Indices of corporate counterparty integrity

Entrepreneurs in their business have to deal with many corporate counterparties. Therefore there is a problem of verifying their integrity before entering into transaction.

According to items 1, 7 and 9 of the Resolution № 53 of the Plenum of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation from 12.10.2006, jurisdiction of tax disputes settlement is based on the presumption of good faith of taxpayers and other parties involved in the economy. Even if the taxpayer is under an accusation of tax offense on account of trade connections with fly-by-night company, commercial courts pronounce for the taxpayer if he can prove due diligence when choosing a contractor, economic expediency of transaction and matching the transaction price to market prices.

Legislation, including the Tax Code of the RF, does not contain a specific list of documents that the taxpayer has to require from the contractor in order to minimize the risks. However, the explanations and recommendations are set out in departmental letters.

In the letter № 03-03-06/1/477 of the Ministry of Finance from 21.07.2010 the minimum of required documents and demands in order to confirm the integrity of the counterparty is specified: existence of copy of the certificate of registration with a tax authority, verification the entering of the data about a counterparty in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, obtainment of a power of attorney or other document authorizing a person to sign documents on behalf of the contractor, the use of official sources of information concerning of counterparty activities. The letter № 3-7-07/84 of the Federal Tax Service from February 11, 2010 supplements the mentioned list: companies must be registered in the established order; have a license for a specific activity (if such a requirement is established by law); location address must not belong to the address of "mass registration" of fly-by-night companies; disqualified person must not enter the legal entity (this refers to the head and chief accountant of the organization). Information about the facts of their involvement in the tax or administrative responsibility, or lack thereof must be included.

In addition to the documentary evidence, the history of a potential counterparty, its reputation in the market, brand awareness should be looked into.

Specialized Information-analytical system Globas-i helps online to find all the necessary information about the counterparty: registration data, information on licenses, litigation, and the management team. Reliability index due to which it will be possible to identify fly-by-night companies is under the process of implementation.