Committing a tax offense always entails liability if the subject's guilt is proved. Sanctions are established by the Tax Code, the Criminal Code, the Code of Administrative Offenses and other regulatory acts governing relations in the field of taxation. Next, we consider the main types of tax violations.
General information
The Tax Code of the Russian Federation establishes penalties for various types of tax offenses. In this case, sanctions apply both to individuals and to organizations. The procedure for imposing sanctions on citizens is regulated by Chapter 16 of the Tax Code. Individuals are held accountable from 16 years.
Terms of imposition of sentences
The legislation enshrines the principles according to which liability for tax offenses is established. In article 108 of the Tax Code it is established that an entity can be punished for a guilty act only on the grounds and rules provided for in the Code. At the same time, a citizen is liable for a tax offense under the Tax Code in the event that there are no signs of crimes in his actions, the punishment of which is fixed by the Criminal Code.
Forms of guilt
According to the Tax Code, a person may commit unlawful acts intentionally or through negligence. In the first case, the subject realizes the illegality of his behavior, wants or allows the onset of negative consequences. Carelessness means that a person does not understand the unlawful nature of actions / inaction or does not allow the likelihood of damage from them, but with proper vigilance, could and should have understood and allowed them.
In this case, no one can be considered guilty until it is proved in the prescribed manner. The person’s involvement in the offense must be confirmed by an act of the authorized body (court or the Federal Tax Service).
A person who is held accountable must not prove innocence. This burden rests with the tax authority. When identifying fatal doubts about the guilt of the subject, they should be interpreted in his favor.
If a person’s involvement in the offense is not proved, then sanctions will not apply to him.
Nuances
As established in Article 114 of the Tax Code, sanction recognizes a certain measure of responsibility for a tax offense. Punishment is expressed, as a rule, in the form of monetary penalties (fines).
If it is established that the subject has committed several types of tax offenses, sanctions are imputed for each of them. Moreover, the punishment cannot be applied twice for the same illegal act.
The legal entity’s imposition of sanctions established in the Tax Code does not imply the release of its officials from administrative, criminal and other types of liability for these illegal actions.
Registration
The legislation requires payers to register with the IFTS at their location (address of residence, if they are an individual entrepreneur), location of a separate unit, property (real estate and transport) owned by the subject and subject to taxation.
Failure to comply with the terms of registration with the IFTS in the absence of signs of a tax violation entails a fine. Its value is 5 thousand rubles. For violation of the registration procedure with the tax authority, the entity is charged with a fine of 10% of the profit earned as a result of activities without documents. The amount of recovery, however, cannot be less than 20 thousand rubles.
Evasion of registration with the tax authority entails a fine of 20% of the profit if the entity carried out entrepreneurial activity without documents for more than 3 months.
Provision of information
One of the most common types of tax offenses is non-compliance by the entity with the deadlines for sending information on opening / closing bank accounts to the IFTS. For such an act, a fine of 5 thousand rubles was established in the Tax Code.
Failure of the payer to submit a declaration to the IFTS at the place of registration is levied - 5% of the tax to be paid to the budget, according to the report. A penalty is levied for each incomplete or full month from the date established for the transfer of documents to the regulatory authority. Moreover, the amount of recovery should not be more than 30% of the tax amount and less than 100 p. This sanction is applied if there are no signs of a tax violation in the actions of the payer.
If the entity does not submit a declaration for more than 180 days. from the date of expiration of the period established for its surrender by law, a fine is levied on him - 30% of the tax amount indicated in the documents, and 10% of it for each incomplete or full month of delay. The second part of the fine is imputed from 181 days.
Failure to comply with the mandatory payments deduction procedure
Failure to pay or incomplete payment of tax due to understatement of the base, other incorrect calculation or other illegal actions / inaction shall be sanctioned by a fine. It will be 20% of the unpaid amounts.
Failure by the tax agent to withhold and / or transfer taxes without good reason also entails a fine. Its value is also 20% of the unpaid amount.
Special cases
In Art. 129.1 of the Tax Code punishes unlawful non- reporting or untimely reporting of information to the tax authority if, in accordance with the law, an entity is required to provide the necessary information, as well as failure to provide explanations provided for in paragraph 3 of article 88 of the Code of Explanations in case of failure to submit a declaration. The perpetrators of this act (in the absence of signs of violations established by Article 126) are charged with a fine of 5 thousand rubles.
If these acts are committed repeatedly within 1 calendar year, the amount of the fine increases to 20 thousand rubles.
For illegal failure to provide (untimely submission) by a foreign organization (or a structure without the formation of a legal entity) of the information provided for in clause 3.2 of Article 23 of the Tax Code, a recovery of 100% of the tax on property of this enterprise is charged. The amount is calculated for real estate owned by this organization / structure. In this case, the calculation of recovery is carried out in proportion to the interest in the company, information about which is not provided (provided untimely). If it is not possible to determine the share, the penalty is determined in proportion to the number of participants.
Unlawful failure to provide (untimely submission) by the payer-individual of the information provided for in clause 2.1 23 of the Tax Code entails a fine. It will amount to 20% of the unpaid tax on immovable property or a vehicle for which the relevant information is not transmitted by the Federal Tax Service.
Article 127 of the Code establishes a punishment for refusing to submit documents and objects at the request of a tax authority or for not providing them within the time period established by law. According to the norm, the sanction for such acts is 5 thousand rubles.
Criminal penalty
The Criminal Code provides for special conditions for holding liable for tax offenses. They are fixed in chap. 22.
There are three groups of acts constituting a crime:
- Evasion of deduction of payments.
- Failure to provide tax authority with information about the taxpayer.
- Failure to comply with obligations established for tax agents.
Tax evasion
This crime can be committed by:
- Failure to submit a declaration or other documentation, the provision of which is mandatory.
- Transmission of false information to the IFTS.
Both that, and another can be caused by a gross violation of the rules for accounting for expenses and income and objects of taxation. In such situations, the subject is forced to hide the real state of affairs. In any of the above cases, tax debts are formed. Here it should be noted that the punishment under the Criminal Code will come only if the crime is committed on a large scale. It is considered an amount in excess of 600 thousand rubles. for 3 consecutive years. Moreover, the amount of tax debt should be more than 10% of it or exceed 1 million 800 thousand.
The punishment will be toughened if the crime is committed in an amount considered especially large. It recognizes an amount in excess of 3 million rubles. for 3 consecutive financial years, if the share of unpaid taxes is more than 20% of the amount to be transferred, or exceeds 9 million rubles.
For a large-scale tax crime one of the following criminal sanctions is charged:
- Fine 100-300 thousand rubles. or in the amount of the guilty income for 1-2 g.
- 4-6 months arrest.
- Up to a year in prison.
With a particularly large amount, the punishment will be one of the following:
- Cash recovery of 200-500 thousand rubles. or in the amount of the person’s income for 1.5-3 g.
- Up to 3 years in prison.
Object of offense
As it are the values and benefits that cause damage to the unlawful actions of the payer. They break the order:
- Calculation and payment of taxes.
- Accounting payers.
- Reporting.
The objective side is unlawful actions / inaction of the subject, for which liability is established in the Tax Code and other regulatory acts.
Signs of an offense
To bring the subject to responsibility, the following grounds are required:
- Legal. This means that there should be a norm in the legislation establishing a specific punishment for the offender.
- Procedural. In case of proof of guilt, the authorized body must adopt an act imposing a measure of responsibility on the subject.
- Actual. Punishment comes only for a really committed act by a specific person.
Tax penalties
The liability measures established in the Tax Code are aimed at preventing repeated violations not only by the person to whom they are applied, but also by other entities.
After a decision is made on imposing sanctions in situations where an extra-judicial recovery procedure is not provided for by law, the Federal Tax Service shall file a lawsuit:
- In the arbitration court - when bringing to justice an individual entrepreneur or legal entity.
- To the jurisdiction of general jurisdiction - upon sanctioning a citizen who is not an entrepreneur.
Deliberate acts pose a great danger to society. For them, the Tax Code imposes stricter penalties. So, for example, in case of tax evasion due to incorrect calculation or underestimation of the base, a penalty of 20% of the amount of arrears shall be imposed. If these actions are committed intentionally, the amount of the fine is doubled.
Guilty Factors
Articles 11 and 112 of the Tax Code establish circumstances mitigating and aggravating the payer's punishment. The factors that exclude the guilt of the subject include:
- Natural disaster or other emergency, force majeure.
- The inability of a person to direct his actions and understand the consequences of their commission.
- Application by the subject of written explanations on issues related to taxation prepared by the tax authority.
It must be said that the list of these circumstances is not considered exhaustive. Tax structures and courts are entitled to recognize a circumstance not specified in the Tax Code as extenuating.
The payer cannot be held liable for a tax violation if at least one of the following conditions is revealed:
- An offense event has not been established.
- The subject is not guilty.
- Failure to reach the age of responsibility.
- The expiration of the statute of limitations. A person who is guilty of an offense cannot be brought to justice if 3 years have passed since the date of the illegal act.
Extenuating circumstances
Mild sanctions may be applied to the subject if the offense is committed by him:
- Under the influence of coercion or threat.
- Due to official, material or other dependence.
The Tax Code established that in the presence of one of the above factors, the size of the sanction should be reduced by at least half. In paragraph 3 of clause 114 of the Tax Code, only the minimum limit for reducing sentences is indicated. The court and the regulatory body can reduce the size of the sanction by more than half. In such cases, the characteristics of the payer, the number of mitigating factors, the material situation of the subject, etc. are taken into account.
Aggravating circumstance
Tighter penalties are allowed if the subject has committed a second offense. Repetition is considered established when a number of conditions are met.
First of all, a violation for which a measure of responsibility is applied to a person must be similar to a previously committed act. For example, the failure to provide a legal entity with a declaration and the systematic misrepresentation of business transactions in accounting accounts are not considered similar. These acts differ on the objective side.
To tighten the sanction, it is necessary that the person be held accountable. This means that a stricter sanction is imposed at a time when the previous one has not yet been repaid.
Thirdly, a new violation must take place within a year from the date of the entry of a court order or an IFTS act on the application of a measure of responsibility for a similar act to a person. After this period, the subject will be deemed not to be held liable.
additional information
The subject is recognized to be liable for a tax violation within a year from the date of entry into force of a court decision or resolution of the tax inspectorate. In the event of the commission of another unlawful act within the specified period, the monetary penalty may be increased by 100%. Repeated offenses are recognized as an aggravating circumstance.
According to the provisions of clause 8 of article 101 of the Tax Code, the decision on bringing the subject to tax liability sets out the conditions for the commission of the act, as well as links to regulations and other documents confirming the event. In case of failure by the IFTS to comply with this requirement, the fact of the offense and the guilt of the payer will be considered unproven.
The period of time during which imposition of a guilty penalty is allowed is calculated from the day the act was drawn up based on the results of the audit (visiting or desk), and not a decision is made based on its results. This period is considered to be preventive, that is, it cannot be restored. If this period is missed, the court will refuse to satisfy the requirements stated by the tax inspectorate.
Conclusion
The fact of non-payment of taxes in an amount smaller than large, even if all the formal signs of a crime are present, will not entail criminal liability. Explanations on this issue are given in article 14 of the Criminal Code. According to the provisions of paragraph 2 of this norm, an act / omission that formally contains signs of an unlawful act, but which is not dangerous to society because of its insignificance, is not considered a crime.
Meanwhile, it should be borne in mind that liability for tax offenses is secured not only in the Criminal Code, but also in the Code of Administrative Offenses, as well as in the Tax Code, but the absence of signs of a crime in the subject’s behavior does not mean that he will be exempted from transferring mandatory payments and fines.
The tax system is considered one of the key elements of the economy. It is used by the state as the main tool for influencing the economic activities of society, determining the directions of social and economic development of the country.
The instability of tax deductions, the frequent revision of rates, benefits, the number of taxes, etc. negatively affect the state of the national economic complex. Nevertheless, the country has laws whose provisions must be respected.
Illegal actions of business entities cause not only direct damage to the state in the form of lost fees, but also indirect. The latter is expressed in the fact that individuals seek to assign the responsibility for the maintenance of social infrastructure to the budget.
All citizens simultaneously act as payers of taxes and consumers of goods. But in the first case, subjects seek to minimize mandatory contributions, believing that they can thereby increase their well-being. Acting as consumers, citizens demand an improvement in the level of service.
As the analysis of transformations in the field of taxation shows, the proposals put forward at best relate only to some elements of the system. First of all, we are talking about the amount of deductions, provided benefits, objects of taxation, the process of replacing some fees with others.
Many experts state that at present there are quite a lot of problems in the field of taxes, and it is already impossible to solve them using the same approaches as before. Modern conditions require qualitatively new reforms. The discipline of subjects of tax legal relations also depends on the effectiveness of transformations. . .