The Federal Tax Service requires blocking the personal accounts of entrepreneurs for debts. Is this legal?

Entrepreneurs' personal accounts are often frozen for debts. Blocking personal accounts on this basis is legal, found out , however, banks can suspend operations on debtor accounts at the request of tax authorities only for the amount of debt. Forbes

What's happened. Regional tax authorities often began to require banks to block the personal accounts of entrepreneurs because of the debts of their individual entrepreneurs. In response, the Association of Banks Rossiya (Uralsib, Tinkoff Bank, Rosbank and regional Izhkombank) sent an official letter to the head of the Federal Tax Service Mikhail Mishustin on July 16, in which they questioned the legality of the demand. The Association is confident that such blocking does not comply with the Tax Code and “violates the rights of individuals, since many of the accounts are used to receive salaries and other social benefits.”

• Banks and the Ministry of Finance have been unable to figure out the issue of blocking personal accounts of businessmen since 2017. We returned to the question this April. Then, in an official letter , the Department of Tax and Customs Policy of the Ministry of Finance indicated that the law “does not provide for a restriction on the suspension of operations on current accounts opened not for entrepreneurial activities by individuals.”
• As a result, the Rossiya Association took this letter as an indication that it is still impossible to block the accounts of individuals that are not tied to individual entrepreneurs. However, a source close to the ministry says that the letter from the Ministry of Finance indicates the opposite - there are no restrictions on the suspension of operations on the accounts of individuals in the law.

How right? Banks really must comply with the decisions of the tax authorities and suspend operations on the accounts of individuals not related to their business activities (Articles 76 and 11.2 of the Tax Code), the Federal Tax Service told Forbes.

Quote: “Debt as a result of entrepreneurial activity does not arise from the account, but from the individual himself, who has the status of an individual entrepreneur. If there is a debt, the measures are applied to all accounts of such a debtor - an individual who is an individual entrepreneur, ”the press service of the Federal Tax Service said.

However, we are not talking about “blocking” and “freezing” the entire account, but only about stopping operations within the amount of the debt, the Federal Tax Service notes. For example, if a businessman owes 30 thousand rubles, then only 30 thousand rubles are suspended on the account, and everything over this amount is at the full disposal of the taxpayer.

What to do if you have a debt that does not exist.

• If you learned from the tax authorities that you are a debtor, although you are sure that your obligations to the Pension Fund and the Social Insurance Fund have been fulfilled, you should contact the tax office at the place of registration.
• The tax authority will draw up a request and, together with your application, send it to the Department of the Federal Tax Service for your region (UFTS).
• The Federal Tax Service must send a request to the regional branch of the PFR or the FSS within three working days.
• The funds then have 20 days to reconcile your payments and decide if they need to be adjusted.
• The fund department is obliged to notify you in writing of its decision and bring it to the Federal Tax Service in electronic form.
• If the departments have no disagreements, the tax authorities must make changes to the databases regarding the debt within 7 days.
• All correspondence should not take more than a month.