Today there are many tools that an accountant can use. However, in practice, there are malfunctions in the functioning of the software and human factors, all of which lead to violations of the Tax Code requirements. Accordingly, failure to comply with legal requirements requires the application of sanctions to those responsible. One of them is a fine for late submission of a declaration.

Normative base

In paragraph one of Art. 119 of the Tax Code establishes a fine for late submission of a declaration. This violation is considered the most common. As a sanction, the subject is charged with a monetary penalty in the amount of 5% of the unpaid amount determined in the reporting. The fine for late submission of the declaration is charged for each full or partial month from the date established for its submission. The recovery cannot be more than 30% of the specified amount, but not less than 1 thousand rubles. In addition, liability is provided for under the Code of Administrative Offenses. In particular, according to Art. 15.5 a fine for late submission of a declaration is imposed on officials. Its size is 300-500 rubles.

Exceptions

It should be said that not in every case sanctions can be applied to the subject for violating the established deadline. Thus, taking into account the explanations present in the plenary Resolution of the Supreme Arbitration Court No. 57, the supervisory authority (Federal Tax Service) issued its clarifications. They, in particular, say that if the deadlines for submitting documents are violated, then use Art. 119 NK will be incorrect. So, for example, you cannot impose a fine for late submission of income tax returns for the first, second, third quarters. It is also not charged for certain months - from the 1st to the 11th. In addition, a fine cannot be applied for late submission of a property tax return on advance payments.

Explanations

The basis for non-application of sanctions is Letter of the Federal Tax Service No. SA-4-7/16692. It states, in particular, that Art. 58 (clause 3) of the Tax Code provides that the code may establish the payment of advance payments. The obligation to deduct them is considered fulfilled in the same manner as for repaying the tax amount. Failure to comply with deadlines for the payment of advances cannot be considered as grounds for prosecution for violation of the Tax Code. Art. 119 applies if there was a late submission of a tax return. The penalty, therefore, is established for failure to submit reports for the entire period, and not for its individual parts. The Federal Tax Service explains that Art. 119 does not cover acts that resulted in missing the deadline for submitting calculations for advance payments, regardless of how these documents are named in the chapters of the Tax Code.

Art. 126 NK

It establishes a fine for late submission of documents or other information established in the code and other legislative acts, if the act does not contain signs of violations provided for in Art. 129.4 and 119 NK. The amount of the penalty is 200 rubles. from each unsubmitted document. If you miss the deadline for submitting Form 2-NDFL certificates, Art. 126. That is, you will also have to pay 200 rubles for each paper.

Important point

In case of untimely submission of a declaration according to f. 3-NDFL, when the payer is an individual, he may be subject to a fine under Art. 119 NK. In this case, the reason for collection can be even a small amount that the agent forgot to keep in the budget. In this case, it will be absolutely unimportant whether the payer himself knew about it. The tax agent must notify the individual and the inspectorate of the impossibility of withholding. But not everyone does this. According to subparagraph 4 of paragraph 1 of Art. 228 of the Tax Code, citizens who receive other income from which personal income tax was not withheld must make calculations and payments in accordance with the amounts of such receipts. The fact that the payer has no idea that he has such an obligation does not relieve him of liability.

Letter from the Ministry of Finance

The fact that a payer who did not even know that he must make some deductions from his income may be subject to a fine is evidenced by the explanation of the Ministry of Finance. In particular, the Ministry of Finance writes that under Art. 226 (clause 4) of the Tax Code, the tax agent is obliged to withhold the calculated tax amount directly from the income of payers upon their actual payment. Clause 5 of the same article provides that if it is impossible to do this, the subject is obliged, no later than a month from the end of the period in which these circumstances occurred, to inform about this in writing to the individual (from whose income the withholding is made) and to the control body ( Federal Tax Service). In this case, the obligation to calculate and pay personal income tax, as well as to submit a declaration, rests with the payer.

Exemption from punishment

In order to hold the person who received the income accountable, the Federal Tax Service must prove the fact that a violation occurred. The control body must find out what actions/inactions resulted in non-compliance with the requirements. In Art. 109 of the Tax Code provides that if the subject is not guilty of committing a violation, he cannot be held accountable. In Art. 111 of the Tax Code establishes the circumstances under which Art. 109. This means that if the payer was not notified by the agent about the impossibility of making a deduction, then the issue of imposing a penalty is decided taking into account his guilt.

Exceptional circumstances

The payer may violate legal requirements due to:

1. Force majeure, natural disasters and other emergency situations.
2. Being in a state in which the subject could not be aware of his behavior or control his actions, due to illness.
3. Execution of written explanations on issues of calculation, payment of mandatory contributions or on other situations related to the application of the provisions of the Tax Code, which were given to the subject personally (or related to an indefinite number of persons) by the Federal Tax Service or another authorized body within their competence.
4. Other circumstances that may be recognized by the tax authority or court as excluding guilt.

This list, despite the presence of paragraph 4 in it, is considered by many officials to be exhaustive. In this regard, payers who did not submit a declaration under f. 3-NDFL, they are fined on the basis that ignorance of the law does not exempt from liability. In such cases, experts recommend requesting a 2-NDFL certificate from the company that paid the salary or other income. The information that will be present in the document will show whether tax was withheld from these proceeds.

EUND

A single declaration is submitted by those entities that did not have any movement of funds in their accounts during the tax period. In this case, we are talking not only about income, but also about expenses. If, after submitting the reports, it was discovered that the enterprise had carried out a business transaction, for example, the shipment of products, it needs to provide updated documentation.

But the control body sometimes does not accept these reports, demanding to present the primary ones. In such situations, the Federal Tax Service may impose a fine for late submission of the VAT return. As explained by the authorized authorities, the EUND is submitted in accordance with paragraph 2 of clause 2 of Art. 80 NK. If an enterprise does not carry out transactions that result in the movement of funds in bank accounts or cash desks, it has the right to file a simplified (single) declaration instead of each tax return. If a taxable item is discovered for the period in which the reporting was submitted, the payer has the obligation to make changes to the documentation and submit it in the manner prescribed in Art. 81. If the subject has done this, then he cannot be charged a fine for late submission of the VAT return. Such reporting will be considered updated.

Deadlines

A separate case was considered above when a fine cannot be imposed for late submission of a VAT return. In 2015, the amount of penalties did not undergo any changes. The legislation, however, establishes deadlines after which the amount may increase. For example, the fine for late submission of a VAT return in 2015 was 5% of the imputed tax amount, but not less than 1000 rubles. This value was established for entities that missed up to 180 days from the date of reporting. This deadline is also set for other fees. For example, the fine for late submission of a declaration under the simplified tax system for 2014 was also 5% of the imputed amount, but not less than 1000 rubles. If the payer does not submit documents for more than 180 days, then the percentage increases significantly. This procedure also applies to each imputed fee. For example, the fine for late submission of a transport tax return will be 30% of the deduction amount. Here, too, the size of the sanction should not be less than 1 thousand rubles.

Is it possible to reduce sanctions?

The legislation provides for cases when the payer can reduce the amount of the fine. They are established in Art. 114 NK. For example, if a fine is imposed for late submission of a declaration to the Federal Tax Service, as a rule, the payer is notified. At the inspection, the subject gets acquainted with the inspection report against signature. After the payer has signed this document, he has two weeks to file a petition to reduce the imputed amount.

Extenuating circumstances

The fine for late submission of the 2013 VAT return, as well as the 2016 one, can be reduced by at least half. In Part 1 of Art. 112 the following conditions are provided:

What are the last factors? For example, the most common circumstances allowing to reduce the fine for late submission of the 2014 UTII declaration were:

1. Committing the first violation of the Tax Code.
2. The subject has dependents. In addition to minors, these include children under 23 years of age if they are studying full-time.

The more circumstances are indicated, the higher the likelihood that the amount of recovery will be reduced by more than half. For example, in practice there are many cases when the fine was reduced by 4 times.

Other measures

In addition to monetary penalties, the subject’s bank accounts may be frozen. This opportunity is provided by the Federal Tax Service in accordance with Art. 76 NK. Clause 3 of this article establishes the right of the inspectorate to suspend transactions on accounts in the payer’s bank if the declaration has not been submitted after 10 days after the date provided for by law. It should be said here that all debit transactions are blocked on the account. That is, you can deposit funds.

At the same time, the legislation establishes the order of collection of funds from the debtor. The fine imposed by the tax authority is in the third stage. The decision to cancel the blocking must be made no later than 1 day after submitting the declaration.

Controversial issues

In the new edition of Art. 119 of the Tax Code establishes that the fine for late submission of a declaration is calculated based on the amount of tax not paid within the period specified by law. This provision was absent from the previous article, which gave rise to controversy. It was not entirely clear at what point sanctions should be determined - on the day of completion of the deadline or the actual filing of reports. If the tax has been paid in full, but the declaration has not been submitted, the fine will be 1000 rubles. If part of the amount was deducted, the amount of the sanction is determined by the difference between the amount actually paid and the imputed amount of the obligatory payment.

Conclusion

The tax legislation clearly establishes the deadlines for filing a return. Such strict regulation is due to the fact that mandatory contributions from individuals and legal entities make up a significant share of budget revenues. Accordingly, the state strives to ensure proper control over the timeliness of receipts. Violations, as can be seen from the article, can be caused by various circumstances. The law, of course, provides for certain possibilities for payers to reduce sanctions. In addition, the Tax Code establishes a number of responsibilities for control bodies. But as practice shows, circumstances are often not taken into account. In this regard, it is better to do everything on time: both pay taxes and submit reports on them. In this case, there will be no proceedings or problems.

A fine for late submission of a declaration under the simplified tax system is every simplifier’s nightmare. How not to miss the deadline for filing a declaration? What to do if a fine cannot be avoided?

Amount of penalties for late submission of the declaration

In 2018, the fine for late submission of a declaration under the simplified tax system will be 5% of the amount of tax that the taxpayer must transfer to the budget in accordance with this declaration. A fine is imposed for each month of delay in submitting a declaration. This also applies to less than a month of delay. This norm is approved in Art. 119 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. A minimum fine will be imposed for late filing of a zero return with the tax authority. Its size will be 1000 rubles. If the delay in submitting a declaration under the simplified tax system is more than six months, then you will have to pay a maximum fine of 30% of the amount of tax on this declaration.

Also, administrative liability is provided for delays in reporting. At the request of the Federal Tax Service, the court may impose a fine on the organization, the head of the organization or the chief accountant in the amount of 300 rubles to 500 rubles (Article 15.5 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).

The tax authority may also impose a fine on an organization if the procedure for submitting a declaration under the simplified tax system in electronic form was not followed, when this method of submitting a report is mandatory. For such a violation the fine will be 200 rubles.

Declaration under the simplified tax system: when to submit 2018

When using the simplified tax system, there is no need to submit a large number of reports. One annual declaration is enough. Submitting a declaration under the simplified tax system in 2018 is carried out by organizations at their location, and by individual entrepreneurs - at their place of residence.

It is filled out on the form KND 1152017, approved by Order of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation dated February 26, 2016 No. ММВ-7-3/99@.

The declaration should be generated at the end of the tax period, which for the simplified tax system is one calendar year (Article 346.19 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

• for legal entities – until 04/02/2018 (since 03/31/2018 is a day off);
• for individual entrepreneurs – until 04/30/2018;

Exceptions are cases when the payer stops applying the simplification before the end of the reporting year. In this case, the declaration under the simplified tax system is submitted within the following deadlines:

• organizations and individual entrepreneurs who have ceased to engage in entrepreneurial activities - until the 25th day of the month following the month when the enterprise ceased to operate;
• organizations and individual entrepreneurs who can no longer apply the simplified tax system - until the 25th day of the month following the quarter when this right was lost.

Pre-trial procedure for bringing to justice

If a taxpayer fails to submit a tax return on time, he becomes an offender under Art. 119 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

A tax fine is issued after the tax authorities conduct a desk audit of the submitted tax return under the simplified tax system. At the same time, upon completion of the inspection, inspectors often assess additional taxes for payment. And the fine is calculated based on the new amounts. Some unscrupulous taxpayers believe that if they do not submit a return, a desk audit will be avoided, but this is not the case. If the declaration at the end of the deadline has not been submitted within 10 working days, then the regulatory authorities may block the current account (clause 3 of Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). This means that in order to continue normal work, the taxpayer will have to submit a declaration. Immediately after submission, the tax office will begin a desk audit of the report.

If the taxpayer has been held accountable, this means that a tax audit has already been carried out against him (desk Article 88 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation or field audit Article 89 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). The result of the inspection is always taken into account when deciding on the imposition of sanctions.

If the tax authorities have calculated sanctions based on the results of the audit, they must notify the taxpayer about this. For this purpose, he is sent a demand to pay taxes, penalties and fines (Article 69 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). The request must always include a reference to the decision of the regulatory authorities as a basis. If such a link is missing, then the claim can be considered invalid.

Payment of the debt must be completed within 8 working days from the date of receipt of the request, unless the text provides for a different period (Article 69 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

The demand can be served in person, sent via TKS or via registered mail. The last method is a last resort if it is impossible to convey the requirement in any other way.

The requirement must be submitted to the taxpayer within 20 days from the moment the decision of the regulatory authorities comes into force (Article 70 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

For convenience, we will reflect the procedure for bringing to responsibility for failure to submit a declaration under the simplified tax system in the table.

Pre-trial procedure for bringing to justice for missing the deadline for filing a declaration under the simplified tax system: deadlines 2018

The procedure for forced collection of debt

If a legal entity or individual entrepreneur does not repay the debt on time, measures will be taken against them to forcibly collect it. This is done at the expense of funds in the debtor’s current account or at the expense of electronic funds (Clause 2 of Article 46 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). To do this, the Federal Tax Service must make an appropriate decision, but it can do this only after the end of the period specified in the requirement. The Federal Tax Service is given two months to make a decision on collecting funds from the debtor. An order to write off tax debt can be issued on paper or in electronic format (Clause 2 of Article 46 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

If the Federal Tax Service did not manage to collect funds within two months, it can still do this by appealing to a judicial authority. To do this, you will need to write an application within 6 months from the end of the period specified in the requirement (clause 3 of article 46 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). The Federal Tax Service can restore this deadline only through the court, but only when the deadline was missed for a good reason.

If there is reason to believe that collecting a fine from an organization or individual entrepreneur will be problematic, the tax office may take interim measures. This is done if she does not have information about the taxpayer’s current account or if there are no funds in the account or there are not enough funds to pay off the entire amount of the debt. Interim measures include:

• debt collection at the expense of other property (Article 47 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation);
• suspension of movement on the current account (Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

The Federal Tax Service may collect the arrears from other property of the debtor within one year after the end of the debt repayment period specified in the request. Or this can be done by going to court within 2 years after the end of the repayment period contained in the demand (paragraph 3, paragraph 1, article 47 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

The pre-trial procedure described above is mandatory when collecting debts from the debtor under the simplified tax system, penalties and fines.

The tax authority, on the basis of a decision to hold a legal entity or individual entrepreneur liable, has the right to apply to the arbitration court to collect the assigned sanction only after completion of the mandatory pre-trial procedure. Therefore, if it was not possible to submit tax reports on time under the simplified tax system, tax experts recommend paying off the debt immediately after receiving the request.

If you disagree with the decision of the tax authorities and with the amounts of debt and penalties specified in the request, the taxpayer can challenge the decision made by the regulatory authority by first writing an objection to the Federal Tax Service, which conducted a desk audit of the submitted declaration, and, if necessary, go to court to resolve this issue.

Results

The amount of penalties for failure to submit a declaration under the simplified tax system to the tax authorities does not differ in variety. If you miss the deadline for submitting a report, get ready to pay at least 1,000 rubles to the budget. Timely submission of a declaration under the simplified tax system to the tax authorities will help avoid not only a fine, but also a trial. In addition, there will be no problems with the suspension of the organization’s activities due to the blocking of the current account.

The Tax Code of the Russian Federation since 1992 provides for the payment of value added tax to the federal budget of the country from organizations in accordance with the law.

Penalty for failure to submit a VAT return, legislative framework

A fine for failure to submit a VAT return is imposed on a taxpayer if they are late in submitting reports for a certain period. Starting from 2015, if the reporting was sent to the Federal Tax Service in paper rather than electronic form, it is not accepted (clause 5 of Article 174 of the Tax Code). Accordingly, the countdown of days of delay in filing documents begins.

In order to avoid receiving a fine for late submission of a VAT return when sending reports to the tax office electronically, you need to remember the following things:

• The day the declaration is sent to the tax service is considered the day it is submitted;
• This document, like any electronic documents, is signed with an electronic digital signature.

Penalty for late submission of VAT returns, deadlines and consequences

The law provides for the submission of VAT reports by the 25th day of the month following the reporting period. Since the reporting period for filing a VAT return is considered a quarter, you must submit documents to the Federal Tax Service quarterly. For example, for the second quarter of the current year, the declaration must be submitted by July 25. The exception is if the 25th falls on a weekend. Then the deadlines are postponed to the first working day following the given weekend (clause 5 of Article 174 of the Tax Code).

The fine for late submission of a VAT return is determined at 5 percent of the amount of unpaid tax for each subsequent overdue month. In this case, the amount of the fine cannot be less than one thousand rubles or more than 30 percent of the total amount. This is stated in paragraph 1 of Art. 119 of the Tax Code.

The fine for failure to submit a VAT return is considered as a full month, even if the period of delay is only one day.

Sanctions also apply to employees of the organization who are guilty of late submission of declarations to the tax authorities. They may face both a warning and a fine of 300 to 500 rubles.

Late submission of the VAT return, how to avoid a fine

Russian legislation provides for the possibility of a reduction in the fine. To do this, you need to submit an explanatory note to the tax office detailing the reasons for the delay in filing your return. The note is written in any form. After reading the note, tax inspectors determine whether the grounds for delay specified in this document are sufficient to reduce or eliminate penalties. Thus, failure to submit a VAT return on time may not yet result in a mandatory fine. But to do this, it is also necessary to attach supporting certificates or other documents to the explanatory note that help justify the delay.

Penalty for failure to submit a VAT return when the tax value is zero

In some organizations, situations arise when the VAT return contains “zero” in the “tax amount” column. So should an organization pay a fine for a failed VAT return with a zero value? There is no clear answer to this question. Some officials believe that there should still be sanctions for overdue documentation and set the minimum fine at 1,000 rubles. Others rightly say that since the amount of the fine is calculated based on the amount of the tax, then if it is zero, the amount of the fine should also be equal to zero. The Ministry of Finance believes that for delay with a zero declaration you will have to pay a minimum penalty of 1000 rubles. (letter of the Ministry of Finance dated August 14, 2015 No. 03-02-08/47033).

It’s better not to joke with the tax service and provide all the necessary reporting on time. Indeed, in addition to fines, tax authorities have the right to block the accounts of a defaulter after 10 days from the official date of submission of the declaration, and this may entail unpleasant consequences for the activities of this organization.

A fine for failure to submit a value added tax return is imposed on a taxpayer who is late in filing reports. If there is an amount of VAT to be paid, it is not difficult to calculate the amount of the fine for late submission of the VAT return. However, if a VAT return with a zero tax amount is not submitted on time, the question may arise: is there a possible fine in this case for late submission of a VAT return? Read more about this in our article.

The amount of the fine for late submission of a VAT return, as well as the fine for failure to submit a VAT return, is calculated according to general rules. These rules are contained in paragraph 1 of Art. 119 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. According to them, the amount of the fine is determined based on 5% of the amount of tax payable for each month (incomplete or full) from the day assigned for submitting the declaration. The amount of the fine cannot exceed 30% of the specified amount and cannot be less than 1000 rubles.

Read more about liability for failure to file a return and the issues that arise regarding it here.

A fine for an updated VAT return can be avoided if:

• submit an update before the end of the deadline for submitting the initial declaration, i.e. on time (clause 2 of Article 81 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation);
• the clarification is submitted after the deadline for submitting the initial report, but before the deadline for paying the tax, and the Federal Tax Service Inspectorate did not identify errors in the initial declaration or did not have time to inform the taxpayer about the appointment of an on-site tax audit (clause 3 of Article 81 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation);
• before the submission of the clarification, submitted after the deadline for filing the declaration and paying the tax, the arrears and penalties were paid, and the on-site inspection carried out before the submission of the clarification did not reveal any errors (clause 4 of article 81 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

The question often arises: if a situation with late submission of a VAT return arises in relation to a report with a zero amount payable, is the minimum fine for an unsubmitted VAT return in the amount of 1,000 rubles charged in this case? There is no single answer to this question.

Penalty for failure to submit a return with a missing tax amount payable

The position of officials is that a taxpayer is not exempt from a fine for failure to submit a VAT return, even if it does not indicate the amount of tax payable and there is no arrears. The fine for such a violation is provided for in Art. 119 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation (letters of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated August 22, 2014 No. SA-4-7/16692, Ministry of Finance of Russia dated November 23, 2011 No. 03-02-08/121 and October 27, 2009 No. 03-07-11/270, Federal Tax Service of Russia on Moscow dated March 16, 2009 No. 20-14/4/022859@). Accordingly, this fully applies to the fine for late submission of a VAT return with a missing amount for payment.

The opinion of officials is mostly supported by the courts (resolutions of the Plenum of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation “On some issues arising when arbitration courts apply part one of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation” dated July 30, 2013 No. 57, the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated June 8, 2010 No. 418/10 in the case No. A68-5747/2009, Arbitration Court of the North Caucasus District dated 04.29.2016 No. F08-2313/2016 in case No. A32-42102/2014, FAS West Siberian District dated 02.16.2012 in case No. A03-7357/2011 ( By ruling of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated July 31, 2012 No. VAS-7486/12, the transfer of this case to the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation, FAS of the North-Western District dated January 25, 2011, was refused in case No. A26-5027/2010, FAS of the West Siberian District dated September 7, 2010 in case No. A75-9192/2009).

Since it is not possible to calculate the fine for a VAT declaration based on a report that does not have an amount payable, but it must be applied, in this case the amount of the fine for late submission of the declaration is considered equal to the minimum penalty - 1000 rubles. (decrees of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Central District dated March 23, 2012 in case No. A35-6471/2011, FAS Volga-Vyatka District dated February 15, 2010 in case No. A31-7500/2009, FAS Northwestern District dated February 25, 2009 in case No. A56- 28215/2007, FAS East Siberian District dated 02.28.2007 No. A19-20250/06-52-F02-674/07-S1 in case No. A19-20250/06-52).

In our difficult times, not a single taxpayer can be immune from tax sanctions. This most often occurs due to ignorance by an entrepreneur or citizen of his reporting obligations, as well as in connection with regular updates of the provisions of the tax code and other legal acts. The most common fine for non-compliance with tax laws is a fine under Article 119 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation for late submission of tax returns.

Reference: Article 119. Failure to submit a tax return (calculation of the financial result of an investment partnership).

1. Failure by the taxpayer to submit a tax return to the tax authority at the place of registration within the deadline established by the legislation on taxes and fees- entails the collection of a fine in the amount of 5 percent of the unpaid amount of tax subject to payment (surcharge) on the basis of this declaration, for each full or partial month from the day established for its submission, but not more than 30 percent of the specified amount and not less than 1,000.00 rubles .

2. Failure by the managing partner responsible for maintaining tax records to submit a calculation of the financial result of the investment partnership to the tax authority at the place of registration within the period established by the legislation on taxes and fees - entails a fine in the amount of 1,000.00 rubles for each full or partial month from the date established for its presentation.

If you carefully read paragraph 1 of Article 119 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, you should have paid attention to 3 important points:

firstly, the larger the tax amount, the higher the fine (5% of the tax amount);
secondly, the longer the delay, the larger the fine (for each full or partial month);
and thirdly, the minimum fine is 1,000.00 rubles, and the maximum is 30%, i.e. The fine for “zero” declarations is 1,000.00 rubles!

Let me give you a couple of examples so that everyone can understand what we are talking about:

1. A citizen sold personal property in 2011, for example: a car, for 300,000.00 rubles. He purchased this car in 2009 for 350,000.00 rubles. The citizen did not receive any income from this transaction, there was a loss, but since the citizen owned the property for less than 3 years, in accordance with the tax code he was obliged to submit a tax return in form 3-NDFL no later than April 30, 2012. The citizen did not know that he needed to submit a declaration. In May 2012, he received a letter from the tax office demanding that he report on the transaction and submit a declaration. The citizen submits the declaration on May 25, 2012, i.e. not within the period established by law. The amount of tax on the said declaration is zero, but in accordance with Art. 119, paragraph 1 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, he faces a fine of 1,000.00 rubles.

2. An individual entrepreneur filed a VAT return for the 1st quarter of 2012 not on April 20, but on May 25, 2012. The amount of tax that must be paid is 20,000.00 rubles. We calculate the amount of the fine: the “delay” was 2 months (one full and one incomplete), and the fine will be 10% of 20,000 rubles, i.e. 2,000 rubles.

What to do in this situation? Options:

- voluntarily pay the fine;
— try to reduce it by at least two times;
- do nothing and wait for the bailiffs to arrive;

For obvious reasons, we are not considering the first and third options, but we will consider the second option with a reduction in the fine in more detail:

So, you were called to the tax office, where, against signature, you were familiarized with the Tax Audit Report. From the moment the act is signed, you have 14 working days to write a petition to reduce the fine. The hope that the fine will be reduced is provided by Article 114 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, paragraph 3:

Article 114. Tax sanctions

3. If there is at least one mitigating circumstance, the amount of the fine shall be reduced by no less than two times compared to the amount established by the relevant article of this Code.

The concept of “mitigating circumstances” is partially given by paragraph 1 of Article 112 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation:

Article 112. Circumstances mitigating and aggravating liability for committing a tax offense

1. The following are recognized as circumstances mitigating liability for committing a tax offense:

1) commission of an offense due to a combination of difficult personal or family circumstances;

2) commission of an offense under the influence of threat or coercion or due to financial, official or other dependence;

2.1) difficult financial situation of an individual held accountable for committing a tax offense;

3) other circumstances that may be recognized by the court or tax authority considering the case as mitigating liability.

Subparagraphs 1, 2 and 2.1 are more or less clear, but I will tell you about subparagraph 3 of paragraph 1 of Article 112 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation in more detail. The most common “other mitigating circumstances” are:

1. Bringing to tax liability for the first time;
2. The presence of dependents on the entrepreneur (dependents include minor children up to 18 years of age inclusive or up to 23 years of age, provided that the children are enrolled in full-time education);

The more such circumstances you indicate in your application, the greater the likelihood that the fine will be reduced not by 2 times, but by a larger amount. Below I will give an example of a petition that I recently prepared for one of my clients, who forgot to submit a UTII return for the 4th quarter of 2011. By the way, her fine was reduced by 4 times! (full name and other passport details have been changed).

To the Head of MRI No. 13
in the Kirov region
Vershinin O.A.

from IP Ivanova Anatasia
Alexandrovna,
TIN 432912345678,
living at the address:
Kirov region, Slobodskoy,
st. Sovetskaya, 301, apt. 102

Petition
on reducing penalties
according to Act No. 51-43/17504 dated March 11, 2012

When making a decision to bring me to tax liability for failure to submit a declaration on the single tax on imputed income for the 4th quarter of 2011 within the established time frame, I ask you to take into account the following mitigating circumstances:

1. This is the first time I have been brought to tax liability for committing a tax offense.
2. I did not carry out business activities in 2011, and did not know that I had to submit a “zero” tax return.
3. I have 2 dependent young children: born in 2006. and born in 2007
4. I undertake to submit tax reports in a timely manner in the future, to pay taxes in full and on time.

Based on the above, I ask you to reduce the amount of penalties under Article 119 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Application:
1. Birth certificate of children - 2 pcs.
2. Order of the Administration of Slobodsky on the establishment of guardianship.
3. A certificate from the bailiff service stating that he does not receive alimony.

IP Ivanova A.A. ___________________

This is where I end the article. I hope you will not need it and all tax reporting will be submitted on time. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them here in the comments, I’ll try to help everyone!