The Federal Tax Service is going to cancel declarations: how not to get caught

Why doesn't the tax office accept VAT returns?

To figure out why the tax office does not accept a VAT return, it is better to contact the inspectorate directly with a similar question.
At the same time, it is important to navigate the tax legislation yourself and comply with its requirements so that there are no grounds for refusing to accept the declaration. Note! Starting from the report for the 4th quarter of 2021, it is necessary to use the new VAT declaration form as amended. Order of the Federal Tax Service dated August 19, 2020 No. ED-7-3/ [email protected]

You can find out what has changed in the report in the Review material from ConsultantPlus. If you do not have access to the K+ system, get a trial online access for free.

Now the reasons for refusing to accept a declaration are listed in the order of the Federal Tax Service dated 07/08/2019 No. ММВ-7-19/ [email protected] Thus, controllers may not legally accept a declaration if:

• it is not submitted in the prescribed form (for a VAT return this is almost impossible: you can make a mistake with a paper form, but almost everyone submits VAT electronically);
• it is handed over by an unauthorized person;
• in the paper declaration there is no signature of the person certifying it (also not a VAT reason);
• the electronic declaration is not signed by UKEP;
• the declaration is submitted to the wrong Federal Tax Service;
• the declaration does not indicate the name or TIN of the organization, does not indicate the type of document (primary/corrective), and does not include the name of the Federal Tax Service.

In addition, controllers may not accept reports if the director who signed them:

• disqualified (IP - deprived of the right to engage in business);
• died;
• in court he declared his non-involvement in the management of the organization, and the tax office has a corresponding judicial act that has entered into force;
• recognized by the court as missing, incompetent or partially capable in terms of presentation and confirmation
• reliability of reporting;
• “marked” in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities with a record of unreliable information.

Are technical errors the reason for the tax authority’s refusal to accept a declaration in electronic form and the basis for holding an organization liable for its failure to submit it? You will find the answer to this question from the actual state adviser of the Russian Federation, 3rd class, S.V. Razgulin in ConsultantPlus. If you do not already have access to this legal system, a full access trial is available for free.

But inspectors do not always refer to regulations. Taxpayers often receive a refusal to accept a return for unexpected reasons. For example, the invited manager repeatedly failed to appear at the inspection, or the company’s inspectors found several signs of fictitious activity.

Why do controllers do this? It turns out that they are following special instructions.

When can a declaration be cancelled?

Tax Service specialists reason as follows. When submitting a declaration, the taxpayer must confirm the completeness and accuracy of the data reflected in it. This can be done by an entrepreneur, director of a company or persons they have authorized .

If the declaration is signed by someone else, the information in it cannot be considered reliable. Accordingly, such a report cannot be accepted. In this case, the inspectors themselves will determine whether an authorized person has signed the declaration.

There are 5 grounds for canceling a declaration:

1. The head of the taxpayer did not sign the declaration himself and did not submit it to the Federal Tax Service, and also did not issue a power to an authorized person for these actions. In general, he did not take part in the activities of the organization.
2. The manager issued a power of attorney or signed the declaration himself, but he was disqualified .
3. The declaration was submitted by the entity after the liquidation or termination of the activities of the individual entrepreneur.
4. The person who signed the declaration (the director or the one for whom he issued a power of attorney) is incompetent, deceased or missing .
5. in prison on the date indicated in the report

Are there instructions for resetting/cancelling declarations?

Yes, such an instruction existed - it was given in a joint letter of the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated July 10, 2018 No. ED-4-15/13247, but it was subsequently withdrawn.

The Federal Tax Service letter No. ED-4-15/13247 dated July 10, 2018 was recalled by the Federal Tax Service letter No. ED-4-15/21496 dated November 2, 2018.

The procedure described in this document had three features:

• Application to declarations for two types of taxes: VAT and income tax.
• The reason for canceling the declaration is that it was signed by an unauthorized or unidentified person.
• The provisions of the instructions are not applicable to declarations for which the desk audit period has expired.

That is, VAT or income tax declarations that formally complied with the requirements of Art. 80 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, could be canceled by the tax authority if only one of its details aroused suspicion among inspectors - signature.

In this letter, the tax authorities were instructed to identify taxpayers who have signs of one-day companies - companies and individual entrepreneurs not involved in financial and economic activities:

Tax officials are required to prove a violation of clause 5 of Art. 80 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, which defines the procedure for signing a declaration by the head of an organization or an authorized representative. To do this, as part of a desk audit, inspectors must carry out a set of measures, which includes:

A VAT or income tax return submitted by a taxpayer may be canceled if, as a result of control activities carried out, tax authorities have identified violations of the requirements of clause 5 of Art. 80 Tax Code of the Russian Federation. Read the next section to see how cancellation works.

Reasons for cancellation

The reason for such a decision to cancel declarations in accordance with the Federal Tax Service letter ED-4-15 / [email protected] was the presence of a number of signs:

• submission of updated tax reporting with an incorrect serial number of the adjustment;
• failure of the heads of the legal entity or individual entrepreneur to appear for questioning at the inspectorate (more than twice);
• heads of the organization, individual entrepreneurs do not live at the place of registration;
• organizations are not located at the registered address;
• taxpayers change their place of registration;
• no lease agreements were concluded with the owners of the premises;
• powers of attorney to represent interests were issued to representatives registered (residing) in other regions of the Russian Federation;
• organizations have just been created;
• Over several previous reporting periods, zero reporting has been provided. Tax officials call because of zero declarations at the commission;
• the amounts of income in the reporting are close to the amount of expenses, the share of deductions for value added tax is more than 98%;
• average number of employees - 1 person or none;
• the leaders of the organization do not receive income;
• information about a change in the head of the organization was entered shortly before reporting was submitted;
• there are no current accounts within three months from the date of creation (registration) of the organization;
• current accounts are closed;
• opened (closed) many current accounts (more than 10);
• the movement of funds through current accounts is of a transit nature;
• current accounts are opened in banks other than the place of registration of the organization;
• cash withdrawal has been established, discrepancies from previous periods have not been eliminated;
• information about the unreliability of information about the address, director, founder of the organization has been entered into the Unified State Register of Legal Entities;
• the director (founder) is not a resident of the Russian Federation, and more.

Having studied the list, we conclude that many reasons for such a serious measure as canceling the declaration may also apply to bona fide taxpayers (for example, the organization has just been created or there are no employees).

How do tax authorities cancel a VAT return?

How does the tax office reset VAT returns? The process is as automated as possible - the software package for receiving electronic declarations allows controllers to:

• transfer the declaration to the Register of declarations of legal entities that are not subject to processing using a special code;
• generate and send to the taxpayer a notice of invalidation of the declaration.

Tax authorities have the right to transfer a declaration to the category of non-processable in the following cases:

The procedure for canceling a declaration begins after receiving official permission from a higher tax authority in the form of a report (official) note.

The notification requirements are as follows:

• it is generated in .xml format (or on paper);
• the period for generating a notification and sending it to the taxpayer is no more than 5 working days.

After completing the cancellation procedure:

• the declaration is considered not submitted;
• information about cancellation is transferred to the VAT ASK.

Find out what to do if you received a notice of refusal to accept a tax return electronically in ConsultantPlus. A free trial of full access to the legal system is available.

Challenging the refusal to accept a declaration due to an unreliable signature

You can challenge a refusal to accept a declaration due to an invalid signature in an arbitration court. Moreover, the prospect of recognizing the actions of tax officials as illegal is quite real. The company often wins litigation with the tax authorities if the Federal Tax Service refuses to accept the declaration on the grounds listed in clause 28 of the administrative regulations of the Federal Tax Service, approved by Order of the Ministry of Finance No. 99n dated July 2, 2012.

For example, the Arbitration Court of the Ural District, in its resolution dated June 27, 2018 No. A60-46912/2017, recognized that the signing of a declaration by an unidentified person is not grounds for refusing to accept it. When accepting a VAT return, tax authorities do not have the right to evaluate the authenticity of the signature of the person who signed it. The inspectorate does not have the right to refuse to accept a declaration in the prescribed form, and is obliged, at the taxpayer’s request, to put an acceptance mark and the date of submission on the copy of the declaration, or to provide the taxpayer with an acceptance receipt in electronic form.

Similar conclusions are contained in the decision of the Arbitration Court of the Tomsk Region in case No. A67-7436/2017 dated 03/02/2018.

In our opinion, the position of the courts is absolutely correct. The tax authority must prove the “bad faith” of the person submitting the declaration in court. The taxpayer is subject to the presumption of innocence (clause 6 of Article 108 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Therefore, companies have the right to protect themselves and their business from illegal attacks by tax authorities in the manner prescribed by law.

Consequences of canceling a VAT return

It happens that the tax office has reset the VAT return. What to do?

VAT returns can be reset (cancelled) both by the taxpayer himself and his counterparty. Both cases are fraught with negative consequences and are accompanied by their own set of actions.

1. Taxpayer declaration canceled

In this case, its counterparties may lose VAT deductions, and the company or individual entrepreneur must urgently eliminate the reasons why the submitted declaration was recognized by the inspectors as not submitted.

1. The counterparty's declaration has been canceled

In such a situation, the taxpayer himself may face obstacles to obtaining VAT deductions. You will have to explain things to the tax authorities, who may offer to voluntarily pay additional VAT to the budget.

First of all, you should find out from the counterparty the reason for canceling his declaration. If the reason can be eliminated, it would not be a bad idea to hurry the counterparty to correct the shortcomings and submit the declaration. If the counterparty, in the opinion of tax authorities, has signs of being a one-day company, it is safer to remove deductions for transactions with it from your declaration and pay additional tax.

Find out how to fill out an updated VAT return here.

How will they prove

To revoke a declaration, it is necessary to prove that one of the grounds mentioned above exists. To do this, inspectorates must select taxpayers whose reports are suspicious . And then carry out control measures against them.

The letter lists a fairly large list of signs that may indicate that declarations are signed by unidentified or unauthorized persons. Many of these signs are well known:

• zero reporting for several periods;
• exceeding the safe percentage of VAT deductions;
• cash withdrawal;
• income equals expenses;
• frequent migrations between tax authorities;
• not being at the place of registration;
• inaccurate information in the register;
• lack of staff;
• lack of a lease agreement;
• violations related to accounts - transit transfers, a large number or, conversely, absence of accounts, location of banks in other regions;
• suspicious behavior of the manager - working without wages, living outside the place of registration or even in another region, failure to appear for questioning.

What’s new: tax authorities should be suspicious primarily of organizations registered in 2021 and later. Another suspicious fact is that the director or individual entrepreneur comes for questioning with a lawyer.

Each of these signs separately cannot be regarded as independent evidence of the mentioned violations. However, if there are several such signs, tax authorities may classify a business entity as one-day. However, the letter does not indicate exactly how many signs a suspicious taxpayer should have.

What to do if the VAT return has been reset/cancelled?

Please note that the actions of tax authorities to reset/cancel declarations are sometimes based only on internal departmental instructions. According to tax legislation, controllers currently do not have the right to reset declarations.

At the same time, this does not make it any easier for taxpayers - they can be fined for failure to submit a declaration or have their account blocked (Part 1 of Article 119, Subclause 1 of Clause 3 of Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). In addition, cancellation of the declaration postpones indefinitely the possibility of receiving VAT deductions. All this can negatively affect the activities of the company or individual entrepreneur.

To reduce the possible consequences of such zeroing procedures, the VAT payer should protect himself in advance - organize a personal meeting with the head of a potential counterparty (or his authorized representative), ask for his passport and check it with an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.

Considering that VAT returns are subject to desk audits every quarter, it is also necessary to take care to regularly update information about the head of the counterparty.

If you are sure that the nullification/cancellation of the declaration is not justified, you can go to court. There are already examples of decisions that are positive for taxpayers (see, for example, decision of the Tomsk Region Administrative Board dated January 23, 2018 No. A67-8529/2017).

Comments (29)

Yes. It’s not for nothing that people say that every system has its vulnerabilities.

Taxpayer submits a return for the taxpayer - this is an abuse, if not a crime.

How and why is this technically possible?

Let's go back to the boring world of reality, otherwise you are doing great - you submitted the declaration yourself, put it in the plan and Mishustin is already reporting on successes.

To begin with, as part of the pre-audit analysis, there must be a Nalorg employee who can justify the “one-day” situation in the presence of a zero declaration and turnover on current accounts, and only then the organization will be included in the plan. Then a check must be carried out, during which the tax authority will come across the entire primary relationship, will not notice it and will charge additional VAT. Finally, the tax agent will end up in court with the tax agent and his counterparty, who will have the primary case in their hands, and the tax agent will have . What? false zero declaration? Seriously? Do you think this is how it happens?

Those. although only the Central Office sees the entire chain, the tax office in its part has access to the database and can edit the data. It's clear.

All electronic transactions leave a trace. Upon application by the taxpayer to the internal security service of the Federal Tax Service, an internal investigation must be conducted.

In theory, the technical regulations should provide for documentary recording of the grounds for adjusting data in the database. Those. An IT specialist cannot arbitrarily correct data - only on the basis of written instructions from certain persons. If this is not the case, then we are hostages of machines, or rather, of IT specialists.

Topic from last year. The VAT refund commission gathered exporters and, under the threat of VNP VUD, recommended submitting updated zeros. As far as I have heard, there are not many bad ones. We have concluded a settlement agreement and are waiting for the budget to be ready to return VAT to non-commodity exporters.

This didn’t happen even in the 90s. The PRC is rubbing its hands and taking over the European market. We are causing damage to ourselves.

Interesting post. Then, as V. Zaripov pointed out, the issue can and should be resolved through an internal investigation. Plus an application to the VET about the forgery of a power of attorney. Regarding the legal and factual aspects of the situation. Denial of deductions does not happen overnight. For now, the KNP act and objections to it, until the decision is formalized, and then the appeal. I believe that by this time the issue will be resolved. And not in favor of tax. There are also some other considerations. If the declaration is due, how can it be reset? The taxpayer will have to return the overpayment if he paid VAT. Moreover, it is necessary to compare the benefit of zeroing out one payer with the effect of denying deductions to another. What if they are registered with different tax authorities? It turns out that tax authorities must agree on joint actions. Isn't it too difficult? And then, those who were denied deductions will still confirm their right to deductions. Moreover, I think the grounds for refusal are weak. After all, initially the counterparty reflected the transactions on the disputed invoices - in the initial declaration. What he did next (did not do or was not done by him) does not cancel this fact. So find out from him why he canceled the declaration. This, by the way, is an additional argument for objections. What you are writing about, I believe, may occur in situations where the buyer has to refund VAT. The goal of tax officials is to delay the deadline for tax refunds from the budget as much as possible and with impunity. They say that while they were sorting it out, they couldn’t return it.

This is important to know: What documents are needed for property tax benefits for pensioners

As for the practice of “expulsion”, I agree with the author) Those who pay little do not need taxes. So, what will this practice lead to? Towards the creation of unified payer accounting centers under special regimes?))) Or, more likely, to the closure of the business(.

Compromise of an electronic signature key: consequences for the taxpayer

The VAT return is submitted in electronic form, and accordingly, it can only be signed with an electronic signature. Consequently, any problems with the electronic signature may result in refusal to accept the declaration. One possible problem is compromise of the electronic signature key.

Compromise of an electronic signature key means a loss of trust that the key can ensure the security of information. This may occur:

• in case of violation of storage rules or loss of key media;
• leakage or distortion of information;
• dismissal of employees with access to key information.

The occurrence of such circumstances always leads to negative consequences:

• damages and losses due to information leakage;
• the risk of unexpected disappearance of money from the company’s accounts;
• other consequences.

For a taxpayer, compromising an electronic signature key may result in the impossibility of filing tax returns on time or lead to distortion of information in submitted declarations (for example, their cancellation by unidentified persons).

If tax authorities receive evidence confirming the compromise of the electronic signature key, they are ordered to follow the procedure described in the letter of the Information Technology Department of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated August 28, 2017 No. 6-3-04/0154dsp@.

What should a taxpayer do in this case? If an electronic signature key is compromised, you must immediately notify the operator of the certification center to suspend the electronic signature and reissue the certificate.

We talk about the purpose of the EDS key certificate in this material.

What happens if negative signs are detected?

If a company meets a number of negative criteria, it is scheduled for inspection. In particular, these events are carried out:

• Summoning the director or entrepreneur for questioning. During the process, the manager will be asked to explain any oddities found.
• Inspection of premises. During the process, they can verify, for example, the authenticity of the registration address.
• Sending requests to the bank. The tax office has the right to send a request to the bank about who exactly uses banking services. In particular, whoever opens the account withdraws money.
• Sending a request to a certification center. This center issues keys for electronic signatures. The tax office asks him for documents confirming who exactly interacts with the institution.

Verification is required to confirm that the company is a shell company.

Results

Is it possible for tax authorities to reset a VAT return? Yes, this is possible if the declaration was signed by an unauthorized person or inspectors find signs of a shell company in your company. In addition, inspectors may refuse to accept a declaration in cases described in special administrative regulations.

To avoid the negative consequences of canceling a declaration, it is important to check in advance the reality of the existence of your counterparties and verify the authority of their managers.

Sources:

• Tax Code of the Russian Federation
• Order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated July 2, 2012 No. 99n

You can find more complete information on the topic in ConsultantPlus. Free trial access to the system for 2 days.

In what case will the Federal Tax Service revoke the declaration?

According to the logic of the officials, set out in the commented letter, if the declaration is signed by an unauthorized or unidentified person, it cannot be considered submitted.
After all, according to paragraph 5 of Article of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the accuracy and completeness of the information in the declaration must be confirmed either by the taxpayer himself or his authorized representative. And if the tax authorities consider that this requirement has been met formally, but in fact the signature (handwritten or electronic) belongs to someone else, the declaration will be withdrawn, that is, cancelled. Federal Tax Service specialists call such actions “prevention of violations of tax legislation.” Submit all tax and contribution reports yourself via the Internet Submit for free

What to do if a tax inspector refuses to accept a declaration

If the company operates without violating the law, then such a refusal is usually due to various technical errors that can be quickly corrected in order to re-send the declaration. You can obtain information about the reason for the refusal by sending an official request to the Federal Tax Service.

If the refusal is illegal or the Federal Tax Service employees do not indicate the reason for such a decision, then you can file a complaint with higher authorities or file a lawsuit in court. A decision on the complaint is made within 15 days.

When drawing up a complaint or claim, it is necessary to prepare evidence of the illegality of the refusal. To do this, you can confirm the legality of various business transactions. In the text, it is important to point out that the Federal Tax Service employees have no evidence that the company’s activities are illegal.

Consequences of detecting signs of illegal activity

If employees of the Federal Tax Service suspect that certain taxpayers are violators of the law, then initially various control measures are carried out. The main consequences of such a check include:

• people included in the management of the organization are interrogated;
• examination of documents is carried out;
• Other persons may also be summoned for questioning;
• based on the results of the completed processes, the declaration is canceled, of which the taxpayer is notified within 5 days;
• 10 days after cancellation, the company’s current account is blocked, since it is considered that the declaration was not submitted to the Federal Tax Service;
• the company's counterparties cannot receive a VAT deduction.

Each company that has encountered such negative consequences has the right to challenge the cancellation of its reports in court. To do this, a corresponding lawsuit is filed in court.

But the company must have evidence that its rights were violated, so in fact, during the operation of the enterprise, the requirements of the Tax Code were not violated in any way.

What to do when canceling a counterparty’s reporting

The declaration can be canceled from absolutely any organization for various reasons. The process can be performed in relation to the counterparty, after which the information will be reflected in the ASK VAT program. This could lead to negative consequences for all other companies with which this organization collaborated.

Federal Tax Service employees will request clarification from counterparties, and will also be given the opportunity to voluntarily pay additional VAT to the budget. Under such conditions, you must first ask the supplier exactly what problems were identified in the reporting. How to reduce VAT payable and what legal methods exist - read the link.

Based on the information received, you can make some changes to your own declaration. Each situation will have its own characteristics and nuances.

In any case, the possibility of canceling reporting will complicate the functioning of almost any company. The procedure will become an obstacle to filing a VAT deduction, and therefore only affects companies operating under OSNO. Here you will learn what a deduction code is and where to look for it.

What problems might arise during the cancellation process?

What other problems arise

If reporting is not accepted by the tax office, the company faces many negative consequences:

• disagreements with counterparties;
• the need to prepare other reporting;
• additional tax assessment;
• holding a court hearing if there is evidence that the cancellation of reports is an unlawful action on the part of the Federal Tax Service;
• refusal of cooperation from other large customers or suppliers.

There is a possibility that the refusal to accept the declaration will be due to far-fetched reasons. For example, if an error is detected in the correction code. The error must be corrected promptly and the correct form must be resubmitted.

If there really are signs that the company is a one-day company, then it will be difficult to challenge such a decision of the Federal Tax Service. This is due to the fact that the tax service, using various harsh methods, is trying to eliminate the illegal activities of numerous companies opened to carry out various fraudulent schemes.

How to fix the situation?

Three months must pass after filing the declaration, which is exactly how long it takes for the tax authority to conduct a desk audit. If it becomes clear that the declaration is fictitious, then an act is drawn up and a decision is made based on the results of the inspection, and in some cases this entails the imposition of fines. The information is conveyed to the applicant through Russian Post, the taxpayer’s personal account on the Federal Tax Service website, or delivered in person against signature.

Since it is impossible to revoke the declaration, those Tomsk residents who have not previously declared deductions, to cancel, simply need to send an updated declaration, indicating zeros in all columns. Submission of such a declaration invalidates the previous one. This can also be done in the taxpayer’s personal account.

Those who previously claimed tax deductions are required to create an amended return, indicating all amounts declared in the original accurate return (or returns, if there were several). This will be easiest for those who claimed deductions through the taxpayer’s personal account - all data is saved in the service. Those who submitted a declaration in printed form and do not remember the data specified in it will have to contact the person who provided the service for its preparation or their tax office to obtain information. To do this, you will first need to make an appointment through the online service on the Federal Tax Service website or by calling the inspectorate.

The regional Federal Tax Service recommends that citizens who understand that they have become victims of a fake and filed an inaccurate declaration should send an updated declaration to the tax office.

All current information about applicable tax deductions and the procedure for obtaining them can be found in a special section of the Federal Tax Service website “Tax Deductions” or obtained by calling 8-800-222222 and 28-00-28.