The Russian Orthodox Church was forced

The Moscow Department of the Federal Tax Service recently excluded the Russian Orthodox Church from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRLE). The reason was failure to submit reports on time.

A few days later, the Federal Tax Service reported that the status of a legal entity had been returned to the Russian Orthodox Church. An “active” organization for the Ministry of Justice is one that submits the relevant reports on time,” explained Konstantin Trapaidze, chairman of the bar association “Your Legal Attorney,” to the Izvestia newspaper. “If a legal entity does not submit reports or submits them in an abbreviated form, the Ministry of Justice recognizes it as “dead” and excludes it from the register.” According to Trapaidze, government agencies often make a decision on the upcoming exclusion from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities in order to “force” the collection of reports. The Ministry of Justice did not comment on the situation to Izvestia, advising them to “contact the tax authority at the location of the religious organization.”

It must be understood that the Moscow Patriarchate, which, together with Russian citizens, is the founder of the Russian Orthodox Church, pays taxes carelessly. Well, it happens that business in Russia also did not immediately begin to pay taxes, it had to be shaken thoroughly in order to somehow accustom it to this, you must admit, not the most pleasant thing. The Russian Orthodox Church has recently been increasingly claiming state money: it either wants the state to fully support Orthodox gymnasiums, or asks for state funding for church social activities. So, even more so, you need to get used to accuracy in financial matters, although the authorities are still in the position that the church in the Russian Federation is still separated from the state.

The Russian Orthodox Church, of course, is no stranger to living without the right of a legal entity - it lived like this throughout the Soviet years - and nothing, it lasted, but the absence of this very legal entity completely deprives the church of its everyday, so to speak, legal capacity: it can preach, but there is no longer any way to conclude any financial agreement - she won’t even have a seal without the right of a legal entity, and she won’t have a bank account.

Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Public Associations and Religious Organizations Yaroslav Nilov believes that depriving the Russian Orthodox Church of a legal entity is a mistake by officials or a provocation.

But there is nothing to worry about - the issue has been resolved and the Russian Orthodox Church remains in the register of legal entities.