The enforcement of obligations imposed on taxpayers is described in Articles 11 of the Tax Code. In case of improper fulfillment or non-fulfillment of obligations, the supervisory authority has the right to hold the perpetrator accountable. In addition, legislation establishes enforcement mechanisms that tax officials can use.
Ensuring Compliance
It is referred to in article 72 of the Code. Clause 1 of the norm establishes that the fulfillment of obligations on the deduction of fees and taxes to the budget can be ensured:
- pledge of property;
- surety;
- penalties;
- seizure of property of the payer;
- suspension of operations in the bank.
The latter method is widely used in practice. This is due to the fact that the blocking of the current account by the tax service is the most inconvenient measure for business entities.
Relevance of the problem
Blocking an account by the tax service makes it difficult to conduct business, as a person does not have the opportunity to timely settle accounts with suppliers and make other payments important to him. Accordingly, for the Federal Tax Service - this is one of the most effective security measures.
The blocking of the current account by the tax office may come as a complete surprise to the payer. Especially depressing is the situation when an economic entity urgently needs money to make an important and profitable transaction.
General lock order
It is provided for in Article 76 of the Tax Code.
The basis for blocking the account by the tax service is the decision of its head (or his deputy). This act is sent to banks serving the payer's accounts. A copy of the decision is transmitted to the business entity under signature or in another way confirming receipt. The act can be executed both on paper and in electronic form.
After receiving the decision, the bank must immediately comply with the requirements and suspend all operations on customer accounts. The corresponding requirement is fixed by paragraph 7 of the above article.
The bank’s responsibilities also include the IFTS report on the balance of funds to the payer's account.
A financial institution is entitled to “unfreeze" accounts only after receiving an appropriate order from the Federal Tax Service Inspectorate.
Important point
If the business entity has several accounts opened and they have enough funds to pay off debts, penalties, fines, arrears specified in the decision on blocking, he is entitled to send a statement to the tax service to annul the decision to suspend operations. In it, the person indicates the details of the corresponding r / s. The statement is accompanied by extracts confirming the availability of funds.
After accepting the package of documents, the Federal Tax Service Inspectorate must make a decision within two days to remove the block from the account. The tax service checks the information received by sending a request to the bank. After confirming the information in a two-day period, "defrosting" is carried out.
Tax Account Lockout: Reasons
In the legislation, the suspension of operations on p / s is allowed if the business entity:
- I didn’t pass the declaration.
- Did not pay tax.
In addition, the tax inspection blocks accounts with the aim of ensuring the enforcement of decisions made by the audit.
Violation of the rules for submitting a declaration
The legislation establishes certain deadlines by which the payer must submit a report to the IFTS. If within 10 days (of workers) after the expiration of the stipulated period, the declaration is not submitted, the supervisory authority has the right to block the account.
"Defrosting" of the payment order is carried out no later than the next day after the submission of the report by the payer.
Controversial issues
In practice, there are cases when operations on the account are suspended, and the payer has no obligation to submit a declaration.
Courts in such situations adhere to the following approach. In accordance with Article 23 of the Tax Code, the payer is required to submit a tax return, which he must deduct. The report is submitted to the IFTS at the registration address.
This obligation corresponds to article 80 of the Code. It says that a declaration is prepared for each deduction established for the payer.
If the business entity has no obligation to pay tax, then the tax service has no reason to block the account .
It follows from this that certain flaws in the declaration (for example, errors in filling out the title page, incorrect indication of the period) do not act as a basis for suspension of operations on payroll or applying a fine to a person under Art. 119.
Tax non-payment
As established in the first paragraph of Article 46 of the Tax Code, in case of non-payment or incomplete deduction of the amount within the period established by law, this obligation is performed by force. The Federal Tax Service Inspectorate in such cases shall recover the funds held in the payer's bank accounts.
For the application of this measure, the IFTS takes an appropriate decision and sends a collection order to write off the debt to the financial institution.
At the same time, according to paragraph 7 of Article 46, the supervisory authority may suspend operations on the p / s until collection of all debts.
IFTS violations
It is worth noting that the process of indisputable debt collection is a multi-stage and rather complicated procedure. Often, tax authorities commit procedural violations in the course of it. They, in turn, can act as the basis for canceling the recovery order and, therefore, the decision to block the account.
The tax service most often violates the terms and procedure for making a claim, chooses the wrong way to send it.
As practice shows, the courts in such cases make decisions in favor of the payers.
The direction of the claim is the initial stage of the enforcement process. Failure to comply with the IFTS procedure established by law significantly violates the right of economic entities to protect interests and freedoms, as enshrined in the Constitution.
Lawyers recommend paying particular attention to the type of correspondence sent to the payer. As the judicial practice testifies, the receipt by a business entity of a simple rather than registered letter with a notice is considered by the authorities as a gross violation of the procedure for the indisputable collection of debts by force. Accordingly, it acts as an unconditional basis for the abolition of decisions taken by the IFTS.
Blocking as a security measure
As established in paragraph 7 of Article 101 of the Tax Code, after examining the audit materials, the head of the Inspectorate of the Federal Tax Service (his deputy) takes a decision to hold the business entity liable for an offense committed or to refuse to apply sanction to a person.
After the decision is made, the authorized person of the control body may apply interim measures to the perpetrator. The legislation allows this only if there is sufficient reason to believe that if they are not subsequently adopted, the execution of the decision or the collection of a fine, penalty, arrears, debt from the payer will become impossible or very difficult.
Under sufficient grounds should be understood:
- The presence of arrears on payer payer.
- Repeated evasion of duty to pay tax.
- Decrease in assets of the enterprise.
- A set of circumstances indicating the receipt by an economic entity of unjustified benefits.
To implement an interim measure, the head of the IFTS (his deputy) takes an appropriate decision. It takes effect from the date of signing. The decision shall remain in force until the day of execution of the decision on bringing the guilty subject to liability or on refusal to do so, or until the date of its cancellation by the higher control body or court.
Nuance
Account lockout as a security measure may be applied after the prohibition of transferring as collateral or alienation of property has been imposed. Moreover, its total cost according to accounting data should be less than the total amount of fines, arrears and penalties payable in accordance with the decision of the IFTS.
In addition, the suspension of the account is not allowed if the business entity did not submit the accounting statements, did not provide an advance payment, or documents requested for verification were not received.
Can I check the blocking of the current account on the tax website?
Can. Since 2014, a special service has been open for all interested parties.
To check the account blocking by the tax service, you need to go to the official IFTS portal. The service you need to use has the following name: " System for informing banks about the status of processing electronic documents" ("BANKINFORM" for short). Despite this name, anyone can check the account lockout by the tax service.
After selecting the specified service, put a dot near the line "Request for current suspension decisions." Next, it is necessary to enter the payer's TIN and BIC of the banking organization serving the payroll. If this data is not known, then checking the account lock on the tax service website will fail.
Then you need to specify the numbers from the picture. Correctly entered numbers indicate that checking the account lock on the tax service website is carried out not by a robot, but by a person. After that, you need to click on the "Send request" button.
The answer will be formed quickly enough. If a decision was made to block, the system will show the date of its adoption, as well as the code of the control body that issued it.
When checking the blocking of an account on the tax service website, it is necessary to carefully study the content of the response. Often there are errors and inaccuracies in it. The presence of data that does not correspond to reality is the basis for challenging the decision.
Check the account lock on the website of the tax service can both business entities (representatives of legal entities or individual entrepreneurs), and employees of banking organizations.
Quite often, this service is used by potential partners of enterprises. If on the website the tax blocking of the account is confirmed, then the counterparties can reconsider the decision on cooperation. This information is especially important when concluding large transactions.
It is advisable for the business entity to periodically use the service. It is extremely important to check the blocking of the current account by the tax office before signing a contract for the supply of a large amount of goods. If the operations are suspended, the entity will not be able to pay for it. This, in turn, will lead to debt.
Debit
It should be noted that blocking an account does not mean the suspension of all expenditure transactions. The relevant provision is secured by para. 3 of the first paragraph 76 of the article of the Tax Code. In addition, the entity may transfer funds to a blocked account. There are no restrictions in the legislation on this subject.
In Art. 855 of the Civil Code fixed the priority for debiting funds. If there is an amount sufficient on the payroll account to pay off all debts, settlements are carried out as payment receipts are received. This order is called calendar.
Suspension of operations does not apply to payments, the deduction of which must be made before the fulfillment of obligations to pay taxes.
Who else can freeze an account?
In addition to the tax inspectorate, the Customs Service is entitled to suspend p / s operations. This measure is applied when collecting debts on deduction of customs duties and penalties. The rules for blocking accounts are enshrined in Order No. 2184 of the FCS.
The authority to suspend operations on the p / s is vested in the Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring).
It is worth saying that in case of untimely payment of insurance premiums or failure to provide payments on the due date, the accounts will not be blocked. The legislation does not provide for appropriate powers for extrabudgetary funds.
Exceptions to the Rules
Not every blocking decision can be enforced. Not subject to compliance if:
- The decision was adopted by an unauthorized structure.
- The decision was made in respect of the account, which, according to the definition fixed by Article 11 of the Tax Code, does not fall under this concept.
With the first case, everything, in general, is clear. If the decision was made by an unauthorized body, then there are no grounds for blocking. The second case should be dealt with in more detail.
As indicated in Article 11 of the Tax Code, a current account is a current (settlement) account opened in accordance with a banking service agreement. The owner’s money is transferred to and spent on it.
This category includes accounts:
- settlement;
- current (including currency);
- correspondent;
- ruble types “K” (convertible) and “H” (non-convertible) opened by non-residents;
- corporate card accounts.
The blocking does not apply to accounts opened in accordance with other agreements and transactions: deposit, accredited, loan, transit (including special) currency.
It is unlawful, according to paragraph 1 of article 126 of the Federal Law No. 127, to suspend operations on a bankrupt taxpayer account.
If the decision on blocking was not drawn up in the form prescribed by law, it also cannot be executed by the bank. The corresponding conclusion follows from the content of paragraph 4 of paragraph 76 of the article of the Tax Code.