According to the statistics of the Federal Tax Service, the number of field tax audits from January 1, 2021 to January 1, 2022 increased by 31.82% (or 1,960). Since the Federal Tax Service is not obliged to make public plans of tax audits, the number of field audits in the current year can only be predicted.

According to the draft federal budget for 2022-2024, in 2022 tax revenues will be by Rb 1.59 trillion more than in 2021. Meanwhile, according to estimates of the RF Ministry of Economic Development, the decline in GDP in 2022 will amount to 8.8% in the base case and 12.4% - in the conservative scenario, while according to forecasts of the Central Bank - 8-10%. Thus, in order to execute the federal budget the Federal Tax Service should increase the number of field inspections, while reducing the effectiveness (collectability) of each of them, - which can be observed at the level of the FTAI, which many times increased the number of inspections carried out in accordance with Article 54.1 of the Tax Code.

Besides, as Viktor Batsiev, Deputy Head of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation, noted, in practice, about 80% of the decisions of the tax authorities under Article 54.1 of the TC are disputed by taxpayers in court.

"In my opinion, these statistics indicate both the high "conflictogenicity" of this Article of the TC and the increased interest of the taxpayers to the practice of its application"-noted Alexei Stanchin, Tax Compliance consultant.

You can read the full text of the article in Advocate Gazette.