Checking points by inn. Checking the counterparty throughout Russia

How to confirm the reliability of a business partner, said Pavel Martynchenko, Leading Legal Counsel of the Department tax security, international planning and development of KSK groups.

Statistics confirm that the fight against “flip-flops” is bearing fruit, for example, the collection of income tax in 2016 compared to 2015 increased by 8.5 percent, and VAT compared to the same period - by 6.6 percent.

In the fight for a positive trend in tax collection, the FTS inspectors are assisted by the ASK VAT 2 software package. The complex finds tax gaps by identifying unscrupulous companies in the supply chain of goods in the country from the importer, manufacturer to the end consumer, exporter. Thus, the problem of checking their counterparties for good faith is becoming more and more urgent for business. Despite the fact that there is still no legislative consolidation of the rules for exercising due diligence and caution when choosing business partners, in the first place, it is precisely this duty that the regulatory authorities refer to, making claims on the validity tax benefit.

Verification of the counterparty for good faith is possible through the application of a set of measures that are aimed at ensuring that the taxpayer can be convinced of the decency of his partner. The audited company must be an operating organization that can fulfill its obligations under the contract (Resolution of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation of April 20, 2010 No. 18162/09; Letter of the Federal Tax Service of January 23, 2013 No. AC-4-2 / [email protected]).

Risk minimization

Having ascertained the trustworthiness of a business partner, the company minimizes the risks of filing claims for the validity of the tax benefit in terms of VAT deductions and expenses that reduce tax base on income tax. Thus, in accordance with paragraph 10 of the Decree of the Plenum of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated October 12, 2006 No. 53 “On the assessment by arbitration courts of the validity of obtaining a tax benefit by a taxpayer”, the fact that a counterparty violated its tax obligations does not in itself constitute evidence of an unjustified tax benefit. The tax benefit may be recognized as unreasonable if the inspectors prove that the company acted without due diligence and caution and it should have known about the violations committed by the counterparty, in particular, due to the relationship of interdependence or affiliation of the taxpayer with the counterparty. I would like to note that more attention should be paid to checking counterparties for transactions that are significant for the taxpayer, since the amount of additional charges for a transaction with an unscrupulous counterparty can be up to 50 percent of the turnover.

Hosting an event

So, to check the counterparty, special events should be carried out, we will consider them step by step.

Step 1. Electronic verification

First you need to use electronic public services on the site tax service: www.nalog.ru (Letter of the Ministry of Finance dated July 12, 2016 No. 03-01-10/41099). On the site, you can check the legal capacity of the counterparty by the details of the TIN; OGRN or by name (Clause 3, Article 49 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation), that is, check whether it is registered this organization in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. If it is not in the relevant register, it is impossible to conclude an agreement with it. The service also allows you to find out if the head or participant of the counterparty has refused to manage or participate in such an organization (https://service.nalog.ru/svl.do). Need to check tax debt, as well as the timeliness of reporting (https://service.nalog.ru/zd.do). There you can also clarify whether a decision has been made with respect to the counterparty on the upcoming exclusion due to the latter’s failure to carry out activities (https://www.vestnik-gosreg.ru/publ/fz83).

Step 2. Request for documents

In order to minimize tax risks, before concluding a transaction, the taxpayer is recommended to request documents confirming the legal capacity of the audited counterparty and the ability to fulfill its obligations. So, based on the current judicial practice and the content of the letters of the Federal Tax Service and the Ministry of Finance, companies can be recommended to request the following documents:

articles of association;
certificate of entering the information of the organization into the Unified State Register of Legal Entities or individual entrepreneurs into the Unified State Register of Enterprises;
certificate of tax registration of the organization or individual entrepreneur;
document on the appointment of the head (decision general meeting and order of appointment);
an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities for an organization or an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities for individual entrepreneurs;
tax and accounting reporting;
licenses (if the activity is subject to licensing);
information about vehicles(if a contract of delivery or transportation is concluded);
information about construction equipment (if the company carries out contract work).

All submitted copies of documents must be duly certified, that is, with the signature and seal (if the individual entrepreneur has it) of the verified counterparty.

This recommendation is confirmed judicial practice, so, in the Resolution of the Sixteenth Arbitration Court of Appeal dated April 11, 2017 No. 16AP-5007 / 2016 in case No. A15-2566 / 2016 Court of Appeal pointed out that one of the evidence of insufficient exercise of the due degree of caution and diligence when choosing a counterparty may be the fact that the constituent documents of the counterparty were not properly certified, the official who certified these papers was not indicated.

Step 3. Check from a distance

It should also be noted that if these documents are not signed by the head of the organization, the taxpayer should check with the counterparty that the counterparty has a power of attorney for their signing by the appropriate representative of the company. When a taxpayer interacts with a counterparty "at a distance", that is, when the latter is actually located in another region, it does not hurt the company to ask to demonstrate the above documents through electronic means connections and at this moment fix their presence by making the appropriate screenshots. If you doubt the integrity of the counterparty, you can also ask his manager to show an identity document.

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And why does it matter

A firm can look good on the outside, have a beautiful office and a polite sales team, but inside there are huge debts, courts and a director on the run.

Alena Iva

And if you accept VAT deductible, the tax authorities can arrange the torn years for you just because the counterparty seems to her somehow unreliable.

Therefore, counterparties must be checked. Here's how to do it.

I’ll make a reservation right away: there are 16 ways to check a counterparty for different databases, sites and services, and if you use all of them, it will be worth the time. On the other hand, a counterparty that has passed all 16 steps is gold. If you started the check, and the first five stages turned out to be a failure, you can immediately refuse this counterparty - it is unlikely that you will find something good further.

How to check a counterparty: step by step

Request copies of the main documents from a potential counterparty.
Obtain an up-to-date extract from Rosreestr.
Check if the counterparty has a mass address.
Check if the director is disqualified.
Specify what kind of business the counterparty is running: small or medium. This will show the level of turnover of the company and the number of employees in the organization.
Check if the counterparty is bankrupt.
Check if the counterparty is excluded from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
Search for a counterparty in the database bailiffs.
Check the counterparty in the file of arbitration cases.
Examine the financial statements of the counterparty. This will show if he has a profitable business.
Check the passport of the head or individual entrepreneur for validity.
If on the part of the counterparty the contract is going to be signed by a person with a notarized power of attorney, clarify whether its term has expired.
If your counterparty must have a license to operate, check its validity.
See if the director is a nominee.
Check if the counterparty is making changes to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
Check if the counterparty is included in the register of unscrupulous suppliers.

Why check counterparties

Unscrupulous companies are very good at pretending to be trustworthy. You can not trust either abundant advertising on the Internet, or generous discounts, or expensive suits. That's why check counterparties according to documents.

Calculate those who will not fulfill their obligations. My clients often talk about dishonesty of partners. The beauty salon was poorly renovated and disappeared - the losses amounted to a third of the original repair amount. The customer did not pay the builders for the work performed for three years - it was necessary to sue, but the customer went bankrupt.

It often happens that the buyer accepts the goods and does not pay. Or vice versa: the supplier receives an advance payment and does not ship the goods. The check will help decide whether it is worth cooperating with the counterparty, or there is a risk that he will not fulfill his obligations.

Do not work with ephemera. The counterparty may turn out to be a one-day firm that was created a week ago specifically to take advances from customers and disappear. In this case, you will only lose money, but this is also unpleasant.

It may turn out that the company does not exist at all. There is a website, there is a name and an account for transferring money, but legal entity no, there are scammers hiding behind the site.

Calculate the scammers. Your counterparty may be committing financial crimes, such as cashing out or taking illegal loans. In this case, law enforcement agencies will check not only the counterparty, but also you as his partner.

Avoid dealing with bankruptcy. You can contact a firm that is in bankruptcy. If you transfer money to such a firm, you will not see it soon, if at all.

Any transaction with a bankrupt, including yours, may be challenged in court by creditors. To get the money back, you need to be included in the register of creditors and wait for the end of the bankruptcy procedure, which can take several years.

Do not have problems with the tax. If the tax authority considers that you have not sufficiently checked the integrity of a potential counterparty, you may be denied a tax benefit. That is, you will not be able to pay less taxes - get tax deduction or apply a reduced tax rate.

A case from one's life. After a tax audit of one company, additional income tax and VAT were charged in the amount of 10 million rubles. The fine and penalties went up another 4 million.

The reason for this was one supply contract. The tax office said that the firm did not show due diligence at the conclusion of the contract: the counterparty could not conduct real business activities, did not pay taxes, and generally existed only on paper.

We went to court, but he sided with the inspection. It turned out that the counterparty was generally excluded from the register of legal entities.

During the audit, the tax authorities found out that the passport of the person who signed the contract on behalf of the counterparty does not exist, and the signatures are fake. Then the police joined this case - the real fun began. The police were looking for undelivered goods, CEO and raised the dishonest counterparty to the ears of all partners, including our unfortunate company, which in the end had to pay taxes and pay a fine.

Enforcement proceedings begin after winning cases in court. This suggests that a potential partner not only sues and loses, but also continues not to pay the bills.

On the same resource, you can also see tax arrears, they are also collected through bailiffs.

Check the counterparty in the file of arbitration cases

If there is no power of attorney on the site or it is revoked, the contract cannot be signed - such a transaction may be invalidated. First you need to contact the head of the counterparty, obtain evidence of the approval of the transaction and request a new power of attorney.

Check license validity

If your counterparty must have a license to carry out activities, it is better to check its validity - you never know. Without a license, he simply does not have the right to conclude transactions.

The presence of a license can be viewed in an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities on the tax website, and its validity can be checked by address.

For example, you can check the license for the sale of alcohol in the register of licenses of the Federal Service for Regulation of the Alcohol Market, and on educational activities- in the register of licenses of the Federal Service for Supervision in Education and Science.

Inclusion in the register of unscrupulous suppliers does not immediately characterize the organization as unreliable. But along with other verification methods, it will create an overall picture of the counterparty.

Rules so as not to get confused and not forget anything

On August 1, the tax authorities published more information about the companies in the public domain. But this information, therefore, I have prepared Counterparty Verification Regulations, which can be printed and applied to transactions. This way you will show the tax or court that you have checked the partner in as much detail as possible.

Another regulation will help to decide whether it makes sense to work with a potential counterparty.

I recommend considering all verification steps as a whole. If a potential counterparty did not pass the test in one or two steps, you can clarify the reasons with him and then make a decision to conclude an agreement. If you see that the counterparty has not passed the test for most of the steps, it's not worth the risk - look for a more reliable partner.

If you know the TIN of the counterparty, tax.ru - the official website of the Federal Tax Service of Russia - allows you to learn quite a lot about the legal entity, merchant or ordinary individual with whom you intend to cooperate. What and how can be gleaned from this portal, we will tell further.

Mandatory stage

The ability to check the counterparty by TIN on tax.ru has become a well-established business practice. Moreover, on the one hand, this is your right, but on the other hand, it is also your duty to exercise the necessary discretion when choosing business partners.

In the case of checking the counterparty by TIN for tax.ru, you can be sure that you receive reliable information from official sources. In particular, they enable:

make a conclusion about the solvency of the counterparty, including on mandatory payments to the treasury;
can it be attributed to one-day;
find out the legal address and full name leader of the organization concerned.

Meanwhile, in practice, checking the counterparty by TIN on tax.ru does not always provide enough information to confidently draw a conclusion about the degree of reliability of the counterparty.

Main online service

First of all, in order to check the counterparty on tax.ru by TIN, go to the following link:

To find out the counterparty by TIN on tax.ru, you must take the following steps, which are described in the table.

It should be noted that the Federal Tax Service of Russia updates information from this service every day. With the help of tax.ru, the search for a counterparty by TIN allows you to be aware of:

the name of the organization, its legal address;
OGRN, TIN, KPP;
dates of state registration;
termination of activities (with date);
recognition of registration as invalid (with date).

Corporate history

On the site tax.ru, checking a counterparty by TIN for free also means finding out his corporate history. The publication of the Tax Service of Russia "Bulletin of State Registration" helps in this. You can find it at the following link:

Here you can find various messages of companies that they are required by law to post publicly. First of all, these are the facts of decision making:

about closing;
reorganizations;
decline authorized capital;
purchase of LLC 20% of the authorized capital of another company, etc.

The threat of exclusion from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities

With regard to inactive organizations that do not show any business activity, the Federal Tax Service may decide on the future exclusion from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. Such data are also reflected in the State Registration Bulletin. But the link to them is somewhat different:

When there is no connection with the legal entity

The Federal Tax Service daily updates the database, which includes companies that cannot be contacted at the legal address declared by them during state registration. On this account, on the site tax.ru, you can check the counterparty by TIN here:

Tax debts of the counterparty

To find out the debt of the counterparty for taxes by TIN, you must use the following link:

This service makes it possible to obtain information about a company if it:

more than 1 year does not submit tax returns;
as of 01 April 2017 its tax debt in front of the budget over 1000 rubles and the procedure for its enforcement was initiated.

It happens that you need to get specific information about a particular company or organization, as well as about the scope of its activities. Usually the TIN helps to obtain the necessary information about the organization. How to do it quickly without much effort? Is the Internet required to achieve this goal? So, let's discuss everything in order.

TIN- This is an individual taxpayer number, which is issued by the tax service when a citizen becomes able-bodied. The purpose of issuing such numbers to taxpayers is to identify all citizens when tracking the payment of taxes. The TIN certificate serves as an official document containing the basic personal information of a citizen.

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Features of assigning a TIN by the tax service

TIN is assigned to an individual entrepreneur at the time of registration by an individual of his entrepreneurial activity in the event that this citizen does not yet have a TIN. For individual this code is a set of twelve digits. The first four digits indicate the place where the code was issued. The next six digits are the account number tax record. The remaining two are control or verification figures, which are used for the convenience of processing taxpayers' data. If a person refuses to assign a TIN, then the tax service will use the personal data themselves.
TIN, which is issued to legal entities, consists of ten digits. The first four digits of the code also indicate the place of registration. This is followed by five digits or the tax record number of the legal entity in the OGRN section (main state registration number). The last digit is a control and with its help you can clarify the correctness of the entry. Legal entities cannot refuse to assign a TIN, as this will complicate tax reporting.

How to check an organization by TIN without the help of the Internet?

Despite the fact that the tax service owns this data, without the help of the Internet it is problematic to obtain comprehensive information about the organization by its TIN. Therefore, it is much easier to get this information using the global network. In order to check the organization, you must contact the tax service. To do this, a written request is made, which contains a request for an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (Unified State Register of Legal Entities) about a specific organization. It is well known that this information is available, in addition, a response can be received within six business days.

How to check an organization online?

To verify the authenticity of the organization, the reliability of the company with which you are going to cooperate, three main methods of verification are used. Organization name check. The simplest solution- drive into search engine name of company. It is on the Internet that most companies try to light up, so it will not be difficult to get the information you are interested in. On the site you can see the address of the company, its TIN and other details.
Website of the tax service. Help with name existing organization get real information about her.
Full information about organizations and legal entities:

To check the license number of a company, the following services are often used:

(licenses of organizations that hire workers to work abroad);
– checking the license of travel agencies;
– checking the license of tourist operators;
- also helps to check the company by name.

It would be useful to clarify information about the legal entity in the authorities that issued this license. That is, in other words, check the company by TIN. Since any organization in the process of opening must be registered with the tax authorities, the TIN issued by the tax authority is used to verify it.
Here are some of the sites to help:

(here you need to fill in the empty fields with those data about the company that are known);

Application of verification according to PSRN (main state registration number). This numerical code consists of thirteen digits, each of which has its own meaning. With the help of a global network for a specific OGRN, you can check almost any organization.

The following sites will help you with this:

(website of the federal tax service);
ru (the company verification service is available only to subscribers).

The above sites help not only to check the existence of the company, but also to learn some useful details about it. For example, you can get information about:

about who is in charge in the organization you need;
the date of its foundation;
about the founders;
about its location;
on the number of branches;
data on physical and legal addresses;
you can find out if the address of the organization has changed;
information about the change in the owner of the company;
whether the firm has tax debts and other financial obligations.

Such information will help form an objective opinion about a particular company, open or close trust in it, and also make it possible to draw conclusions about the prospects for cooperation with this organization.

Checking on the website of the Federal Tax Service is carried out as follows:

open the site;
select on the right side Electronic Services»;
select the subsection “Business risks: check yourself and the counterparty”;
then select, or mark in the search criteria that this is a legal entity;
indicate what to search for: by TIN and OGRN or by the name of the organization (legal entity) and enter the relevant information;
enter captcha;
press the "Find" button, after which detailed information about the company you need will be displayed.

How to check a company for free

You can get detailed information about the organization you are interested in by following the link, which is the Unified State Register of Legal Entities database. On this site you can learn a lot about the activities of the company, if you plan to cooperate with it, or if you have other prerequisites for checking a particular company. In other words, this service helps to check the reliability of the so-called counterparty. On the site, in the blank fields, you must enter the name of the company itself, its TIN and / or OGRN and carry out a check.

All of the sites and services listed above, including the site of the federal tax service, make it possible to obtain data about a particular company for free. It is also worth considering that no one can hide detailed information about their company or its division, all this is available to Internet users, and the legislation of the Russian Federation does not restrict access to this kind of information.

What information about the organization can be found by TIN?

Full name and form of organizational structure (for example, JSC or LLC);
Data on the registration of the legal address of the company;
TIN and OGRN;
Date of registration;
In the case of searching for an organization by TIN after the termination of its activities, as well as the date of completion of work.
Detailed information as a brief extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities is available for download (data on the founders, on the payment of taxes, on accounts, on the heads of the organization and other subtleties)

Checking the activities and tax debts of the organization by TIN

Finding out about the debt on the website of the Federal Tax Service by TIN for legal entities is as simple as for individuals. The search is made in the “Electronic Services” item, namely in the “Business Risks: Check Yourself and the Counterparty” section. Next, you need to indicate that we are looking for a legal entity, and enter the name of the organization or its TIN, as described above. So you can get information about the debt of the organization to pay taxes.

In some cases, you will need to come to the tax office and check, because sometimes your own tax data may differ from those that the Federal Tax Service has. It is also worth considering that, although federal data is designated as the highest priority, taxes are still paid to the local tax office. Most often, when reconciling, it turns out that the debt arose not from the company itself, but from one of its branches. If you print a summary from online, you can figure it out and understand what we are talking about the legal entity and the inspector of the tax service.

So, it is necessary to issue a power of attorney for the general director or chief accountant in order for the tax service to accept the application. Then you need to understand what exactly is needed: a reconciliation act or an extract from a personal account.

Provide (send) to the head of the tax service a letter written on letterhead or with a seal, which will contain a request to prepare a reconciliation report by a certain time, or write the terms for its preparation along with your contact details. This letter must be signed by the CEO or chief accountant. Let it be an urgent letter that is given to the secretary immediately, without observing any formalities.
The letter should indicate the form of the answer, that is, in writing or by phone. It is known that over the phone it happens faster. But, if you need a document, or if time is not running out, of course it is better to demand a written answer.
After the expiration of the prescribed period, it is necessary to appear at the tax office yourself, or send confidant to obtain the desired reconciliation act.

This is how you can get information about tax debts.

So, when it becomes necessary to obtain accurate and reliable information about a particular organization or company, about its payment of taxes, about its founders, legal address and other details, the easiest way to do this is to use the FTS website, which allows you to check and clarify data about any organization is free. It is worth carefully evaluating information about counterparties. There are also online services which make this task easier. Well, in some cases, you still can’t do without an independent visit to the tax office and without reconciliation of data on tax payments. It's good that the Internet makes such tasks much easier and faster.