Fines for failure to submit reports to statistics: a guide for accountants and individual entrepreneurs

In addition to accounting (financial) and tax reporting, organizations and individual entrepreneurs must also submit statistical reporting. This obligation to submit primary statistical data to state statistics bodies is provided for by Federal Law No. 282-FZ of November 29, 2007 “On official statistical accounting and the system of state statistics in the Russian Federation” (hereinafter referred to as Law No. 282-FZ).

Rosstat of the Russian Federation, within the framework of its powers, approves the forms of federal statistical observation and instructions for filling them out (clause 5.5 of the Regulations on the Federal State Statistics Service, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of June 2, 2008 No. 420).

Where can I see the obligation to submit statistical reporting?

Selective statistical observations are carried out by Rosstat of the Russian Federation in the form (clause 1 of the rules for conducting selective statistical observations of the activities of small and medium-sized businesses, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of February 16, 2008 No. 79, hereinafter referred to as Rules No. 79):

• monthly and (or) quarterly surveys of small and medium-sized enterprises (except for micro-enterprises);
• annual surveys of micro-enterprise activities.

And if sample observation is carried out, then only those small enterprises that are included in the sample percentage of Rosstat of the Russian Federation should submit statistical reports (clause 2 of Rules No. 79).

Important!
Lists of companies or individual entrepreneurs that must submit a particular statistical report are posted on regional statistics websites in the section: “Reporting” - “Statistical reporting” - “Lists of reporting business entities”. Here's an example in the Chelyabinsk region.

Statistical information must be provided to statistics according to approved forms of federal statistical observation on paper (at the location of the respondent) or electronically in the established format using an electronic signature, no later than the submission deadlines indicated on the forms.

Reporting to Rosstat for small and medium-sized businesses in 2021

Once every five years, Rosstat conducts continuous statistical observation. All small and medium-sized businesses are subject to inspection. 2022 is the time for another check. New forms were developed for it and enshrined in Rosstat order No. 469 dated August 17, 2022.

There are two new forms. The first is the MP-SP form “Information on the main performance indicators of a small enterprise for 2022.” It is rented out by all legal entities, including peasant (farm) households. The report contains information about the applied tax regimes, the average and average number of employees, wages paid, revenue and other data.

The second report is Form No. 1-entrepreneur “Information on the activities of an individual entrepreneur for 2022.” This report is required for all individual entrepreneurs. Information about activities indicated in the report relates only to entrepreneurial activity. Therefore, the form does not include data on costs, expenses and income that an individual received as an individual entrepreneur, but while performing other work. There is also no need to indicate information about material assets that the individual entrepreneur uses for personal purposes.

Amount of fines

Punishment for failure to provide primary statistical data or provision of unreliable statistical information is an administrative offense and entails the imposition of an administrative fine under Art. 13.19 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.

Important!
Thanks to the Federal Law of December 30, 2015 No. 442-FZ “On Amendments to Article 13.19 of the Administrative Code”, which came into force on December 30, 2015, the liability of companies and individual entrepreneurs for failure to submit (late submission) of statistical information has been tightened.

Failure to provide primary statistical data in the prescribed manner or untimely provision of this data will entail fines:

• for officials in the amount of 10 thousand to 20 thousand rubles;
• for legal entities - from 20 thousand to 70 thousand rubles.

Repeated violation is punishable by large fines:

• for officials in the amount of 30 thousand to 50 thousand rubles,
• for legal entities - from 100 thousand to 150 thousand rubles.

Repeated administrative offense means that a company or individual entrepreneur has not previously submitted (or submitted in violation of the established deadline) statistical reporting forms, regardless of its type.
That is, we are not talking about cases of failure to submit (or submission in violation of the deadline) of a specific form of statistical reporting (for example, form P-5 (m) “Basic information about the activities of the organization,” approved by order of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation dated August 11, 2016 No. 414 ). An increased fine is applied in the event of repeated failure to submit (or submission in violation of the deadline) any form of statistical reporting. However, payment of penalties does not negate the need to provide appropriate statistical reporting forms.

News 2. It is better not to delay sending primary statistical data

According to the first paragraph of Article 4.5. Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation “Limitation period for bringing to administrative responsibility”, a resolution in a case of an administrative offense cannot be made after two months from the date of commission of the administrative offense. In a case of an administrative offense considered by a judge - after three months. However, the situation on this issue may change in the near future: the Russian Ministry of Economic Development has come up with an initiative to seriously increase the statute of limitations for prosecution for late submission, as well as failure to submit primary reports to Rosstat.

The Ministry of Economy has developed a bill amending Article 4.5 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation in terms of increasing the statute of limitations for bringing administrative liability under Article 13.19 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation for failure to provide or delay in primary statistical data. It is proposed to increase the statute of limitations for bringing to administrative liability under Article 13.19 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation to two years. The document has already been published on the portal of draft regulatory legal acts.

The authors of the amendments argued their position as follows: two months is too short to comply with all procedural steps. In practice, Rosstat cannot cope with the flow of violators; the rush does not allow them to properly draw up protocols on administrative violations. As a result, this situation makes it possible for those who commit violations to avoid responsibility.

Punishment for late submission (failure to provide, provision of false information) of primary statistical data. (according to the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation Article 13.19.)

How to report

Statistical reporting can be submitted to:

• on paper directly to the territorial statistical office or sent by mail (by registered mail with a list of attachments);
• in electronic form using a specialized electronic reporting operator or on the website of Rosstat of the Russian Federation.

In addition, in accordance with Article 3 of the Law of the Russian Federation dated May 13, 1992 No. 2761-1 “On liability for violation of the procedure for submitting state statistical reporting,” a company or individual entrepreneur that provided reporting in violation of deadlines or inaccurate data, at the request of state authorities statistics compensates for damages incurred due to the need to correct the summary results for these reports.
In practice, this rule does not work, since there are no clear criteria for calculating the damage caused by the respondent.

How to submit reports to Rosstat

The form consists of several pages. In it you need to indicate information about your business: general information, type of activity, number of employees, taxation system and revenue.

There are several ways to submit a report:

• on the State Services website;
• send to Rosstat on paper: in person or by mail;
• submit an electronic form on the Rosstat website;
• send through the electronic document management system.

To submit the form through State Services, you need a verified individual entrepreneur account. If you already have it, just fill out the form on the website, and then the State Services service will automatically collect them into a form and send it to Rosstat.

To fill out the form you will need the following information:

• general IP data;
• information on the number of employees;
• OKVED code - can be found in the extract from the Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs;
• revenue for 2022. Where to get the amount of revenue depends on the taxation system. For example, with the simplified tax system - from the Book of Income and Expenses or the declaration for 2022. Details for other modes are provided on the form.

You can find out about the status of the report verification in your personal account on State Services. There are two ways to submit a report on paper: bring it in person to the territorial office of Rosstat or send it by mail. When visiting in person, you need to take two copies of the report with you: one will remain with Rosstat employees, and the second will be stamped stating that Rosstat has accepted the documents. The second copy will remain with you. It is better to send the report by registered mail - then you will receive a notification that the letter has been received.

Those who have an electronic signature will be able to submit a report through a form on the Rosstat website. To do this, you need to download the form from the website, fill it out on your computer, sign it electronically and send it by email to Rosstat [email protected]

It is more convenient to submit statistical and any other reports using the Astral Report 5.0 service. Up-to-date reporting forms and a smart editor will help you report to regulatory authorities and avoid fines.

Challenging fines

When challenging a “statistical” fine, the company must have evidence that all measures within its power to provide statistical reporting have been taken.
Thus, checking the company’s argument that the reporting in Form No. 2-C on paper was sent by registered mail, the courts pointed out that the postal receipt for payment of the corresponding postal item (which contains the unique postal identifier assigned to the postal item, allowing you to track the receipt and delivery of this postal item) the company does not have.

The courts also found that the company had the opportunity to comply with the rules and regulations of the current legislation, but no objective evidence was provided that the company took all measures within its power to comply with the rules and regulations for any independent reasons. This fact indicates the presence of guilt in the actions of the company. In such situations, the courts do not satisfy the company’s demands to cancel the decision to prosecute under Article 19.7.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation for violating the deadline for submitting annual statistical reports (Resolution of the Moscow District AS dated July 13, 2015 No. A40-190349/14).

What's happened?

The Federal Statistics Service of Russia (Rosstat) reminded all business representatives (organizations and individual entrepreneurs) that in accordance with clause 4 of the Regulations on the conditions for mandatory provision of primary statistical data and administrative data to subjects of official statistical accounting, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 18 August 2008 No. 620, all of them are respondents to statistical reporting (Rosstat letter dated March 19, 2022 No. 04-04-4/42-SMI, Rosstat letter dated March 15, 2022 No. 04-04-4/40- Media).Those who are late with reports or ignore the obligation to provide them face large administrative fines.

Obligation to submit reports to statistics

Organizations and individual entrepreneurs are required to send primary statistical data to statistical bodies using approved federal statistical surveillance forms in accordance with the instructions for filling them out at the addresses, within the time limits and with the frequency indicated on the forms of these forms. Some reports are mandatory for everyone, such as the balance sheet and income statement for legal entities. In some forms, selective statistical observation is carried out.

Organizations and individual entrepreneurs can find out what reports must be submitted to Rosstat, including by using a special service on the website on the Internet. If a report needs to be submitted, it must be done on time. Rosstat specialists reminded that the deadlines for submitting statistical reports are set based on the timing of the formation of official statistical information by Rosstat and the time required for data processing.

Reports submitted by the respondent after the established deadline cannot be included in the development of official statistical information due to existing technological limitations. Therefore, if an organization or individual entrepreneur is late in submitting a report, for Rosstat authorities this actually means its failure. Thus, Rosstat authorities have every right to refuse to accept a respondent’s report submitted late. In this case, the organization or individual entrepreneur must bear responsibility.

When and what statistical forms to submit

Respondents do not always know exactly which forms they need to submit and when. The fact is that there are more than 300 statistical forms. The list of statistical forms that need to be submitted to a particular company depends on the category to which it belongs (large enterprise, medium enterprise, small enterprise, micro enterprise).

You can create your own list of forms by contacting the territorial statistics office or using the service https://formstat.info/. In addition, many regional statistics websites have a service that allows you to use the OKPO code to obtain a list of statistical forms that an organization must submit this year.

Small and micro enterprises report on a selective basis. If an organization is included in the sample, the territorial statistical office will definitely inform it about this in writing, by phone or email. The main thing is that the statistics have up-to-date contact information for the organization.

Lists of respondents who must report on specific forms of statistical observations can be viewed on regional statistics websites in the section “Statistical Reporting” > “Lists of Reporting Business Entities.”