Tax scheduled inspections are a specialized procedural action by the tax authority, aimed at ensuring control over the timeliness, accuracy of calculation, as well as the completeness of payment of the relevant fees. It is carried out by comparing the factual information obtained in the course of the audit, with the information of tax returns previously submitted to the authorized bodies.
Scope of Authority
Tax scheduled inspections, in accordance with applicable law, are carried out by authorized bodies, which is established by Article 31 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, as well as regulated by Chapter 14 “Tax Control”. After the Tax Code of the Russian Federation was put into effect, modern tax authorities have not lost their right to conduct a number of other inspections. Thus, in accordance with current legislation, authorized persons can conduct checks on the use of CCM, as well as control the production and circulation of alcoholic beverages and a number of other areas.
The full scope of the powers of modern tax authorities, as well as the current restrictions on any procedural actions, directly depends on which specific scheduled inspections are carried out. In particular, these actions may include the following:
- access to various premises or to a specific territory;
- inspection and recovery of various documents;
- seizure of papers and items;
- expertise;
- inventory;
- and much more.
What can they be?
Further we will consider what scheduled inspections can be carried out by authorized bodies. Moreover, they are classified according to a number of different characteristics. First of all, depending on the volume of checked papers, they can be divided into exit and office ones.
Cameral
This check implies the submission by the taxpayer of all necessary tax returns and other documentation, according to which the calculation and payment of fees can be carried out, as well as the study of other documents available to the tax authorities related to its activities. Such scheduled and unscheduled inspections are carried out directly at the location of the tax authority.
Today, cameral events are a significant source of replenishment of the state budget. All sorts of errors in the submitted declarations or in the justification of benefits that can be found in the process of carrying out such procedures, allow you to get a significant increase in existing budget payments.
Planned and unscheduled inspections of this type are carried out by authorized specialists of the relevant bodies in full accordance with their official duties. It is worth noting that in this case some specialized decision of the head of the body is not required within three months from the date of submission of the declaration and all necessary documents by the taxpayer, if the current legislation on taxes and fees does not provide for any other terms.The frequency of scheduled inspections of this type may not be determined in advance, and their main purpose is to ensure:
- control over how the taxpayer complies with legislative and other regulatory legal acts;
- identification and prevention of various tax offenses by the payer;
- recovery of any amounts that were not paid at all or in full, including both taxes and all relevant penalties;
- initiating the procedure for the collection in the prescribed manner of the necessary tax sanctions, if there is reason for their implementation;
- preparation of the necessary information to ensure the extremely rational selection of payers for subsequent on-site procedures.
Offsite
Field visits of individual entrepreneurs are a specific set of actions aimed at checking the primary accounting and other accounting documents of the taxpayer, financial statements, accounting registers, as well as tax returns of a number of other agreements, obligations, internal orders, orders and any other securities. It is also worth noting that such procedures are carried out to inspect various items that can be used by a taxpayer for personal gain or that are directly related to the maintenance of taxation objects in warehouse, industrial, commercial and other premises and territories.
Among other things, such events can be organized to conduct a number of other actions of the tax authorities, which should be carried out at the location of the taxpayer and in other places outside the zone of the authorized body.
Documentary
For the first time, a scheduled audit of a legal entity using the term “field tax audit” began to be carried out after it was introduced into use by the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. Prior to this, various checks that were implemented with access to taxpayers were usually called documentary, but in reality the difference between the concepts of “documentary” and “exit” is far from terminological.
Today, quite often you can come across the opinion that documentary and field scheduled inspections of entrepreneurs are absolutely similar procedures, but in reality this is far from being the case, because the latter is an internal taxpayer procedure, while the documentary mainly covers primary accounting paper, as well as all kinds of accounting registers. It is worth noting that in none of the legislative acts does the place where such events should be implemented be specified.
Features
The main participants in the field tax audit are the audited organization or private entrepreneurs, as well as officials of the authorized body. However, in reality, such procedures may also involve the actions of others, including experts or translators, but they are often caused by the initiative of the tax authority.
The annual scheduled visits of the visiting type are carried out practically for the same purposes as the desk ones, that is:
- control is provided over how correctly various fees and taxes are calculated, timely and fully budgeted;
- establishes whether the current legislation on taxes and fees is correctly observed;
- collection of arrears on foam and taxes;
- perpetrators are held accountable for any offenses;
- authorized specialists are involved in the prevention of various offenses.
At the same time, it is worth noting the fact that a planned check of legal entities of this type is carried out using other means compared to the desk. For example, the seizure of documents and various items within the scope of tax control can be carried out exclusively in the process of conducting an exit procedure.
When can it be carried out?
On-site scheduled inspections are carried out to control the three calendar years of taxpayer activity that precede the year of this procedure. The tax authority has no right to carry out two such events for one year at a time and more on the same penalties over a specific period. The standard term for this procedure is a maximum of two months, but in exceptional situations it is possible to increase its duration to three months.
This period includes the time when the inspectors were actually located in the territory of the audited organization, but it should be noted that it does not include the time between the delivery of the required papers to the taxpayer and the direct transfer of the documents requested during the audit.
While a plan of conducting scheduled inspections is being implemented, there may be a need for a detailed examination of the territories and premises that are used by the company to derive personal profit or are directly related to the maintenance of various objects of taxation. This also applies to inventory of property, seizure of various items and documents, and a whole host of other information. In cases stipulated by the current Code, during the conduct of control actions, compilation of protocols is required.
The annual plan for conducting scheduled inspections, as well as the corresponding decision on the part of the head of the authorized body or his deputy, often serves as the basis for initiating this procedure.
Counter checks
A counter check is a procedure for matching multiple instances of a specific document. Based on the main essence of this method, it can be used only in relation to the documentation, which is executed in several copies at once. In particular, this applies to vacation papers or receipt of material assets. Copies of such documentation are located in various companies or structural units of a particular enterprise.
In the process of matching securities, the following information may not match:
- units;
- quantity of goods;
- cost of production and others.
The absence of a copy of this or that document may be a direct sign that a certain fact of economic activity was not documented, and this could be carried out with the aim of intentionally concealing any income.
In practice, in the overwhelming majority of cases, the counter-check is a separate element of the on-site or cameral, and the information that is obtained in the process of its implementation is entered into the main act, and on their basis a general conclusion about the event is already being made.
Integrated
Comprehensive checks are a detailed analysis of the financial and economic activities of the company over a certain period of time regarding all issues of compliance with the current tax legislation. Nowadays, the frequency of such procedures is not regulated in any way. If the tax authority has reason to believe that payment and accounting of fees are carried out with any violations, then complex inspections are carried out at least every three years, but taxpayers with a positive reputation may not be subjected to such procedures.
After the Tax Code entered into force, almost all on-site inspections are complex. In particular, they are held on the following issues:
- the correctness of the calculation and further transfer of taxes by the taxpayer, as well as the performance of the functions of a tax agent;
- the correctness of debiting various amounts of sanctions and taxes from the accounts of the taxpayer;
- opening accounts for taxpayers (in the process of conducting a bank audit);
- use of cash registers;
- the order of sale of alcoholic beverages.
This is only a short list of issues on which such an event can be held, and only an on-site audit includes a full range of available opportunities provided to tax authorities.
Thematic
Such checks include analysis of certain issues of the financial and economic activities of the company. Such events are usually carried out only as necessary, which is determined by the head of the authorized body.
In the overwhelming majority of cases, thematic inspections are carried out as an element of a comprehensive event or as a separate procedure in the presence of established facts of violation of applicable law. Accordingly, the results of the work performed can be displayed as a separate act or in an act of comprehensive verification. If there is a need to carry out a comprehensive procedure on the basis of the thematic procedure, then in this case an additional decision should be taken, according to which authorized persons can expand the range of issues addressed.
