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The Federal Tax Service uses clearing markets of migrants to check Russian traders
The start of checks on migrants in the markets did not have the best impact on those for whose benefit, it would seem, measures to regulate retail markets were introduced. It was not so much migrants without Russian citizenship who had curtailed trade in advance who came under additional control, but rather the few Russians who remained in food and clothing markets. If the police have no complaints against them, then the arrival of the tax inspector is fraught with many surprises.As follows from a closed letter from the Federal Tax Service dated January 10, employees of territorial tax inspectorates must, along with the police and representatives of the Federal Migration Service, take part in raids on markets. Traders are checked for documents giving them the right to trade in the market, the availability of cash registers, and a license to sell alcohol.
Mobile task forces inspecting markets and spontaneous trading places were initially supposed to be staffed by employees of Rospotrebnadzor and the Federal Migration Service, for whom police officers would be assigned as security escorts. Tax officials joined this company later, according to the closed letter of the Federal Tax Service No. ШТ-6-06/1. After all, logically, a non-resident migrant who does not have Russian citizenship is not required to report taxes in Russia. The story with migrants, apparently, is used as an additional reason to conduct a total audit of all small business trading activities.
During market raids, Federal Tax Service employees are instructed to keep records of all inspected organizations. Paying close attention to each merchant is not particularly difficult for the inspector now. The stalls have thinned out: foreign traders are leaving the markets both under pressure from inspection authorities and due to the refusal of the market administration to conclude contracts with them.
According to the instructions, tax officials are required to check the availability of a certificate of registration as an entrepreneur, the correct use of cash register equipment, compliance with limits on cash balances in the cash register and permits for the sale of alcohol. According to the law, cash registers and certificates confirming the legality of trading activities are not required for use when trading at markets, fairs, exhibition complexes and other areas designated for trading. However, this rule has an exception, which covers almost half of all market trading. Cash desks must be installed in cases where within the market territory trade is carried out not from counters, but in pavilions, small shops, kiosks, tents, auto shops, auto shops, vans, container-type premises and other similarly equipped devices. This rule can be interpreted extremely broadly and sanctions can be applied at the personal discretion of the inspector, because in the law the concept of “store trade” includes any design of retail places that ensure the display and safety of goods.
If violations are detected, penalties can grow into sensitive amounts for small traders. The maximum fine for failure to use cash register equipment reaches 40 thousand rubles. However, it is not always possible to get away with just a fine. In some cases, reports of violations may be sent to court. For example, if it turns out that the container or truck shop does not belong to a private entrepreneur, but to some poultry farm that is registered with the tax authorities in another city, and therefore does not have the right to trade outside the territory of its registration.
Formally, all the violations identified by tax officials are a fight against illegal entrepreneurship, but such a clear demonstration of the possibilities of this fight will not at all make unemployed Russians more willing to stand behind the counters instead of the migrants expelled from there in the light of new political trends.