In the economy

Without trial and investigation

October 25, 2005 Maxim Blan

At the end of last week, the State Duma adopted in the final third reading the law on extra -court collection of taxes and fines . This means that, starting from January 1 of the next year, the tax authorities will receive the right to independently - without a court decision - to recover from citizens and organizations underpayed (according to them, tax authorities, understanding) taxes and fines, related to this underpayment. The amount of penalties is limited: no more than 5 thousand rubles for each tax from individual entrepreneurs and not more than 50 thousand from legal entities. However, the amount here is not the main thing.

At first glance, a secondary law breaks the entire system of state structure. If, to date, it was the right to decide whether a crime has been committed (since tax failure is a crime), only the court had, then from January 1, the tax service will receive this right. According to the new law, private entrepreneurs and organizations will receive the right to challenge the actions of the tax authorities in the arbitration court. But such a practice means the rejection of the presumption of innocence, since the plaintiffs will be forced to prove their innocence, and otherwise the a priori will be considered guilty of tax failure.

The law was introduced into the Duma by the president, so is it worth it to be surprised that all three readings passed without a bitch, without a bail. The need for such a law, his supporters explained the need to appear too high the workload of arbitration courts. Here are the caring president with the deputies and decided to release the arbitration judges from the shaft of the obsessive “small things”. The cynicity and lack of logic in this kind of arguments is fragmented. Firstly, for a huge number of individual enterprises, 5 thousand are not at all “small things”, but quite a lot of money. Just like 50 thousand for many small businesses. Secondly, it is not at all clear how it follows that citizens and organizations “punished” by tax authorities will not go to arbitration courts to challenge the actions of the tax authorities, filling the judges with the same routine “small things”.

So if the new law is significantly and facilitates life, then not at all arbitration judges, but to tax authorities. To date, more than half of the arbitration trials associated with the allegedly occurring non -payment or underpayment of taxes, tax authorities lose, which very eloquently indicates the quality of their work. Will tax inspectorates endlessly accumulate taxes after they receive the right to recover arrears on their own? Obviously not. On the contrary, this practice will only expand.

Small amounts laid down in the new law should not mislead anyone. It is important that the precedent is created. And to accept an amendment that adds several zeros to the numbers already written, or even cancel the restriction is much easier than accepting a new document. For the law in the third reading, 343 deputies at 35 against and 5 abstained voted. These figures show how the current Duma perceives initiatives, albeit undermining the basics of the constitutional system, but introduced by the president.
Maxim Blanc

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