Translated material
Denunciation to the treasury
The Federal Tax Service asks citizens to help it collect taxes
The government will devote the second half of the year, which will go down in the current history of Russia as an election period, entirely to President Vladimir Putin. More precisely, his last message to the Federal Assembly . Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov announced this yesterday, opening the next government meeting. By fulfilling the tasks outlined in this document, the ministers obviously hope to make a feasible contribution to the presidential race. And in general - as a body ensuring the continuity of Putin’s course, and personally, passing the candidate minimum.To improve matters, the prime minister advised cabinet members to take seriously not only financing, but also the organization of the process. And, as he put it, the formation of new institutions is “bogged down.” Such as an investment fund , Russian venture company , etc.
Yesterday, the ministers reviewed the main directions of activity of the Federal Tax Service (FTS) for the next three years. And they found out that without “conscious” citizens, the taxman simply cannot live. Among the problems of fighting corruption, improving the administration of tax collection and developing criteria for assessing the effectiveness of its own activities, the Federal Tax Service considers denunciation to be almost the main one.
“Of course, we will exercise control over the payment of taxes from citizens who have apartments for rent , but technically the control itself is very complicated,” said the head of the Federal Tax Service Mikhail Mokretsov. “We count on the support of conscientious citizens who observe that neighbors are renting out apartments and strangers appear.” He went on to refer to “security” and “challenging times” when “neighbors want to know their neighbors.”
Mr. Mokretsov spoke about this so convincingly, as if he was sure that citizens who receive wages not much higher than the subsistence level should, out of envy of their richer and resourceful neighbors, “knock” the Federal Tax Service.
Minister of Economic Development German Gref demanded that the fight against corruption be included in the criteria for assessing the activities of tax officials, and the Prime Minister himself, who, as usual, demonstrated rare knowledge of the fiscal and law enforcement subject. “We shouldn’t force the tax authorities to love us,” Mr. Fradkov pragmatically advised. - Call them what you want - tax collectors, tax collectors. They, like customs officers, are not offended by this. And it will be offensive if a system is created that is destructive for the tax authorities themselves and business.” The Prime Minister called on tax officials to pay attention to Mr. Gref’s persistent advice on developing criteria for corruption, and called for a move away from subjectivism, when some businessmen get away with everything, while others are ripped off (that is, he himself admitted that this happens in Russia).
Mr. Fradkov also agreed with the Chairman of the Central Bank, Sergei Ignatiev, that the Federal Tax Service, when assessing its work, cannot be based only on internal indicators. And the main one is the ratio of taxes collected to accrued liabilities. The head of the Central Bank has his own specific interest in the activities of tax authorities: control over shell companies , which are used by unscrupulous banks for money laundering. As a rule, the Central Bank is forced to apply supervisory measures after the fact of such transactions, when their organizers have already used a certain bank. Sergei Ignatiev is concerned that such firms do not escape the attention of tax authorities. And this, he said at the meeting, could happen because tax officials are tempted not to order inspections where the likelihood of tax collection is low, and primarily in fly-by-night companies. “Moreover, there are virtually no shell companies; there are bank accounts through which billions of rubles and a set of registration documents pass,” Mr. Ignatiev explained his fears.
However, Mr. Mokretsov categorically assured both Sergei Ignatiev and everyone else that tax officials simply cannot succumb to such a temptation: failure to reflect tax obligations for employees of the Federal Tax Service is a crime of office. Moreover, he said that now it is just one-day companies that have generated a large amount of formally recorded tax debt.
The head of the Central Bank, however, proposed using more objective criteria in tax statistics: “Maybe it’s worth linking these indicators to the gross domestic product.”
“I’ll tell you right away,” the prime minister noted, “you can keep a record of the number of cases initiated based on tax audit reports sent to law enforcement agencies.”
The topic of value added tax also came up at the government meeting. Mr. Gref asked when the collection of this tax will finally become systematic. Mr. Mokretsov was completely upset here. He said that VAT returns this year compared to last year increased by 1.8 times and amounted to 364 billion rubles. He named two risk groups: oil workers, for whom, in his words, “return amounts often even exceed export revenues,” and metallurgists, who monopolize the market and set specific prices. “The threat to the budget is high,” Mr. Mokretsov described the level of risk. And he added: “VAT is an interesting tax. He tempts all the time. Because there is an opportunity to get into the budget. This also exists in Germany. Russia has not become a unique country here.”
Mr. Mokretsov called the main evil “the liberality of the registration legislation, which allows you to quickly create a company and abandon it.” “The large VAT debt comes from fly-by-night companies,” explained the head of the Federal Tax Service.
“Do you have an analysis? Where is the greatest negative load? - asked the prime minister. - In order not to rely on the imperfection of legislation, take oil and gas workers together with customs officers and look at exports. Dock. This will reveal what we have under control.”
In general, Mr. Fradkov was very encouraging of the Federal Tax Service, promising an increase in salaries not only for territorial bodies, but also for the central apparatus. In turn, Mikhail Mokretsov said that he does not exclude the outflow of specialists from the central office of the Federal Tax Service to territorial bodies as a result of the introduction of a new system of incentives for tax officials. “We will probably get a certain outflow of specialists from the central office to the territorial bodies, because the pay there will be higher,” he said. According to the head of the Federal Tax Service, at present the central apparatus of the Federal Tax Service “is not considered in the incentive system.” “This creates a certain tension,” he said. “Should there be a difference between the central apparatus and territorial bodies? I don’t know how correct this is,” noted Fradkov.
As a result, the government approved the main directions of activity of the tax service for 2008-2010, and the prime minister set tax officers as an example to customs officers, who will report to the next cabinet meeting.
After a meeting at which so much was said about the incomes of various Russians, Mikhail Mokretsov shared with reporters that 40% of wages paid in the country still remain in the shadows.