How to check for account restrictions on the Federal Tax Service website
In general, taxpayers should find out about account blocking from the tax authorities.
According to paragraph 4 of Article of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, inspectors are obliged no later than the next working day after the decision to suspend operations on a bank account is made to send the account owner a copy of the relevant document. This can be done via telecommunication channels or through your personal account. Also, a copy can be given to the taxpayer (his representative) in person. Request a tax reconciliation report from the Federal Tax Service via the Internet Request for free
However, in practice, the Federal Tax Service often neglects this responsibility. Moreover, there are no negative consequences for failure to comply. The courts refuse decisions about which inspectors did not notify taxpayers in accordance with the article of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation (see, for example, resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the West Siberian District dated June 10, 2010 No. A45-23256/2009). Therefore, in most cases, taxpayers receive information about account blocking from their bank. You can also check the presence or absence of a tax decision on blocking using a special service on the Federal Tax Service website. You can find out about the blocking of both your account and the account of your counterparty.
Find out about the taxes paid by the counterparty and the violations committed by him Start an audit
To do this, select the “Request for current suspension decisions” option in the “Request Type” menu. Next, in the fields that appear below, indicate the TIN of the organization, as well as the BIC of the bank in which the account being verified is opened (if you are interested in information about the counterparty’s account, the corresponding TIN and BIC can be found from the agreement concluded with him). After this, you need to click the “Send request” button. The result of the check will appear on the same page. If the Federal Tax Service has decided to block the account, the details of this document will be indicated.
Results
Account blocking can be carried out on the basis of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation and Law No. 115-FZ. Information about this is available, respectively, on the websites of the Federal Tax Service and Rosfinmonitoring. On the first of them, it is in the public domain, on the second, only structures that conduct transactions with funds have the right to get acquainted with it. Is the counterparty’s account blocked? How can I find out on the Federal Tax Service’s website? To do this, it is enough to know the TIN of the counterparty.
Sources:
- Tax Code of the Russian Federation
- Federal Law of August 7, 2001 No. 115-FZ
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Reasons for introducing account restrictions
The tax office may suspend account transactions in five cases. Three of them are related to “documentary” violations, and two are related to non-payment of taxes and other payments.
Let's start with the first group. The Federal Tax Service has the right to block an account if, within 10 working days after the end of the established period, a declaration based on the results of the tax period, calculation of insurance contributions or 6-personal income tax (subclause 1, clause 3 and clause 3.2 of Art. Tax Code of the Russian Federation) are not submitted.
Submit 6‑NDFL, 2‑NDFL and RSV for free via the Internet Submit an application
IMPORTANT
For failure to submit interim reporting, even if it is called a declaration (for example, for income tax), as well as financial statements, accounts are not blocked. This was repeatedly stated by officials of the Ministry of Finance (letters dated 04.07.13 No. 03-02-07/1/25590 and dated 19.08.16 No. 03-11-03/2/48777) and the Federal Tax Service (clause 20 of the appendix to the letter dated 17.04. 17 No. SA-4-7/ [email protected] ).
The next reason for “freezing” an account concerns persons who are required to submit reports in electronic form via telecommunication channels through an EDI (electronic document management) operator. If, within 10 working days from the date of occurrence of this obligation, the taxpayer has not concluded an agreement necessary for electronic document management with the Federal Tax Service, his account may be blocked (clause 5.1 of article 23 and subclause 1.1 of clause 3 of article 3 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).
REFERENCE
Persons required to report electronically include the largest taxpayers, as well as organizations and individual entrepreneurs whose average number of employees for the previous year exceeded 100 people. In addition, these are newly created organizations with an average number of employees of more than 100 people (clause 3 of Article of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Finally, these are almost all organizations and individual entrepreneurs that submit VAT returns (clause 5 of Article 174 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation), as well as those who pay income to more than 10 individuals per year (clause 2 of Article 230 and clause 10 of Art. 431 Tax Code of the Russian Federation).
Submit information about the average number of employees via the Internet for free
Another “documentary” violation is related to non-compliance with the regulations on electronic document flow with the inspection. The account may be blocked if the taxpayer delays sending to the Federal Tax Service for more than 10 working days an electronic receipt for receipt of the TCS request for the submission of documents, explanations or a notice of summons to the inspectorate (subclause 2, clause 3, article 3 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).
Receive requirements and send requests to the Federal Tax Service via the Internet for free
The second group of grounds for “seizure” of an account includes two situations. The first is the inspection making a decision on the collection of taxes, fees, and contributions from money in bank accounts (Clause 2 of Article of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Let us remind you that the Federal Tax Service can make such a decision only after the deadline for voluntary payment, which is indicated in the requirement addressed to the taxpayer, has expired. The second situation is to ensure the recovery of the amounts specified in the decision based on the results of the audit. This is possible if the Federal Tax Service has already imposed a ban on the alienation (pledge) of other property, but its “accounting” value is less than the additional accrued arrears (subclause 2, clause 10, article 101 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).
IMPORTANT DURING THE CORONAVIRUS EPIDEMIC
The Federal Tax Service ordered the inspectorates to postpone the forced collection of tax debts and the application of interim measures until July 1, 2020. The ban on blocking does not apply if failure to take these measures may lead to the concealment of assets and (or) the possibility of committing other actions that impede collection (letter of the Federal Tax Service dated May 26, 2020 No. ED-20-8 / [email protected] , see “The Federal Tax Service has extended the ban to block accounts").
Suspension of transactions on taxpayer accounts
Suspension of transactions on accounts is the cessation by the bank servicing the taxpayer of expenditure activities on his account in full or within a limited amount determined by the decision of the tax authority on suspension for a legal entity. Blocking occurs only for expenses. Funds continue to flow into the account.
- Compensation for harm caused to life and health, and payment of alimony;
- Settlement with dismissing employees, which includes the balance of the last month’s salary, compensation, severance pay, and remuneration for authors for intellectual products;
- Fulfillment of duties regarding taxes, fees, insurance premiums, penalties and fines.
What are the consequences of blocking a current account?
“Freezing” a current account means that it is impossible to make payments for transactions with counterparties, since debit transactions on the account will be unavailable. This may lead to delays in relevant obligations and, as a consequence, to the emergence of demands for payment of penalties and fines established by the contract. Also, violation of the payment deadline under contracts may give the counterparty the right to withdraw from the contract and recover damages from the violator.
Difficulties in work will also arise if the account of the supplier, contractor or performer is blocked. Although income transactions are not “frozen,” the taxpayer will not be able to dispose of incoming funds.
Check the counterparty for signs of a shell company, bankruptcy and the presence of disqualified persons
“Arresting” an account can also put the company’s employees at risk. After all, in order to pay wages (including in cash through the cash register), it is also necessary to make an expense transaction. And the requirements for payment of wages are in the same queue with the requirements of the Federal Tax Service for the payment of taxes (clause 2 of Article 855 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation; see “The order of payments in the payment order in 2021”). Therefore, wages can be paid from a “frozen” account only on the basis of a special document: a writ of execution, a court order, a decision of the labor inspectorate or a certificate from the labor dispute commission.
Account blocking options
A ban on expense transactions can be imposed on any of the accounts belonging to the guilty taxpayer, including an account opened in foreign currency or precious metals. An exception to this rule applies to special election accounts and special accounts of referendum funds - they cannot be blocked (clause 1 of Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).
Read about whether it is possible to block a collateral account here.
Either a specific amount or the entire balance on the account may be blocked on the account, regardless of its value and its change during the blocking period. That is, in the first case, using the account is possible, but there must always be an amount on it that is equal to or greater than the blocked one. It is permissible to use the funds forming the blocked amount only to repay tax payments or those whose transfer order turns out to be higher than that of taxes (Clause 1 of Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).
A limit on a certain amount is adopted by the tax authority in order to collect unpaid tax payments (taxes, contributions, penalties, fines), the specific amount of which is easy to determine. In this situation, the decision to block must be preceded by a decision to collect the relevant payment(s). It will contain a ruble amount, by the amount of which, when a foreign currency account or an account in precious metals is frozen, the blocked amount of currency (at its exchange rate) or precious metals (at the discount price) will be recalculated, respectively. Both the exchange rate and the discount price of precious metals are determined by their value corresponding to the day the ban on the use of funds begins (clause 2 of Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).
Blocking the accounts of an investment partnership if there are insufficient funds in the general account can lead to a limitation in the ability to use the account with the managing partner, and if this turns out to be insufficient, then liability will be proportionally imposed on ordinary partners (clause 2.1 of Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). In a consolidated group of taxpayers, similar measures are applied first to the responsible participant, and then to others (clause 13 of Article 76, clause 11 of Article 46 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation), and the sequence of this involvement is determined by the tax authority.
When blocking is carried out due to violations that are not assessed in monetary terms (failure to submit reports, failure to provide electronic communication with the Federal Tax Service, or violation of the procedure for confirming the receipt of information from the tax authority), the account cannot be used for any expense transactions. For a consolidated group of taxpayers that has not submitted a profit declaration, liability in the form of account blocking may arise simultaneously for all participants (clause 13 of Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).
Read about the situations in which freezing an account would be illegal here.
What to do if your current account is blocked
If operations on the account are suspended based on a decision of the Federal Tax Service, you need to contact the inspectorate to find out the reason for the blocking. As already mentioned, the tax authority is obliged to send the taxpayer a copy of the relevant document no later than the next day after the account is blocked (clause 4 of Art. Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Also, the right to receive a decision from the Federal Tax Service is fixed in subparagraph 9 of paragraph 1 of Article of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.
In addition, the servicing bank has information about the reason for the blocking. Therefore, perhaps a faster way to obtain this information is to contact the managers of the credit institution. Unless, of course, the bank itself notified the client about the suspension of operations on the account (see “Banks were recommended to immediately notify clients about the blocking of accounts”).
Once the reason for the “arrest” has been clarified, measures can be taken to unblock the account.
What happens when an account is blocked
When blocked, the money remains in the account, but you cannot use it freely. Depending on the reason for the blocking, all money or a specific amount in each open account is “frozen”. The bank prohibits spending blocked money, except for expenses on:
- compensation for harm to life and health under a writ of execution;
- alimony;
- employee salaries;
- payment of taxes and insurance premiums.
If you find out that your account has been blocked, the bank usually informs you immediately about it. The procedure is as follows:
- Do not panic.
- Find out the reason for blocking the account.
- Eliminate this cause.
- Wait until the account is blocked.
How to unblock a current account
In most cases, the easiest way is to perform those actions, the failure of which caused the “freezing”. So, if the account is blocked for failure to submit a declaration, RSV or 6-NDFL, then the necessary report should be sent. And if the reason for the “arrest” is failure to pay a tax or contribution, then you need to transfer payments (including from third party accounts; see: “How to fill out a payment slip when paying tax for another person: explanations from the Federal Tax Service”), and transfer them to the Federal Tax Service relevant information.
Generate a payment invoice for payment of tax (penalties, fines) in one click based on the request received from the Federal Tax Service
As a general rule, the decision on the account is made by the inspectorate within the next day after receiving documents confirming the elimination of the reason for the blocking. Another day is required to transmit this decision to the bank. Thus, restrictions on the account must be lifted two business days after the taxpayer has completed the necessary actions (clauses 3.1, 3.2 and 4 of Article of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).
But in some cases, it will not be possible to release the account from “seizure” using the above method. This may be a consequence of both the specific reason for the blocking and the illegality of the actions of the Federal Tax Service. In these situations, you need to do the following.
If the reason for blocking is to secure an audit decision, the taxpayer can access the account without appealing the relevant decision. To do this, you need to top up your account balance so that it exceeds the additional accrued amounts. And then the inspection will be obliged to “unfreeze” the account in terms of excess (clause 9 of Art. Tax Code of the Russian Federation, letter of the Ministry of Finance dated January 16, 2013 No. 03-02-07/1-10). After this, you can proceed to appeal the decision of the Federal Tax Service, if there are reasons for this.
If the “seizure” of the account was the result of errors or unlawful actions of the inspectorate, then the only way to remove the restrictions is to appeal the relevant decision.
The decision on collection where to look by number
There is nothing complicated about using this service. It can be freely used by anyone who is interested in how to find a writ of execution by name and find out about existing debts. Let us remind you that information about the debtor, the writ of execution, and the initiated proceedings is entered into the database. Therefore, knowing only the last name of the debtor, you can get a complete picture of from whom, in what volume and on what grounds the collection is being made.
It is also possible to view the data through social networks using special applications. By subscribing to these applications, you can constantly receive information about the initiation of new individual entrepreneurs. Applications on mobile devices provide a similar opportunity. But first you need to find them, install them, and register. Not everyone wants to spend time installing various applications.
