About the electronic service of the Federal Tax Service of Russia “Transparent Business”

What information will be posted online?

The Transparent Business service will provide access to the data specified in the first paragraph of Article 102 of the Tax Code. This data includes:

• Data on the amount of arrears and debt on fines and penalties for all taxes and insurance contributions;
• Information about special tax regimes applied by the taxpayer;
• Information on the average number of employees for the year preceding the year the data was posted;
• Data on the amounts of taxes and insurance premiums paid for the previous calendar year;
• Data on the amounts of income and expenses according to financial statements.

Thus, all information that was previously a tax secret will become publicly available from June 1.

Service updates

The Transparent Business service was launched in December 2022. However, since then there have been some changes. The start of the service itself was postponed several times. It was first launched in 2017; after its closure, the relaunch was scheduled for June 1, 2018. Then this date was updated - the launch was set for August 1, 2018. Only after numerous improvements did the service begin to operate on December 1, 2022.

In April 2022, the range of data that can be requested in the service was significantly expanded. For example, you can request information about the fact of submitting documentation for state registration of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs. An option to subscribe to receive information by email is available.

By May 2022, the Federal Tax Service completed work on updating the interface and adding functionality to the electronic service. Now it has become much more convenient to use it. Another innovation is a function in the calculator that allows for calculations of the tax burden. The scale of the entrepreneur’s activities is also taken into account.

All information recorded in clause 1. of Art. is displayed. 102 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. So now all information that was previously considered a tax secret has become open and publicly available from June 1, 2022.

How information in the service can be used by company owners

In addition to assessing the risk of working with another company and cooperation, the service can also be used for additional tax optimization. Company managers will be able to find out what tax burden falls on the shoulders of competitors based on data on taxes paid by competitors and compare the tax burden of competitors with their own tax burden. If the tax burden of competitors is significantly lower than that of the auditing enterprise, then this may be a reason to think about optimizing the tax burden at this enterprise.

Search

To find data on the organization you are interested in, you need to go to the “Search” tab and type the company details (TIN, OGRN or name) in the search bar.

If you are interested in a specific individual in terms of his involvement in various organizations as a founder and manager, then on the “Search” tab you need to enter the required full name.

Similarly, a search is carried out for disqualified persons and persons who are denied state registration under paragraphs. f clause 1 art. 23 of Federal Law No. 129-FZ (for example, due to the exclusion of a company with tax debts from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities).

FAQ

Question: As of May 1, our company had an arrears on the simplified tax system for 2022 due to incorrectly specified details in the payment order when transferring taxes. On May 4, we wrote an application to clarify the details of the payment order. Will our debt be visible in the Transparent Business service?

Answer: Most likely yes. The service will indicate the debt as of May 1, 2022, so the likelihood that your company will have arrears is very high.

Question: What does the expression mean - the service will post data on special tax regimes for taxpayers?

Answer: Companies that switched to a special tax regime could choose one of the following systems - simplified taxation system, payment of tax on imputed income, payment of unified agricultural tax, patent taxation system. If the company has chosen any of these regimes, then in the Transparent Business service information about the special tax regime chosen by the company will appear.

Purpose of the Transparent Business service

Before concluding a transaction, the tax authorities themselves recommend checking the future partner for solvency, absence of tax debts and problems with other organizations. It is advisable to check the counterparty in the same way as the Federal Tax Service would do, that is, to clarify whether the company is able to make/buy a product or service taking into account the available funds.

To obtain comprehensive information about a potential partner, the department has developed a specialized program. The project, ratified by Federal Tax Service Letter No. GD-4-14/19580, was created for enterprises of any legal form. On the resource you can easily check the counterparty to avoid fraud, including financial ones.

According to paragraph 2 of Art. 102 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, information about the company is a tax secret, but can be published on a publicly accessible resource. And in accordance with paragraph 1 of the same article, the service allows you to find the following data about the company or entrepreneur you are looking for:

• TIN, OKVED;
• actual, legal address;
• extracts from registers, including a list of disqualified enterprises;
• information about the founders and authorized employees;
• about offenses regarding tax liability;
• information from customs and tax officials of other countries;
• SOUT results;
• publications from the journal “Bulletin of State Registration”;
• the aid to navigation used;
• average number of employees per calendar year;
• information about certain fees paid.

Since the organization may not have certain indicators, the result may be incomplete. And if mistakes are made, employees will always respond using the feedback form.

It was smooth on paper...

Tax officials first tried to launch Transparent Business back in July 2022. This deadline is established by the first version of the order dated December 29, 2016 No. ММВ-7-14/

And indeed they launched it, but not for long. A lot of questions immediately appeared from taxpayers who discovered incorrect information about themselves. We even managed to write an article about the new service.

There was talk about “doubling” information and, on the contrary, about the lack of necessary data, etc. Tax officials first tried to correct errors on the fly, but nothing came of it.

As a result, the service was stopped and the deadline was postponed by almost a year - to 06/01/2018. But the new deadline was not met... The latest regulatory document adopted in this regard is the order of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation dated May 30, 2022 N ММВ-7-14/ postpones the launch date of the system for another two months - to 08/01/2018

Also see “The Federal Tax Service again postponed the launch of “Transparent Business”.

Detailed help

What does it mean to “check the counterparty”

Documentary and other information about entrepreneurs is collected and analyzed on the Tax Service website and in special programs. Such actions allow you to determine how conscientiously your partner conducts business.

Who is required to do this?

In an organization, checking the counterparty by TIN on the tax website is usually carried out by employees of the legal department or the economic security department. If there is no such division, then this is the responsibility of the person concluding the contract.

Why check

There are various reasons why the TIN is checked on the tax website, these are the risks of financial and economic life: the risk of non-delivery of goods, delivery of low-quality goods, untimely delivery of goods, etc., even fraudulent schemes.

It should be remembered that any transaction is subject to taxation. The Federal Tax Service has repeatedly emphasized that responsibility for choosing a company to cooperate lies entirely with the organization. The consequences of this choice are her entrepreneurial risk. For example, during an audit, tax authorities have the right to exclude a questionable transaction from expenses or not to deduct VAT. To avoid troubles, it is easier to check the counterparty’s TIN in advance with the Federal Tax Service by receiving an extract.

What is recommended

The state has not established a formal obligation to verify companies when concluding contracts, nor criteria for such a procedure, nor a list of necessary actions and a minimum package of documents.

The Tax Code does not contain the concepts of “verification of a counterparty” or “bad faith of a taxpayer.” Meanwhile, there is clause 10 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation No. 53 dated October 12, 2006 “On the assessment by arbitration courts of the validity of a tax benefit received by a taxpayer,” which states: “A benefit may be recognized as unjustified if the tax authority proves that the taxpayer acted without due diligence.” By adopting this Resolution, the state actually imposed on businesses the obligation to check the TIN of their partners, and a practicing accountant is constantly faced with this need.

As is customary in business

For many years now, organizations have been required to first check the company using the TIN, and then document such verification. During this time, the most frequently requested package of documents was formed:

• copy of the Charter;
• extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities;
• a copy of the registration certificate;
• a copy of the tax registration certificate;
• letter from statistics with codes;
• documents confirming the authority of the person with whom the contract is signed, for example, a power of attorney and a copy of the passport.

The enterprise is obliged to check the Unified State Register of Legal Entities on tax.ru and obtain a document confirming the person’s authority to sign documents, since these are actions that the Ministry of Finance considers as due diligence (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia No. 03-02-07/1-177 dated April 10, 2009).

In addition, depending on the activity, the following is requested:

• organization card;
• extract from the staffing table (if a specialist is required to perform the work);
• licenses with attachments, necessary permissions;
• certificates from the Federal Tax Service confirming the absence of debt;
• copies of accounting and tax reporting for the past period with a mark from the Federal Tax Service;
• a copy of the lease agreement (office, warehouse, etc.).

Much less frequently, but there are already precedents when the following is requested:

• analytical notes (i.e. a brief summary of the company on the implementation of similar projects);
• letters of recommendation (usually banks request them);
• audit report;
• and even a current account statement for the last month - quarter - year.

Publicly available sources of information

When acting independently, you should use the following sources of information:

• request an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities using the TIN for your partner;
• check if he has a website;
• send a free-form request to the Federal Tax Service regarding the integrity of the taxpayer;
• find out if he is registered at the “mass registration” address on the Federal Tax Service website;
• check your own data and information about the counterparty in the Federal Tax Service service of the same name - Check yourself and the counterparty on nalog.ru;
• check your partner in the State Registration Bulletin to see if he has started the liquidation or reorganization procedure;
• find his data in the Federal Tax Service “Transparent Business” service;
• look for the passport of the sole executive body on the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to find out if it was lost some time ago;
• license data is checked on the website of the licensing authority;
• on the website of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation and other courts, they will find out whether the company participated in legal proceedings;
• Enter the name of the company you are interested in and the last name, first name, patronymic of the director into any search engine and look through all mentions of them.

What organizational measures should be taken to protect against unscrupulous counterparties?

Each company independently determines the degree of possible risk when concluding contracts and takes appropriate organizational measures. Typically, a person responsible for this procedure is appointed, and the process itself is regulated by internal regulations or regulations for partner verification. At a minimum, each organization needs to check the counterparty on the tax website (the procedure is free).

In conclusion, it should be said that, unfortunately, all these actions will not protect you 100% from possible problems or from the likelihood of claims from the Federal Tax Service. But you have the power to reduce this risk to insignificant.