Every year, the Russian business faces new challenges and opportunities, forming plans and strategies under the constantly changing economic and political conditions. 2024 will be no exception.

A number of significant changes to the Russian legislation are expected to come into force. The dynamics of global sanctions will continue to intensify, getting new instruments of restrictions. The importance of analyzing possible risks in international interaction will increase significantly, requiring a deeper understanding of the variability of the international scene and business flexibility during the economic transformation.

The regime for canceling scheduled business inspections has been extended until 2024 (Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation dated December 14, 2023 No. 2140). This rule applies to organizations of the moderate, medium and significant risk categories, but does not cover tax audits that will be conducted in accordance with the established plan.

Information on the results of inspections can show how well the company fulfills certain requirements when carrying out business activities. The results of the audits provide information about the extent to which the company complies with the requirements in carrying out its activities. Analysis of the results of both scheduled and unscheduled inspections, as well as carrying out preventive measures, can be conducted in Globas. Globas will automatically displays relevant information if violations are detected or warnings are issued based on the results of the inspection.

In accordance with the order of the Ministry of Economic Development dated October 23, 2023 No. 730, legal entities and individual entrepreneurs will be able to switch to the Simplified Tax System in 2024, provided that their income for the nine months of 2023 is less than 149,5 million rubles. Companies and individual entrepreneurs will not be able to use the simplified tax system in 2024 if their income since the beginning of the year is over 265,8 million rubles.

In Globas you can analyze detailed information about taxes and fees of your counterparty, track the application of special tax regimes and the dynamics of the tax burden from year to year, as well as the financial condition and stability of your partner.

Starting from December 25, 2023, information on arrears in paying taxes, fees and insurance premiums will be posted on the Federal Tax Service website not monthly, but quarterly - on the 25th day of every third month in a quarter.

Information about the name of the taxpayer and the amount of the debt will be indicated as of the 10th day of February, April, August and October. Currently, the information is for the 1st day of the month of publication.

As open data from the Federal Tax Service is published, it will be duly added to Globas, so that you do not miss critically important information and always know whether the counterparty is fulfilling its tax obligations.

In accordance with the Federal Law No. 364-FZ dated July 24, 2023, penalties have been introduced for failure to comply with the legislation on foreign agents. The law provides for liability for failure to comply with orders or warnings from the state control authority regarding compliance with legislation on foreign agents and for failure to eliminate identified violations within the period established by law. Persons who have committed a violation are subject to a fine of 30-50 thousand rubles. Officials may be fined 70-100 thousand rubles or disqualified for two years. Legal entities may face a fine of 200-300 thousand rubles.

You can check your counterparty and persons associated with it for inclusion in the List of Foreign agents, as well as Lists of those excluded from foreign agents and persons associated with foreign agents using Globas and Sanctions Compliance module.

Russia has created a legislative toolkit for introducing blocking sanctions. The President of Russia signed the Federal Law "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation" No. 422-FZ dated 04.08.2023. The document comes into force since February 1, 2024.

Key provisions:

1. Liability measures have been established for the Russian legal entities in the banking sector, in the field of insurance, brokerage services, etc., for failure to comply with the Russian special economic measures.

2. Administrative measures to comply with the special economic measures are carried out by the Bank of Russia, including orders, restrictions on activities for up to six months, and a fine of up to 5 million rubles.

3. The concept of a “blocked person” has been introduced, which may include a foreign state, organization, foreign citizen, stateless person, as well as legal entities controlled by foreign organizations, citizens, stateless persons.

4. The “50% Rule” has been established to determine the controllers of a legal entity.

5. The rights of blocked persons are determined, including the possibility of receiving a salary (not exceeding 10 thousand rubles per month) or payment for medical services (not exceeding 10 thousand rubles per month).

To analyze the existence of sanctions risks according to global lists of sanctions, including the list of special economic measures of Russia, you can use the Sanctions Compliance as an additional module to Globas subscription.

The Federal Tax Service (FTS) regular checks business for complying of tax legislation.

The regulator may conduct one of two types of audit: off-site and on-site.

On-site audit is conducted at the location of a taxpayer, and off-site one is performed in the tax service's office.

It is physically impossible for the specialists of the tax service to visit every address, that is why off-site audit is most common. After all, the violations detected when conducting any type of audit may be resulted in imposing fines, additional taxes and refusal of tax refunds.

According to the data on September 1, 2023 The Federal Tax Service has carried out 719 on-site audits, and violations were identified in 697 of them. Based on the audits result, 65,6 billion RUB were charged. As of the same period on the previous year, there were 1,537 audits with violations, and the amount of additional charges was to 123,1 billion RUB.

The tax authority associated the doubled decrease in audits with the effect of the high base of the last year due to the moratorium on audits introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic. The experts believe that the authorities’ emphasis has shifted to preventive work with violators.

Despite the decrease in on-site audits, any company can still face it. But, if you aware about the factors increasing the likelihood of an audit, you can reduce the risk of a visit from tax inspectors by eliminating these factors.

It is impossible to find out in advance about the audit planned by the tax inspector; under current laws, such information is considered as a tax secret. The exception is companies that organize lotteries and gambling. The FTS publishes a calendar of tax audits for these kind of companies.

For all other taxpayers, the Federal Tax Service has determined a certain set of criteria for independent risk assessment. Moreover, the FTS uses these criteria to identify tax irregularities at the company. The criteria for self-assessment of risks are approved by the Concept of the planning system for on-site tax audits in the Order of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated May 30, 2007 No. MM-3-06/333.

A high probability of an audit occurs for companies with the largest number of identified criteria based on the Concept of the system for planning on-site tax audits. Among the 12 main criteria, we highlight those that can be identified using open and publicly available tools:

Also, business split can lead to an on-site audit and additional taxes. Split is one of the frequent reasons when a company receives attention from the Federal Tax Service.

It is not legally prohibited to divide business between different legal entities, but the reason for additional charges is split, the only purpose of which is to save on taxes or understate the tax base.

The letter of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated August 11, 2017 N SA-4-7/15895@ contains 17 signs of illegal splitting. Here are the main ones:

It should be remembered that if certain signs are detected, it does not mean that the organization is illegally splitting up its business or deliberately underestimating the tax base. The mentioned signs are cumulatively assessed, and documentary evidences may be required if necessary. If the counterparty refuses to provide clarifications, it is necessary to terminate cooperation or establish interaction in another way.

The main difficulties that may arise when identifying tax deviations are the lack of a single source of data.

Each item on the list for self-checking or checking for illegal splitting requires analysis of data from different sources. If there are a large number of counterparties, checking against the checklist will take much time. In such cases, automation of the verification process is necessary.

The Information and Analytical System Globas will help solve the problem. For example, the Reports functionality allows you to configure an unlimited number of your own verification scripts to further automate the process. You set the inspection criteria and measures yourself, and then Globas automatically checks the company for risks - every time you open a report.