The tax system is the most important component of the national economy of any state. What are its features in Russia? What are the functions, tasks, rights and obligations of tax structures operating in the Russian Federation? Which departments are responsible for calculating and transferring payments from citizens to the treasury? What types of fees are established by Russian laws?
Russian tax system: general characteristics
The fundamental source of law that sets out the essence and basic institutional characteristics of the tax system in Russia is the specialized code. In accordance with the regulatory provisions, in the Russian Federation there are certain types of taxes depending on the level of government, separate bodies designed to collect payments, endowed with a number of rights and obligations. Let's consider each of these aspects separately.
Taxes: federal, regional, local
In Russia, there are three types of taxes depending on the level of government: federal, regional, as well as local. The fees of the first type are established by the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, they are mandatory for payment in all settlements located on the territory of the country (unless certain exceptions are allowed by law).
The federal taxes include the following taxes: personal income tax, VAT, on profits, on the extraction of minerals, on water, as well as various kinds of state duties, excise taxes, and fees.
Regional taxes in turn, they are established not only by the Tax Code, but also by legal acts adopted by authorities in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Payment of such fees is mandatory only in those republics, territories and regions where the relevant standards are adopted. The competencies held by tax authorities of one entity do not apply to other regions.
When establishing fees of this type, authorities have the right to regulate the value of rates, the procedures for calculating and depositing amounts of payers' debt to the treasury (if the necessary rules are not contained in the Tax Code). Also, at the level of the constituent entities of the federation, rules can be determined by which privileges are issued and the size of the bases for calculating payments is determined.
Regional taxes include the following: transport, on property of organizations, as well as on gambling business.
Competencies for working with local fees, in turn, are possessed by tax authorities operating at the level of individual municipalities. Fees of this type are mandatory for individuals and legal entities registered in a specific city, region, settlement, etc. Tax authorities operating in a particular locality (or municipality) do not have the authority to control the process of calculating and paying fees in other municipalities. The commissioning of certain types of deductions to the treasury can be carried out both at the level of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, and during legislative processes carried out locally.
There are relatively few local taxes in Russia. There are only two of them. This is a tax on property of individuals, as well as land.
It is worth abolishing the most important feature of the Russian tax system. Many lawyers call it the main sign of strict centralization. The thing is that, regardless of the level at which the tax authorities operate, all types of fees are established (as well as canceled) exclusively by amending the Tax Code. No one subject of the federation, as well as the municipality, it is not entitled to establish its own taxes that do not have compliance with the Tax Code.
Taxes in St. Petersburg and Moscow
What is the situation with taxes in cities of federal significance - in St. Petersburg and Moscow? There are no fundamental differences from the all-Russian system of organizing fees, as experts say. The types of payments to the treasury in these megacities are established at the level of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, and also in accordance with local laws (applicable only in the territory of each of the "capitals"). The peculiarity of the systems operating in St. Petersburg and Moscow is that the tax control authorities have both “regional” and “municipal” powers.
Tax departments of Russia
The agency that has the main role in the system of calculating and ensuring payment of fees at various levels is the Federal Tax Service of Russia. Also, one of the key authorities with competencies in this area is the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation. The vertical structure of each of the departments approximately corresponds to how the political and administrative hierarchy is organized in the system of executive authorities.
Federal Tax Service of Russia: structure, functions
The Federal Tax Service is a structure subordinate to the Ministry of Finance. The main functions assigned to the Federal Tax Service of Russia are as follows:
- Compliance with national laws governing taxes and fees;
- control over the accuracy of the calculation and the timing of making fees to the treasury;
- ensuring the legality of currency circulation within its competence;
- informing citizens on issues related to the legal regulation of tax collection.
The most important function of the Federal Tax Service is the registration of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs. A citizen of the Russian Federation, planning to start a business, will at one stage or another interact with the Federal Tax Service in almost all stages of his activity. This includes not only registration with the tax authority, but also reconciliation of financial documents, various kinds of reporting, etc.
The main sources of law regulating the activities of the Federal Tax Service are the Constitution of Russia, federal laws, acts of the head of state and government, international agreements of the Russian Federation. The Federal Tax Service and the Ministry of Finance are tax authorities that work in close cooperation with many other executive bodies (both at the federal level and in relation to the powers of subjects and municipalities).
The organization with which, according to many experts, the Federal Tax Service interacts most intensively and regularly is the Pension Fund. The tax authorities are also very actively collaborating with the Ministry of Communications, Rostelecom, in terms of increasing the level of technologicalization of work.
The structure and organization of tax authorities is approved through an order issued by the federal leadership of the Federal Tax Service of Russia. Each regional entity of the system is, on the one hand, a separate legal entity, and on the other, it is accountable to higher structures of the Federal Tax Service.
There are also a special type of tax authorities of the Russian Federation, the competence of which is control over the fulfillment of legal obligations by payers, based on their industry and other classification characteristics. It comes from the so-called inter-regional (as well as inter-district) inspections.
Interregional Inspections
This kind of structure is designed to solve the following main tasks:
- monitor compliance with laws governing taxes and fees on the territory of a particular federal district;
- effective interaction with the plenipotentiaries of the President of the Russian Federation (regarding issues in common competence with him);
- control over the work of regional structures of the Federal Tax Service through inspections.
The tax authorities of the Russian Federation of this type are classified, as we have said above, depending on the industry that they regulate. So, in today's structure there are the following main types of inter-regional tax inspections:
- leading control over subjects of oil production and refining;
- ensuring the correct implementation of tax laws by firms engaged in the gas industry;
- controlling discipline in terms of payment of fees to the treasury of enterprises involved in the production of alcohol and tobacco products;
- interacting on issues of tax transfer with energy companies;
- ensuring compliance of the activities of metallurgical enterprises with tax legislation;
- interacting on issues of payment of fees to the treasury with companies that provide communication services;
- exercising control over the correct implementation of tax legislation by transport enterprises.
How the Federal Tax Service helps Russia's budget
The collection of cash receipts to the budget is, according to many lawyers, the main function that tax authorities perform. Taxpayers, in turn, are the main "sponsor" of the state treasury. In this regard, the Federal Tax Service faces a number of important tasks related to the correct calculation and collection of all necessary payments to the national budget. Accordingly, the department has a fairly large number of rights.
Tax authorities: their legal rights
What are the basic rights of tax authorities? The Tax Code of the Russian Federation defines their following combination:
- make demands to tax payers regarding the provision of documents that may contain grounds for the legitimate calculation and payment of fees;
- to ask citizens for clarifications (including those documented) that will allow you to determine how correctly the amount of tax has been calculated, as well as how quickly it has been paid;
- conduct checks for compliance by payers with the laws governing fees;
- to suspend financial operations on the settlement and personal accounts of payers in credit and financial institutions on the grounds contained in the Tax Code of the Russian Federation;
- seize property held by payers as a possible measure to ensure that the required amount of tax is transferred to the budget of the federal, regional or municipal level;
- to carry out the procedure for the seizure of documents in order to identify facts indicating violations of tax laws;
- to study the objects (resources) belonging to the payers, suitable for generating income (production facilities, warehouses, retail space), to examine the inventory of their property (which can also be used as a tool for generating profit subject to legal taxation);
- calculate the correct amount of fees that payers are required to pay to extrabudgetary state funds (PFR, FSS and MHIF) based on information about citizens (as well as entities conducting similar activities);
- determine the amount of tax by calculation in the event that the payer does not allow the Federal Tax Service specialists to examine production facilities, warehouses, trading floors and other resources that can be used as a profit-making tool (as a rule, this happens if the entrepreneur does not provide the department with the necessary documents - reports, declarations, etc. for a long time);
- collect arrears of business taxes, charge penalties, fines (the latter - in court) in accordance with legislative norms (which in some cases govern the relationship of the Federal Tax Service with individual entrepreneurs and legal entities in different ways);
- request from banks that manage the settlement accounts of entrepreneurs information on the execution of various types of payment documents by order of taxpayers (this measure, as a rule, is of a control nature);
- invite, when necessary, experts and specialists of third-party organizations for cooperation (for example, these may be translators);
- apply to citizens who can attest to certain facts regarding the activities of entrepreneurs, which may be useful to the Federal Tax Service in terms of tax control;
- apply for the deprivation of entrepreneurs' licenses (or suspension of their actions) if the business is accompanied by violations of the law governing taxes and fees;
- interact with courts of various levels to resolve disputes and violations regarding the processes of calculation and collection of payments.
These are the basic rights of tax authorities guaranteed by the laws of the Russian Federation. It will also be useful to familiarize yourself with the list of responsibilities of departments responsible for fees to the state treasury.
Responsibilities of tax structures
In accordance with the norms of the law, tax authorities have a number of responsibilities. We list the most important of them.
First of all, the duties of tax authorities include strict observance of legislation reflecting the procedures for calculating and receiving fees to the treasury. Also, the structures of the Federal Tax Service and other departments conducting related work are required to ensure that the rules of legal acts are respected by all the entities that the regulation concerns.
Departments are required to keep correct records of the tax payers in the tax authority, explain to them the features of applying current legal acts, inform them of what the size of current payments is. In addition, the Federal Tax Service is required to provide the necessary reporting forms (as well as explain the nuances of filling them out).
Any report, clarification, application to the tax authority shall be submitted in accordance with official or recommended formats.
The Office, by virtue of the requirements of the law, is required to help citizens in the provision of relevant documents.
The Federal Tax Service is obliged to return the overpayment of taxes (or in the prescribed manner recounted in comparison with other fees), penalties and various fines.
Tax authorities are required to strictly observe the confidentiality of the process of interaction with citizens. It is not only a matter of ensuring compliance with the provisions of the Federal Law "On Personal Data" and other legal acts protecting individual information about payers. In Russia there is such a thing as "tax secret", and the task of the Federal Tax Service is to fully comply with it.
These are the main responsibilities of the tax authorities. Of course, there are other kinds of tasks that the department is required to solve by force of law. We have reflected those that relate primarily to the interaction of the Federal Tax Service and citizens. Of course, there are a large number of interdepartmental obligations of this structure (for example, from time to time various documents of tax authorities — reports, contracts, plans, etc., must be transferred to various authorities).
How do the Federal Tax Service and the Ministry of Finance interact?
As we said above, the tax system of the Russian Federation operates through institutions based on two departments - the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Tax Service. How do these two state structures interact with each other? Lawyers distinguish the following main areas of joint work of these two departments:
- the formation of a consolidated point of view regarding how various acts of tax authorities should be applied (including those that regulate the activities of departments);
- preparatory work in the direction of improving the legislative policy in the field of taxation;
- activities related to the issuance of relevant decisions related to internal and interdepartmental issues.
The key structure designed to ensure the correctness of the interaction between the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Tax Service is the interagency commission. It carries out work related to the adoption of decisions designed to optimize the work on improving the norms of laws governing taxes and fees, as well as to form the correct approach in the field of law enforcement practice.
The tasks assigned specifically to the Federal Tax Service in the framework of cooperation with the Ministry of Finance are as follows:
- work towards the creation of algorithms according to which taxpayers make fees (mainly the development of documentary forms, templates, as well as explanations to them);
- providing the structures of the Ministry of Finance with the necessary information and reference materials (most often they are requested by the top management structures of the department);
- development of plans, modeling of forecasts relating to activities, writing reports on the fact of solving problems.
The most important function of the Federal Tax Service in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance is analytical work. At the end of each year, the management apparatus of the department sends a report to the Ministry of Finance, which analyzes data on the appeals of payers. As a rule, this is statistical information that reflects the number (as well as the nature) of requests from individuals and legal entities, as well as information about court decisions in cases relating to the field of tax collection.
