In the process of conducting business activities, entrepreneurs quite often face all kinds of risks, on which business success often depends. Such a strategy may well be justified, since the conditions of fierce competition require the timely introduction of new ideas and technologies. Deciding on such a step, the entrepreneur must adequately assess the degree of risk and be able to manage it.
The nature of the risk
Such a concept as tax risk can be considered from two perspectives: the entrepreneur and the tax office. On the one hand, businessmen may find themselves in a difficult situation caused by an increase in the tax rate or a reduction in certain benefits, and on the other hand, regulatory authorities run the risk of not getting the necessary amount to the budget due to the tightening of the regime and changes in tax policy.
Many businessmen have learned to determine many tax risk factors in advance. In this regard, unforeseen situations arise in most cases due to uncertainty or insufficient knowledge of the law. The ability to correctly calculate the situation many steps forward mitigates the consequences significantly, and allows you to protect yourself from troubles in advance.
The first step towards risk management
Quite often, Russian businessmen do not pay due attention to the tax system, as a result, the planned tactics of doing business are unprofitable due to excessive tax deductions. It is especially offensive to find such a nuisance after the transaction, and the tax authorities themselves can report the negative consequences.
Naturally, in such a situation, they begin to look for someone to blame for the situation, and think about how now to correct the consequences of tax risks. The answer in this situation is obvious. Instead of blaming the accountant, financial director or tax consultant for incorrect calculations or hoping that the consequences will not be so significant, it would be best to learn how to manage risks. But for this you need to correctly understand the nature of the emergence of a critical situation, as well as its scale.
How to not miss the moment of occurrence of tax risk
Oddly enough, you need to look for the cause of the problem not at the moment when the tax risk led to the arrears of payments, but much earlier, when the transaction was under development. When using competent tax planning in 90% of cases, negative consequences can be avoided. An aggressive business policy based on eliminating competition in any way is not compatible with a rational reduction in the tax burden.
The modern business structure is designed in such a way that in the process of financial activity, some create risks, while others anticipate them. Companies that are just starting to develop their business should be most actively in touch with tax liabilities monitors. In practice, such parties prefer to remain at different poles. For example, situations are not uncommon when the accountant finds out about the transaction quite late, and it is not possible to change anything. In connection with this situation, many reputable companies create special structural units that are required to calculate all the possibilities of tax risk.
Types of tax risks and their causes
If we consider the negative consequences in terms of their occurrence, then the risks can be divided into separate groups.
Russian legislation quite often has an ambiguous interpretation, which some merchants use. In the pursuit of profit, the heads of enterprises are trying to persuade the essence of the controversial regulatory document in their favor, in connection with which they automatically fall into the risk zone, as they are trying to reduce the tax burden. In such a situation, extreme caution and good knowledge of the regulatory framework are required.
It's a shame when tax risk arises due to inconsistency of the administrative apparatus. The accounting structure and managers do not have the possibility of preliminary discussion of the planned transaction, as a result of which the whole business suffers.
Ambiguous interpretation of the law and documentary violations
The risk of negative tax consequences is most likely at the conclusion of unusual contractual relations, the financial mechanism of which is not fully thought out.
Financial tax risks often arise due to poor-quality documentation or its absence. According to statistics, the bulk of the accrued tax payments appeared due to the lack of paper confirmation of the transaction. This is due to the fact that managers, having received money, do not attach due importance to the design of their appearance.
Portfolio and external risks
The so-called portfolio risks carry a hidden danger, especially if the company has a large network of branches or subsidiaries. The situation can become threatening when individual risks merge into a single whole. At first glance, the negative situation prevailing in a particular branch may seem trifling, but when such problems begin to be widespread, it becomes quite difficult for the company to neutralize the consequences.
Changes in tax legislation, litigation, change of leadership - all these facts relate to external risks. Regional features of taxation can aggravate the situation, since in our country some tax rates are set at the local level. And if the company conducts foreign trade, then in this case, tax accounting is even more complicated.
Who should manage the risks
The fact that risks can and should be managed is beyond doubt. To find the right solutions and ways out of the crisis in modern business, professional consulting firms are created. To manage tax risk, there are a number of techniques and methods that allow you to predict the likelihood of an undesirable event.
Economic activity in the field of risk management is quite specific and requires in-depth professionals in the field of taxation, civil and criminal law. The main goal in solving problems of taxation is to find the optimal combination of revenue and possible risk. This formula is especially important when implementing highly profitable projects, as it is known that the higher the income, the greater the risk.
Golden Risk Rules
As in any other field, risk management is subject to certain rules, compliance with which leads to a positive result:
- To get a relatively small gain, you can not risk much.
- It is always necessary to clearly understand the consequences of the actions taken.
- In business, you can never bet more than you have.
These economic constants are enough to keep the business within acceptable risk. Compliance with such principles gives rise to the basic methods of preventing risky situations. In other words, risk can be avoided, accepted or reduced.
Avoiding risk is the most preferred technique. It is based on a complete rejection of the transaction in the event of detection of negative consequences. But abandoning the planned business model also means losing profits. So, excluding tax risk, you need to measure it with other losses. In addition, the rejection of one risky business may entail a chain of other negative consequences.
Acceptance of tax consequences may be full or partial. In this case, the businessman is obliged to answer with his own assets for all the consequences that arise as a result of the implementation of a particular operation.
Reducing tax risks is the most time-consuming and at the same time effective way to solve difficult economic situations.
Tax evasion
In our country, tax evasion is an unlawful act for which various penalties are provided. The consequences of deliberate tax evasion can be divided into criminal acts and non-criminal ones.
Violation of tax and legal laws, improper accounting, understating the real value of goods, arithmetic errors made when calculating taxes, are non-criminal actions, depending on the amount of the crime.
Tax evasion methods leading to disastrous results
The leader among all schemes of illegal tax evasion is hidden implementation.
This is the simplest and at the same time criminal way, based on the failure to spend part of the proceeds on the accounts of accounting and tax accounting. Concealment of income can be carried out by violating the regime of use of CCPs, inaccurate reflection of contractual payments and exceeding the limit of cash settlements between legal entities. When using these methods, tax accounting is carried out using double-entry bookkeeping, which contains deliberately false data.
In accordance with the criminal law, such “optimization” of taxes, depending on the amount of damage caused, is punishable by deprivation of the ability to conduct a particular commercial activity. Perpetrators can also be arrested for up to six months and deprived of their liberty for up to three years.
Legal tax optimization
Legal optimization of taxation is based on certain principles that are observed in the relationship between merchants and regulatory authorities:
- Taxes must be paid in accordance with the law.
- Charges must be paid no later than the last day of the deadline.
- The organization has the right to charge minimum taxes without violating the law.
The legitimate optimization of tax payments must be separated from deliberate tax evasion. In order not to cross this line, professional planning and control should be organized in the company. The tax risks of a contract that is concluded with a partner must be timely evaluated and optimized. Each leader should be well aware of the degree of responsibility that will be assigned to him in case of violation of the law.