be formed taking into account value added tax. Exemption from VAT may lead to a situation where the purchasing company will not be able to offset VAT and will suffer financial losses. To illustrate this situation, we give a conditional numerical example:

How to find out from the counterparty

Often, during an audit, a potential partner is asked to provide official confirmation from the Tax Inspectorate that his organization is a VAT payer. This request puts the taxpayer in a difficult position.

The fact is that there is no special form of information letter that would confirm the fact of application of the general system of taxation and payment of VAT to the budget. Only simplified taxpayers can receive such a letter and thereby confirm the legality of issuing invoices without allocated VAT.

But you can request other documents from the counterparty that officially indicate its status as a VAT payer.

This:

If you want to find out how to solve your particular problem, please contact us through the online consultant form or call :

Moscow.
Saint Petersburg.

a copy of the last submitted VAT return/its cover page with a mark from the Tax Inspectorate on its acceptance;
a copy of the Sales Book (not all partners are ready to provide this document and declassify the list of their partners and turnover);
registration documents (including an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities/Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs).

You can also ask your potential partner for a letter on her letterhead about the applicable tax system. This letter is drawn up in free form and contains the details of the organization, contact information and the beginning of work at OSNO. The document is signed by the chief accountant or manager.

Additional confirmation of the fact that the counterparty is not one of the fly-by-night companies is a certificate of absence of debt to the budget, received by it from the Federal Tax Service at the place of registration.

It is important to understand that the provision of all specified information by the counterparty is carried out on a voluntary basis. But usually in the business community they treat such requests with understanding when concluding an agreement and provide the documents they have only if they do not contain information that constitutes a trade secret.

Situation

As part of the VAT check, the entrepreneur was asked to provide a package of documents confirming the purchase of the goods. Its supplier, at the request of the tax authority, submitted the same package of documents as part of a counter audit. The nuance is that the sets turned out to be not just the same, but identical.

On two copies of the contract, signatures with the same inclination and pressing force. The seals of the organizations are located identically, down to the millimeter. Even a small smudge from the handle is in the same place. Looking at these documents, it is immediately clear that such precision is beyond human capabilities. Therefore, based on the results of the audit, the tax authority concluded that the general characteristics coincide:

contents of the documents themselves (names, details, seals, signatures)
form and content of seal impressions in documents
configurations of the relative position of strokes in existing signatures and records
relative arrangement of details

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Special services for checking the counterparty

How can you find out if an organization is a VAT payer? You can try to request from the counterparty, for example, a copy of the last submitted VAT return or at least its title page with a mark from the Federal Tax Service on acceptance. But the counterparty may refuse to provide such data. The Federal Tax Service website has several services that allow you to check the counterparty and, among other things, indirectly answer your question. After all, for example, if a company is liquidated, in principle there cannot be any current invoices from it, and the presence of a director in the register of disqualified persons gives grounds to suspect the counterparty of being unreliable.

Such services include:

Checking the correctness of filling in invoices. This resource allows you to check the correctness of the details of the counterparty company reflected in the invoices issued by this company.
Business risks: check yourself and your counterparty. This service includes several resources. For example, through the resource Information on state registration of legal entities, individual entrepreneurs, peasant (farm) enterprises, you can obtain information about the state registration of a given counterparty, including whether the company you are interested in is registered in principle, who is its founder and manager.

You can check the head of a partner company for his disqualification by searching for information in the register of disqualified persons.

And through the resource Information about legal entities that have tax debts and/or have not submitted tax reports for more than a year, find out about the presence/absence of tax debts from the counterparty.

How to check whether a company is a VAT payer

Checking the correctness of filling in invoices. This resource allows you to check the correctness of the details of the counterparty company reflected in the invoices issued by this company.
Business risks: check yourself and your counterparty. This service includes several resources. For example, through the resource Information on state registration of legal entities, individual entrepreneurs, peasant (farm) enterprises, you can obtain information about the state registration of a given counterparty, including whether the company you are interested in is registered in principle, who is its founder and manager.

How to find out the necessary information from a counterparty

To check, it is not necessary to seek help from special services directly. You can request all the necessary information from the counterparty himself. In particular, you need to ask for paper from the tax office stating that the person is a tax payer.

However, such a request may put the counterparty in difficulty. There is no established document confirming payment of VAT. Only persons using simplified documents can request such documents. These are the following papers:

A copy of the latest VAT return with a tax stamp confirming its acceptance.
Sales book.
Registration papers (extracts from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities/Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs).
A document confirming the taxation system used by the counterparty.

All these papers officially indicate the tax status of a person. However, not all companies are ready to provide them. In particular, it is rare that a counterparty will give the customer a copy of the sales books, since it contains information of commercial importance (list of partners, turnover). The counterparty can also provide a certificate of absence of tax debts. You can obtain it from the Federal Tax Service at your registration address.

IMPORTANT! All listed documents are provided by the counterparty solely on a voluntary basis. They cannot be demanded. However, you can usually get all these papers, if they do not constitute a trade secret, without any problems.

Contacting the tax office

Contacting the Federal Tax Service in order to clarify whether the supplier is a VAT payer and how conscientiously he fulfills his obligations to pay taxes and submit reports will be a common waste of time. The Federal Tax Service is not obliged to disclose such information at the request of taxpayers and will most likely ignore the request. Confirmation of this position of the tax authorities is the letter they distributed in 2015 about the availability of all information that does not constitute a commercial secret in the public domain.

In 2021, the Tax Inspectorate announced its plans to make information about the special regimes applied by the company publicly available. Those. the service will allow you to find out whether the taxpayer pays VAT or is legally exempt from it. But this resource is not yet available to ordinary taxpayers.

The use of public land is regulated by the legislation of the Russian Federation.

Which banks offer mortgages for the purchase of land? Find out about this by reading our article.

Sometimes, when purchasing a plot of land, it is necessary to draw up an advance payment agreement. You can find out how to do this in the material.

How to find out if an organization is a VAT payer

Independent verification of the counterparty

What measures can a company take to protect itself from unscrupulous counterparties and what is important to check the counterparty for?

Among the criteria that are worth paying attention to are:

the correctness of the details in the invoice received from the company;
the validity of its registration data (whether the company has been excluded from the register of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs), whether the company is on the list of liquidated ones;
checking senior management for disqualification;
whether the company is a shell company;
existence of debts on taxes and fees;
form of taxation.

Today, a significant amount of information about a legal entity can be obtained from the electronic services of the Federal Tax Service (they are combined in the block “Check if your business is at risk?”).

The service “Information on state registration of legal entities, individual entrepreneurs, peasants/farms” () allows you to understand whether the company is registered in principle, information about its management, etc. An extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities/Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs is also available for download here.

The invoice verification service () allows you to check the correctness of the submitted invoice. Since, according to the new rules, starting from 2015, information in the VAT return must contain data from the Book of Purchases and Sales, this resource will save time on identifying errors in the declaration.

The search can be conducted using the organization's INN/KPP.

How to check your VAT return by amount

Most of the tax authorities' complaints are caused by inconsistencies in the amounts in the declaration.

There are several ways to check the amounts indicated in the VAT return. Two of them are the most frequently recommended:

Checking data on the accounting registers generated for the period: balance sheet (SAS) and analysis of account 68.2;
Checking the report of control ratios (CRs) approved by the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation (attachment to the letter of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation dated March 23, 2015 No. GD-4-3/ [email protected] , additional letter of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation dated April 6, 2017 No. SD-4-3/ [email protected] ).

Let's take a closer look at both methods.

How to find out whether an organization is a VAT payer or not: search instructions

As is known, when calculating VAT payable to the budget, a company has the right to reduce it by input VAT received in invoices from its counterparties.

But if, during the verification of the information provided, the Federal Tax Service considers the counterparty to be an unscrupulous taxpayer, then it has the right to refuse to issue a deduction or refund VAT from the budget.

This aspect is especially important due to the fact that the Federal Tax Service has significantly tightened control over paid VAT since 2015.

When the tax authorities receive a VAT return, the data from it is cross-checked for all buyers/sellers.

As a result, an entry from the seller’s Sales Book must necessarily be found in the buyer’s Purchase Book.

If during this audit it is revealed that there are discrepancies regarding the VAT amount or invoice details, the taxpayer will be required to make clarifications.

And if the counterparty meets the criteria of a one-day business, the deduction may be cancelled.

How to find out from the counterparty

But you can request other documents from the counterparty that officially indicate its status as a VAT payer.

This:

a copy of the last submitted VAT return/its cover page with a mark from the Tax Inspectorate on its acceptance;
a copy of the Sales Book (not all partners are ready to provide this document and declassify the list of their partners and turnover);
registration documents (including an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities/Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs).

You can also ask your potential partner for a letter on her letterhead about the applicable tax system.

This letter is drawn up in free form and contains the details of the organization, contact information and the beginning of work at OSNO.

The document is signed by the chief accountant or manager.

It is important to understand that the provision of all specified information by the counterparty is carried out on a voluntary basis.

But usually in the business community they treat such requests with understanding when concluding an agreement and provide the documents they have only if they do not contain information that constitutes a trade secret.

Independent verification of the counterparty

What measures can a company take to protect itself from unscrupulous counterparties and what is important to check the counterparty for?

Among the criteria that are worth paying attention to are:

the correctness of the details in the invoice received from the company;
the validity of its registration data (whether the company has been excluded from the register of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs), whether the company is on the list of liquidated ones;
checking senior management for disqualification;
whether the company is a shell company;
existence of debts on taxes and fees;
form of taxation.

The invoice verification service () allows you to check the correctness of the submitted invoice.

Since, according to the new rules, starting from 2015, information in the VAT return must contain data from the Book of Purchases and Sales, this resource will save time on identifying errors in the declaration.

The search can be conducted using the organization's INN/KPP.

Searching for information in the register of disqualified persons

() allows you to check, using the full name, name and details of a legal entity, whether the manager is on the list of disqualified persons.

You can also look for the leader in the list of those who are prohibited from leading the organization.

Contacting the tax office

The Federal Tax Service is not obliged to disclose such information at the request of taxpayers and will most likely ignore the request.

Confirmation of this position of the tax authorities is the letter they distributed in 2015 about the availability of all information that does not constitute a commercial secret in the public domain.

In 2021, the Tax Inspectorate announced its plans to make information about the special regimes applied by the company publicly available. Those.

the service will allow you to find out whether the taxpayer pays VAT or is legally exempt from it.

But this resource is not yet available to ordinary taxpayers.

Contour-Focus

The Kontur.Focus system allows the accountant to carry out a preliminary comprehensive check of the counterparty to reduce the risks of withdrawing VAT deductions. In this case, the accountant himself selects a list of criteria (from 1 to 12) to check his potential partners for their reliability.

These criteria include, in particular:

the fact that the company was recently registered;
the organization is at the stage of bankruptcy or liquidation;
its managers include disqualified persons;
she acts as a defendant/plaintiff in legal disputes involving a large amount;
a number of enforcement proceedings have been opened against her;
the company shows no signs of activity;
has negative financial indicators;

If, as a result of the inspection, it turns out that the company received a negative assessment according to several criteria at once, then the inspection organization will always have the opportunity to refuse to enter into questionable contracts.

Another advantage of the resource is the ability to track the dynamics of assessment according to all specified criteria for the most important parameters.

You can also automate the reconciliation of data on issued and received invoices through the “Kontur.Sverka” system.

This system monitors that the documents do not contain errors in details, discrepancies in amounts, dates and numbers of issued invoices. But in order to use the service “Contour.

Reconciliation”, both counterparties must be registered in the system, which is not always possible to achieve.

Thus, checking an organization to determine whether it transfers VAT to the budget is not the direct responsibility of taxpayers.

But it is required in order to avoid possible losses associated with the refusal to accept VAT for deduction.

The range of available resources for preliminary verification of a counterparty is limited for an organization and none of them can guarantee the fact that the supplier will transfer the VAT received from the buyer to the budget.

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