Construction

The task was complicated by the fact that - the volume of money transfers from the Company to "technical" organizations was 70% and higher; - Access to bank accounts and the electronic document management system with the fiscal authorities was carried out from the same device at the same time interval; - overlap of key employees; - coordination of business activities of "technical" organizations was performed by the Company; - the Company had direct relations with the actual suppliers and contractors before the inclusion of "technical" organizations in the chain of suppliers and contractors; - part of funds sent by the Company to the accounts of "technical" organizations was subsequently transferred by them to the accounts of actual suppliers and contractors.

Our lawyers have achieved the application of tax reconstruction according to the letter № БВ-4-7/3060@ of 10.03.2021 issued by the Federal Tax Service of Russia, thanks to which the Inspectorate has taken into account the real amount of expenses, attributable to the services of actual contractors and suppliers. Also, to confirm the reality of the expenses we have prepared and submitted a package of documents. Actions of Tax Compliance lawyers helped to reduce the amount of tax claims by half and formed the practice of tax reconstruction.

Mikhail Begunov, Anastasia Garipova, Yulia Pavlova

FMCG

Investigative authorities have initiated criminal proceedings against managers of an organization on the grounds of committing a crime under part 2 of Art. 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Our lawyers have analyzed the resolution on institution of criminal proceedings and came to the conclusion that it may be cancelled on the following grounds: First reason for cancellation - in the framework of the preliminary investigation the Client's officials, who managed the company during the tax audit, were not interrogated, the role of each of them is not defined, that does not allow to make a conclusion on the presence of the actions of a specific person of the elements of the crime, provided by Art. 199 part 2 of the Criminal Code. 2 OF THE CRIMINAL CODE. The second reason for cancellation - the decision of the tax authority to prosecute for a tax offense suspended by the arbitration court before making a decision on the court case on the Company's application to recognize the decision of the tax authority invalid and, in addition, by the time of institution of criminal proceedings established by Article 32 § 3 of the Tax Code has not expired, and, respectively, the materials of the tax authorities were sent to investigative authorities in violation of the law.

CU attorneys were able to prove the illegality of the initiation of criminal proceedings, the prosecutor's office considered the complaint and issued a resolution to cancel the investigator's resolution to initiate a criminal case. The initiation of criminal proceedings against the Client under Art. 199 of the Criminal Code was cancelled by the prosecutor's office.

Mikhail Begunov, Alexander Dmitriev

Manufacturing companies

At the stage of pre-trial appeal of the tax authorities' decision, the law enforcement officers included in the audit, without waiting for the completion of the tax audit, forwarded the collected materials to the investigating authorities for initiation of a criminal case under part 2 article 199 of the Criminal Code. The criminal case was brought against the CEO and an unidentified group of people from the company's management. The amount of damage, according to the tax and investigative authorities amounted to more than 500 million rubles.

In accordance with the correctly built strategy of defense in the investigation of the criminal case and as a result of additional measures of tax control, lawyers and employees of Tac Compliance provided documents on "tax reconstruction", disclosed the real tax liabilities, as well as conducted an examination of the costs of transporting goods, which allowed to reduce the damages to 80 million rubles and termination of the criminal case on the fact of absence of corpus delicti in connection with the payment of arrears.

Mikhail Begunov, Alexander Dmitriev, Yulia Pavlova

Pharmaceuticals

According to the results of the second field tax audit in connection with the violation of the rules of Art. 54.1 of the Tax Code, the company was charged a significant amount of additional taxes and penalties in terms of transactions for the supply of raw materials concluded with several counterparties. During the trial, the court was presented with evidence of the uniqueness of the raw materials purchased from the disputed counterparties and their actual use in production, the circumstances of the conclusion and execution of transactions by the disputed counterparties, as well as the availability of material and labor resources in sufficient volume.

The legal position developed by our experts allowed the court of first instance to appeal against the additional charges for several counterparties totaling 117 million rubles.

Mikhail Begunov, Anastasia Garipova

FMCG

The client, with the support of Tax Compliance, applied to court for suspension of the tax authority's decision based on the results of an on-site tax audit. Enforcement of that decision could have caused considerable damage to the company and paralyzed its activity, taking into consideration the substantial amount of tax charges that could have been critical for the client's business.

We managed to work out a convincing legal position, based on which the court took interim measures. Representatives of the tax authority appealed the interim measures, but thanks to the efforts of our lawyers the court ruling was upheld, despite the fact that according to statistics less than 37% of applications for interim measures are satisfied by the courts.

Mikhail Begunov, Denis Kozhevnikov

Construction

At the time of drawing up and submission of notifications to the tax authorities the statute of limitations under p. 1 of Article 129.6 of the Tax Code had not expired, i.e. the client still had the risk of tax liability for untimely disclosure of information about the CFC. In order to exclude tax liability for failure to submit CFC notifications for previous tax periods, the client was provided with services to prepare a special tax declaration allowing to apply the tax amnesty under the Federal Law of May 29, 2019 № 110-FZ within the voluntary declaration of their assets. Also within the framework of the project we assessed the grounds for the absence of an individual's obligations to withhold personal income tax from the profit of a CFC.

As a result of legal defense, tax liability and penalties for late submission of CFC notifications due to the application of tax amnesty provisions were avoided

Anastasia Garipova, Yulia Pavlova

Retail

Price adjustment would have entailed an additional charge of income tax on the formed tax base based on the market prices of the transaction. The project developed a legal position indicating that the formed pricing corresponds to the market level, because the calculation of the cost of the taxpayer's goods contains production costs, economically justified in terms of the type of activity.

As a result of the successful legal defense, additional tax assessments in the amount of 280 million ₽ were avoided.

Mikhail Begunov

Manufacturing companies

A business model was proposed and implemented where the company is organized in the form of a production cooperative. The members of the production cooperative do not receive a salary, but a share of the net profit; these payments are not subject to insurance premiums according to the current tax legislation.

As a result of the introduction of the production cooperative, transactions within the holding company were structured, resulting in a reduction in insurance premiums of more than 20% of the annual payroll.

Anna Karpova

Manufacturing companies

The company incorrectly calculated and paid Social Insurance Fund contributions for three years. The company's specialists audited personnel documents, as well as all tax returns and payments to the funds.

Tax Compliance specialists conducted a tax and personnel audit, restored personnel documents for three years and prepared revised tax returns. As a result, more than 30 million rubles of overpaid insurance premiums were returned from the budget.

Anna Karpova

Manufacturing companies

The client set a task to set up and automate internal accounting and management accounting between the companies of the group. Initially, there was no structure of interaction between departments and in general between the companies of the group, for the formation of management reports and accounting set of documents involved 5 people and required a long period of time.

The specialists of our company have developed reporting forms, set up a chain of interaction between employees of the organizations in the group, reduced the number of employees involved in the formation of all the necessary reports to 2 people. Accounting set of documents is formed automatically due to the introduction of external processing to the program 1C

Anna Karpova

FMCG

The tax authority charged the grocery retailer additional VAT and income tax on the fruit supplier, citing the impossibility of tracing the goods from the importer to the final supplier for this delivery, as well as the presence of formal claims against the supplier. Also in connection with the fact that the fruit supplied was of improper quality and disposed of by the client within the same tax period, the tax authority further argued the impossibility of applying VAT deductions due to the lack of the object of taxation.

As a result, claims of the tax authorities were successfully challenged in the arbitration court after the second round of judicial appeal since the Tax Compliance lawyers managed to prove the reality of transportation of fruits from the importer to the disputed supplier. They also provided a technological description of the utilization of the goods and the validity of the VAT deduction for the disputed transaction.

Andrey Solomyany

FMCG

With regard to the client, a tax audit was carried out, as a result of which the tax authority provides evidence that the audited entity actually purchased the disputed products directly from the importer bypassing the chain of suppliers. One of the evidence of fictitiousness was the protocol of inspection of warehouse and office premises, which the tax authority established the absence of this counterparty at the addresses and concluded that the supplier could not store the goods. The lawyers collected the information proving the falsification of the evidence submitted by the tax authority.

In the course of the court proceedings, the tax authority excluded this evidence, which initially formed the basis for the tax audit decision, from its position.

Andrey Solomyany

FMCG

In the course of structuring the transactions, risks in terms of price thresholds between interdependent companies within the group were established, regulations and additional rules were developed and implemented by all companies of the group to justify the correct application of prices when selling products within the group, as well as to support the feasibility of transactions between them.

As a result, successful structuring and tax planning efforts eliminated risks in excess of 80 million ₽.

Anastasia Garipova, Yulia Pavlova

Information technology

In the course of tax audit of problematic counterparties, real tax risks in terms of relationships with suppliers were established, which amounted to 15 million ₽. In the other part of the requirements of the tax authority were not proved: the organization provided the primary documents with the substantiation of the reality of supplies, as well as the documents on full reflection by the suppliers of the amounts of proceeds from sales in VAT declarations, and their contact information.

As a result of a successful tax audit, the organization independently adjusted the tax base for VAT and paid 15 million ₽ on their own. This allowed avoiding field tax audits and additional penalties.

Mikhail Begunov, Alexander Dmitriev

Construction

In the course of the audit, it was established that all disputed contractors were involved and their officials were interrogated, who actually confirmed their participation in these companies and the scope of work undertaken. In addition, the audit was followed by the recovery of partially lost primary documentation that confirmed the partial performance of the work by the disputed contractors.

As a result of the audit, tax claims amounted to 10 million ₽. Thus, as a result of successful work on support of the audit it was possible to avoid large additional payments in respect of "dishonest" contractors.

Alexander Dmitriev, Yulia Pavlova

Pharmaceuticals

At the stage of objections and additional activities it was proved that it is necessary to measure quantitative indicators at the beginning and at the end of the production process. The tax authority has been provided with calculations on writing-off materials purchased from contested counterparties and information on raw material remainders.

Claims of the tax authority for income tax were partially withdrawn. The taxpayer's objections were partially satisfied in the amount of 343 million ₽. Positive practice of pre-trial appeal against acts of tax authorities in relation to manufacturers of medicines was formed taking into consideration the specifics of the industry.

Mikhail Begunov, Anastasia Garipova

FMCG

Additional tax control measures were taken. Employees and officials of the purchaser company were interrogated. Lack of client's company affiliation was proved. The act of field tax audit was appealed.

The taxpayer's objections are satisfied. The decision on additional accrual of 5 million ₽ was formed. Positive practice of pre-trial appeal against acts of tax authorities in terms of disputes on "business split” in favor of taxpayers under 54.1 of the Tax Code was formed.

Information technology

The tax authority appointed a field audit after the company's reorganization started, although the field audit partially covers the periods of previous audits. An appeal was lodged to a higher tax authority. The field tax audit was reversed.

We cancelled the results of the field tax audit for the previously inspected period. There is a positive practice of pre-trial appeal against the decision of tax authorities to appoint an on-site tax audit for the same tax period in case of its appointment in connection with the reorganization or liquidation of the company under Article 89 of the Tax Code.

Mikhail Begunov, Anastasia Garipova

FMCG

With the help of additional tax control measures, the reality of subcontractors' activities was proved. The absence of intent in the actions of the client and lack of affiliation with suppliers, which partially confirmed the disputed shipments, was proved.

Claims of the tax authority for the field inspection report were appealed and partially withdrawn. Positive pre-trial appeal against the acts of tax authorities in favor of taxpayers under 54.1 of the Tax Code was formed.

Mikhail Begunov, Alexander Dmitriev

Construction

With the help of additional tax control measures, the reality of subcontractors' activities was proved. The absence of intent in the client's actions was proved. The tax authority calculated tax liabilities without primary documents.

Claims of the tax authority on the field inspection report were appealed and withdrawn. A positive pre-trial appeal against the acts of the tax authorities in favor of the taxpayers under 54.1 of the Tax Code was formed.

Alexander Dmitriev, Anastasia Garipova, Yulia Pavlova

Information technology

Additional tax control measures were taken. Evidence of the absence of interdependence with suppliers of equipment was presented. The price of the purchased equipment is indicated to be corresponding to the market level. All established violations concerned beneficiaries-importers of the supplied products, rather than the taxpayer.

Claims of the tax authority were disputed. A positive practice was formed on additional payments to companies that supply imported equipment through a chain of suppliers

Mikhail Begunov, Alexander Dmitriev, Anastasia Garipova

Manufacturing companies

In the opinion of the tax authority, the organization violated the term for receiving (returning) the deposit by a resident of foreign currency in accordance with the terms of the loan agreement issued by the taxpayer to the foreign company

As a result, all claims of the tax authority with regard to violation of terms for receiving foreign currency by a resident in accordance with the terms of the loan agreement were successfully challenged in courts of 3 instances, as the tax authority did not take into account the submitted additional agreements to the loan agreement with the foreign company.

Mikhail Begunov, Andrey Solomyany

Construction

As part of the bankruptcy proceedings, the tax authority's claim in the amount of RUB 135 million was included in the register of creditors' claims. The lawyers prepared a position with regard to this debt, namely: due to the fact that updated tax returns for VAT and income tax were filed, the amounts of claims must be adjusted, as the amounts payable on tax returns were initially filed by the previous management mistakenly.

The Moscow City Arbitration Court annulled the decision to include the tax authority's claim in the register of creditors' claims and the court appointed a new consideration taking into account the evidence provided.

Andrey Solomyany

FMCG

Within support of the procedure of transfer to tax monitoring the client was rendered services on preparation of documents according to the requirements of the Federal Tax Service Russian FTS. In particular, it was actualized and brought in compliance with the effective tax legislation, the accounting policy for tax accounting purposes, documents regulating the company's internal control system were prepared of the company, and prepared tables and data on coordinators of of subdivisions and levels of control within the company.

Successful work on the analysis and preparation of documents required for the transition to tax monitoring, as well as interaction with the tax authority to address procedural issues in connecting to the tax monitoring system, allowed the client to take advantage of the transition to this mode of tax control and reduce the risk of additional additional tax assessments.

Mikhail Begunov, Yulia Pavlova