A desk tax audit is one of the most common types of audit which is carried out by the tax service. Moreover, it is carried out in relation to absolutely all taxpayers. What are the features of this procedure? What does the taxpayer need to know?
What is a tax audit?
Everyone knows that running your own business is almost always accompanied by risks for the entrepreneur. The tax office often inspects organizations.
A tax audit refers to a specific form of control, which is carried out both on the road and in office conditions. It is carried out by officials of the Federal Tax Service in order to monitor compliance with Russian tax legislation. Not only taxpayers themselves can be checked, but also tax agents and persons paying various fees.
Office Check: Definition of the term
A desk tax audit is a form of audit of the Federal Tax Service. In its course, declarations and financial statements are checked, which were submitted both by individual entrepreneurs and organizations. A distinctive feature of desk audits is that they do not require a direct tax inspection visit.
A desk tax audit is carried out by an inspector. The list of checked documentation includes previously submitted tax returns, settlement operations on advance payments, various references and statements. Thus, all documentation relating to the calculation and payment of taxes is analyzed. The report on the desk tax audit is prepared in paper or electronic form. Organizations with more than 100 employees have been reporting electronically since 2008.
Purpose, objectives
A desk tax audit is carried out with the aim of:
- Monitoring compliance with the Tax Code.
- Identification of the amount of unpaid or partially paid tax fees for current violations.
- Collection of unpaid or partially repaid debts to the tax authorities.
- Bringing the violator to tax or administrative liability.
- Preparation of information to ensure a rational selection of taxpayers for field audits.
- Verification of the legitimate use of benefits and deductions.
To achieve these goals, the tax inspectorate has a number of tasks:
- Verification of the accuracy of financial statements.
- Calculation of indicators for taxes that are transferred to the state treasury.
- Monitoring the timeliness of the provision of tax inspection calculations.
- Identification of distorted information in reporting documents.
- Checking consistency of values in accounting and tax reports.
- Identification of violations of tax discipline.
The legislative framework
A desk tax audit is a form of an audit of the Federal Tax Service conducted on the basis of the current Tax Code of the Russian Federation. Information on the procedure and rules for its implementation is contained in 31, 87 and 88 articles of tax legislation.
Document Requirements
Based on the documentation received from the organization, a desk tax audit is carried out. Documents may be additionally requested by tax inspectors. The volume of a package of documents, as a rule, is pretty solid. Therefore, questions often arise related to the need to certify all documentation, rather than individual copies.
A certified copy must fully transmit all the information reflected in the original document.The tax legislation does not provide for the rules for the provision of certified copies to the authorities of the Federal Tax Service. Therefore, both individual sheets and multi-page folders can be certified.
There are some requirements for crosslinking documentation:
- The text should be free to read.
- When studying a folder, the possibility of its mechanical destruction should not arise.
- It should be possible to freely copy each sheet.
- All sheets must be numbered, and the certification indicates their total number.
Crosslinking is provided to the tax office along with a cover letter.
Dates of the tax audit
Article 88 of the Tax Law establishes general rules for conducting desk audits. According to this article, verification of documents submitted by the taxpayer must be carried out by inspectors within 90 days from the date of filing the declaration and the latest reports with confirmation of their correctness and legitimacy. Sometimes situations arise when the 90-day period begins to count from the date the tax authority received the documentation or from the moment the decision to conduct the audit was made. However, such actions by the tax inspectorate are considered unlawful and can be challenged in an arbitration court. If the inspectors revealed a violation of tax laws, they go to court. A 6-month period is allocated for filing a statement of claim. If this period is missed, penalties cannot be applied to the violator.
Risk criteria
If the fact of violations of tax legislation was revealed in the activities of an individual entrepreneur or individual as a result of a desk audit, the tax inspectorate has the right to charge fines, penalties, surcharges. Penalties may be charged for the following actions:
- Tax evasion of 20% of unpaid funds.
- Refusal to file a tax return and financial statements.
- Other administrative offenses (size of penalties - 500 rubles).
If the entrepreneur or the management of the enterprise hid significant sums of money from the tax authorities, they face criminal liability.
Order of conduct
Formally, the Tax Code does not distinguish separate stages of desk audits. However, based on 88-101 articles, the whole process can be logically divided into 4 stages.
- Acceptance of documentation from the taxpayer.
- Organization and conduct of desk audit.
- Presentation of the results.
- Analysis of the results, the final decision.
At the first stage, the tax inspectorate checks the availability of all necessary documentation, which must be attached to the declaration or calculations in accordance with the law. When the fact of reporting is confirmed, the verification procedure itself is launched.
If benefits were declared in the tax return, the FTS will request documents from the payer confirming the legality of their application. This is followed by a cameral tax audit on VAT, the inspection has the right to demand documents confirming the right to apply this benefit. If the declaration contains a number of errors, or the data in it contradict each other or diverge from the information received by the tax inspectorate, the Federal Tax Service informs the entrepreneur or organization about this and asks for appropriate changes. The taxpayer must submit documents at the request of the Federal Tax Service within 5 days.
After this stage, the verification results are processed. If violations of the law have been identified, an appropriate act is drawn up. If no violation was found, the inspector puts a note on the desk audit in the tax return.
Office and field tax audits: differences
There are two types of tax audits - desk and field audits.In contrast to desk audits, field visits are carried out on the basis of Article 89 of the Tax Code. What are their main differences?
Office checks are carried out on the basis of Article 88 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, as mentioned above. They are engaged in the department of desk inspections of the Federal Tax Service. They are carried out on the basis of each submitted reporting document or declaration. Moreover, the taxpayer himself is not informed about this procedure, special permission of the head of the inspection is not required. The term of the procedure is 3 months, within 5 days at the request of the tax inspectorate, amendments can be made to the declaration. The inspection act is drawn up only in case of violations.
Field inspections are carried out selectively during different reporting periods and for various types of taxes. The place of the procedure is either on the territory of the taxpayer, or at his request in the department of the Federal Tax Service. To start the procedure, permission of the head of the tax office is required. The taxpayer himself must be notified of the audit. The inspection period can be from 2 to 6 months, and the frequency - no more than 2 times a year. On the day the procedure ends, the taxpayer is issued a certificate of the measures taken, an act is drawn up and a decision is made regardless of whether violations have been identified or not.
results
If errors and inaccuracies are found in the declaration, the inspector of the service is obliged to inform the taxpayer of this in a three-day period. Also, the inspector will require some changes to the documents. The term for making changes is no more than 5 working days. This applies to situations where errors in the declaration caused underpayment of taxes.
If a fact of underpayment is revealed, the inspector shall make a decision in a 10-day period on holding the organization or entrepreneur liable. Additionally, the tax inspectorate is given 10 days to send notifications of payment of fines, penalties, amendments to documents.
There are some discrepancies in tax legislation regarding issues related to the preparation of an act. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation takes the position that this is not directly necessary. The arbitration courts consider that the decision of a desk tax audit should be documented, otherwise they are violated taxpayer rights. Therefore, you can not rush to pay fines if the act was not drawn up.
Useful Tips
In order to successfully pass a desk tax audit, it is necessary to strictly comply with the deadlines for the submission of reporting documents and declarations and to promptly respond to requests from the Federal Tax Service. During the checks, a mathematical model of the taxpayer is compiled, which takes into account the scope of the enterprise, turnover, financial transactions. Often a so-called portrait is also compiled, which reflects information on the nature and amount of taxes paid, compliance with deadlines, whether VAT has been refunded. They also check the legal formalities - whether there is all the necessary documentation, which banks interact with the organization, whether it carries out non-core activities. The Federal Tax Service has long developed a system for identifying one-day firms for a number of reasons. It is practically impossible to find out about conducting desk checks in advance.
A desk tax audit is one of the integral parts of doing business. Taxpayers are always under the control of the Federal Tax Service. Inspections can always have negative consequences, so the activities of the organization must clearly comply with Russian law.
