Blocking a tax account: causes and consequences

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

On ensuring the fulfillment of obligations imposed on taxpayers, referred to in Article 11 of Chapter TC. In case of improper fulfillment or non-fulfillment of obligations, the control body has the right to hold the perpetrator liable. In addition, legislation establishes coercive mechanisms that tax authorities can use.

Enforcement

It is mentioned in Article 72 of the Code. In paragraph 1 of the norm, it is established that the fulfillment of obligations for the deduction of fees and taxes to the budget can be ensured:

• pledge property;
• as surety;
• pen alty;
• seizure of the payer's property;
• suspension of operations on account in the bank.

The last method is widely used in practice. This is due to the fact that blocking a current account by the tax service is the most inconvenient measure for business entities.

Relevance of the problem

Blockaccounts with the tax service significantly complicates the conduct of business, since a person is unable to timely settle accounts with suppliers and make other important payments for him. Accordingly, for the IFTS, this is one of the most effective security measures.

Blocking a current account by the tax office can come as a complete surprise to the payer. The situation becomes especially depressing when a business entity urgently needs money to complete an important and profitable transaction.

General blocking order

It is provided for in Article 76 of the Tax Code.

The basis for blocking the account by the tax service is the decision of its head (or his deputy). This act is sent to the banks servicing the payer's accounts. A copy of the decision is transferred to the economic entity against signature or in another way confirming receipt. The act can be drawn up both on paper and in electronic form.

After receiving the decision, the bank must immediately comply with the instructions and suspend all operations on the client's accounts. The corresponding requirement consolidates paragraph 7 of the above article.

The bank's obligations also include reporting the IFTS on the balance of funds on the payer's account.

A financial institution has the right to "unfreeze" accounts only after receiving an appropriate order from the Federal Tax Service.

Important moment

If a business entity has several accounts open, and they have enough funds to pay off debts, pen alties, fines,arrears indicated in the blocking decision, he has the right to send an application to the tax service to cancel the decision to suspend operations. In it, the person indicates the details of the corresponding account. The application is accompanied by extracts confirming the availability of funds.

After accepting the package of documents, the IFTS must decide within two days to remove the blocking from the account. The tax service checks the information received by sending a request to the bank. After confirming the information, the account is "defrosted" within two days.

Blocking a tax account: reasons

In the legislation, the suspension of cash transactions is allowed if the business entity:

1. Did not submit declaration.
2. Did not pay tax.

In addition, the blocking of accounts by the tax office is carried out in order to ensure the execution of decisions taken as a result of the audit.

Violation of the rules for filing a declaration

The legislation establishes certain deadlines within which the payer must submit a report to the IFTS. If the declaration is not submitted within 10 (working) days after the expiration of the prescribed period, the control authority has the right to block the account.

"Defrosting" account is made no later than the next day after the report is submitted by the payer.

Controversial issues

In practice, there are cases when account transactions are suspended, and the payer has no obligation to submit a declaration.

The courts in such situations adhere to the following approach. Accordingwith Article 23 of the Tax Code, the payer is obliged to submit a declaration on taxes that he must deduct. The report is submitted to the IFTS at the registration address.

This duty corresponds to Article 80 of the Code. It says that a declaration is made for each deduction established for the payer.

If an economic entity has no obligation to pay tax, then the tax service has no grounds for blocking an account.

From this it follows that individual shortcomings in the declaration (for example, errors in filling out the title page, incorrect indication of the period) do not act as grounds for suspending cash transactions or applying a fine to a person under Art. 119.

Non-payment of tax

As established in the first paragraph of Article 46 of the Tax Code, in case of non-payment or incomplete deduction of the amount within the period established by law, this obligation is enforced. In such cases, the IFTS levies a pen alty on the funds in the payer's bank accounts.

To apply this measure, the IFTS makes an appropriate decision and sends a collection order to the financial institution to write off the debt.

At the same time, in accordance with paragraph 7 of article 46, the supervisory authority may suspend cash transactions until the entire debt is collected.

Violations of the IFTS

It is worth noting that the process of indisputable debt collection is a multi-stage and rather complicated procedure. Often, the tax authorities allow proceduralviolations during it. They, in turn, can act as grounds for the cancellation of the recovery order and, consequently, the decision to block the account.

The tax service most often violates the terms and procedure for filing a claim, chooses the wrong way to send it.

As practice shows, the courts in such cases rule in favor of the payers.

Sending a claim is the initial stage of the enforcement procedure. Failure by the IFTS to comply with the procedure established by law significantly violates the right of economic entities to protect interests and freedoms, enshrined in the Constitution.

Lawyers recommend paying special attention to the type of correspondence sent to the payer. Judicial practice shows that the receipt by an economic entity of a simple, rather than registered, letter with a notice is considered by the authorities as a gross violation of the procedure for the indisputable collection of debts by force. Accordingly, it acts as an unconditional basis for the cancellation of decisions taken by the Federal Tax Service.

Blocking as an interim measure

As established in paragraph 7 of paragraph 101 of Article TC, having considered the materials of the audit, the head of the IFTS (his deputy) decides to hold the economic entity liable for the committed offense or to refuse to apply a sanction to the person.

After the decision is made, the authorized person of the control body may apply interim measures to the guilty person. Legislationallows this only if there are sufficient grounds to believe that if they are not subsequently adopted, the execution of the decision or the collection of fines, pen alties, arrears, debts from the payer will become impossible or very difficult.

Sufficient grounds should be understood as:

• The presence of debt on the payer's l / s.
• Repeated tax evasion.
• Decrease in the assets of the enterprise.
• A set of circumstances indicating that an economic entity has received unjustified benefits.

To implement an interim measure, the head of the IFTS (his deputy) makes an appropriate decision. It comes into effect from the date of signing. The decision remains in force until the day of execution of the decision to bring the guilty subject to liability or to refuse it, or until the date of its cancellation by a higher control body or court.

Nuance

Account blocking as an interim measure can be applied after imposing a ban on the transfer of pledge or alienation of property. At the same time, its total value, according to accounting data, should be less than the total amount of fines, arrears and pen alties payable in accordance with the decision of the Federal Tax Service.

In addition, the suspension of an account is not allowed if the business entity has not submitted financial statements, has not provided an advance calculation, or has not received the documents requested for verification.

Is it possible to check the blocking of a current account ontax website?

You can. Since 2014, a special service has been operating, open to all interested parties.

To check the blocking of the account by the tax service, you need to go to the official portal of the Federal Tax Service. The service you need to use has the following name: "System for informing banks about the status of processing electronic documents" ("BANKINFORM", for short). Despite this name, anyone can check the blocking of the account by the tax service.

After selecting the specified service, put a dot next to the line "Request for valid suspension decisions". Next, you need to enter the TIN of the payer and the BIC of the banking organization serving the account. If this data is unknown, then it will not be possible to check the blocking of the account on the website of the tax service.

Then you need to specify the numbers from the picture. Correctly entered numbers indicate that the checking of account blocking on the website of the tax service is carried out not by a robot, but by a person. After that, you need to click on the "Submit Request" button.

An answer will be generated fairly quickly. If a blocking decision was made, the system will show the date of its issuance, as well as the code of the control authority that issued it.

When checking the blocking of an account on the website of the tax service, it is necessary to carefully study the content of the answer. It often contains errors and inaccuracies. The presence of data that does not correspond to reality is the basis for challenging the decision.

Check account blocking on the sitetax service can be both business entities (representatives of legal entities or individual entrepreneurs), and employees of banking organizations.

Quite often this service is used by potential business partners. If the blocking of the account is confirmed on the tax website, then the counterparties can reconsider the decision to cooperate. This information is especially important when concluding large transactions.

It is expedient for the business entity itself to periodically use the service. It is extremely important to check the blocking of the current account by the tax office before signing a contract for the supply of a large volume of goods. If transactions are suspended, the subject will not be able to pay for it. This, in turn, will lead to debt.

Withdrawals

It should be noted that blocking an account does not mean the suspension of all spending transactions. The corresponding provision is fixed by par. 3 of the first paragraph of Article 76 of the Tax Code. In addition, the subject can transfer funds to a blocked account. There are no restrictions in this regard in the legislation.

In art. 855 of the Civil Code fixed the order of debiting funds. If there is an amount on the account sufficient to pay off all debts, settlements are carried out as payment receipts are received. This order is called the calendar order.

The suspension of operations does not apply to payments that must be deducted before the payment of taxes is fulfilled.

Who else can"freeze" the account?

In addition to the tax office, the Customs Service has the right to suspend operations on the account. This measure is applied when collecting debts on the deduction of customs duties and pen alties. The rules for blocking accounts are enshrined in FCS Order No. 2184.

The authority to suspend transactions on the account is also vested in the Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring).

It is worth saying that in case of late payment of insurance premiums or failure to provide settlements on them on time, the accounts will not be blocked. The legislation does not provide for appropriate powers for off-budget funds.

Exceptions to the rule

Not every decision to block can be enforced. Not subject to compliance if:

1. The decision was adopted by an unauthorized structure.
2. The decision was made in relation to the account, which, according to the definition enshrined in Article 11 of the Tax Code, does not fall under this concept.

With the first case, everything is, in general, clear. If the decision was made by an unauthorized body, then there are no grounds for blocking. The second case should be de alt with in more detail.

As stated in article 11 of the Tax Code, an account is a current (settlement) account opened in accordance with a banking service agreement. The owner's funds are transferred to it and spent from it.

This category includes accounts:

• settlement;
• current (including currency);
• correspondent;
• ruble type "K"(convertible) and "N" (non-convertible), opened by non-residents;
• corporate card accounts.

The blocking does not apply to accounts opened in accordance with other agreements and transactions: deposit, accredited, loan, transit (including special) currency.

Unlawful, according to paragraph one of Article 126 of the Federal Law No. 127, is the suspension of operations on the account of a bankrupt taxpayer.

If the blocking decision was not executed in the form prescribed by law, it also cannot be executed by the bank. The corresponding conclusion follows from the content of paragraph 4 of paragraph 76 of Article of the Tax Code.