Service "Tax ru: check yourself and the counterparty"

When administering entrepreneurial activity there are numerous risks associated with the dishonesty of counterparties (, customers), with whom entrepreneurs enter into contractual relationship. You can reduce business risks different ways: conclude contracts on conditions that reduce risks, provide for interim measures (penalties, bank guarantees, suretyship agreements), prescribe penalties in contracts. But all these actions may not be effective enough in case of concluding an agreement with an unscrupulous person (a one-day company; a company in the process of liquidation). In order to protect yourself from these risks, before concluding an agreement, you need to check the counterparty. The Tax Service has developed a special service for this purpose on Nalog ru: check yourself and the counterparty. In this article, we will look at how to work with the Nalog ru service: check yourself and the counterparty. And what opportunities does it provide.

See also how to get free in just a few minutes.

Check the counterparty by TIN, PSRN, name and location.

So,go to the "Electronic Services" sectionon the site " is one of the services in this section.Having entered this section, you will see that you are given the opportunity to check the counterparty in different directions. How to do this, see the next video tutorial.

Firstly, you will be able to see up-to-date information about the counterparty that is contained in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities as of the date of your application. To do this, you need to enter the TIN or PSRN of the counterparty organization or the name of the legal entity and the region of its location.

If the individual entrepreneur or peasant farm is checked, then in this case it is possible to check the counterparty by TIN or OGRN IP or full name and region of residence of the entrepreneur.

By entering the correct data, you will see information about the date of registration, TIN, PSRN, location, date of entry on the termination of the counterparty's activities, and also get the opportunity to familiarize yourself with an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities or EGRIP.

Thus, you will be able to analyze the terms of the counterparty’s activities, types of activities, data on the head of the legal entity, the availability of the necessary licenses and get an idea of ​​​​his experience and the availability of rights to carry out activities.

Tax Ru: check the counterparty for good faith.

In addition, in the servicenalog.ruCheck yourself and the counterparty ”there are other additional options for checking the counterparty. First of all, this is an additional section that allows you to check the address at which the counterparty is located for "mass character".

In order to do this, you need to go to the tab "Addresses specified during state registration as the location of several legal entities" and enter information about the legal address at which the counterparty is registered. After that, the service will check the address for "mass character". If the specified address is found in the list of bulk addresses, it makes sense for the entrepreneur to conduct an additional check of the counterparty (obtain information about the contracts concluded and executed by the counterparty, find judicial practice with counterparty).

By itself, registration at these addresses does not yet indicate the bad faith of the counterparty, but at the same time, such a counterparty may turn out to be dishonest. In this case, when concluding an agreement with such a counterparty, you simply run the risk of not finding it at the specified address. In addition, the tax authorities are fighting against the registration of firms at such addresses up to.

Another additional subsection on the service "Check yourself and the counterparty" - "Information about legal entities ah, communication with which at the address (location) indicated by them, included in the Unified State Register legal entities, is absent. As well as with the mass registration address, if there is information about the counterparty in this section, you run the risk of not finding this counterparty at the address and contact information indicated by him at some point.

Ru tax: check the counterparty for disqualification.

Disqualification - deprivation of the right to engage in certain activities or hold certain positions for a certain period. Disqualification information is also available on the Nalog Ru website.

Check the counterparty for disqualification: you need to go to the “Search for information in the register of disqualified persons” subsection, enter information about the person being checked, for example, full name, after which the service will search in the register of disqualified persons. If such information is available in the registry, you will see information about the disqualified person, under what article he was disqualified and for how long.

Tax Ru: check the counterparty for liquidation.

If the counterparty is in the process of liquidation, then when concluding an agreement with such a counterparty, there is a risk of early termination of obligations due to its liquidation. The Tax Ru service makes it possible to check the counterparty for liquidation. To do this, go to the subsection “Messages of legal entities published in the journal« Bulletin of state registration» .

In addition, checking the counterparty for liquidation can be done using the information that is available on the website of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. Following the link, you can go to the website of the Bank of Russia and download the list of legal entities that have been liquidated or are in the process of liquidation.” There you can also find a list of legal entities, with which there is no contact at the address indicated by them. I also recommend that you familiarize yourself with the explanations of the Bank of Russia regarding interaction with counterparties on the liquidation list.

So, as you can see, with the help of the service "Tax ru: check yourself and the counterparty" you can collect quite a lot useful information about the counterparty. If you have any questions about verification, please ask. We recommend that you also use the possibilities of other Internet services.

In particular, the My Business service, which will help you not only check the counterparty for reliability, but also provides many other useful features. The service provides the right of free temporary use in order for you to familiarize yourself with them.

Another service for checking a counterparty is Kontur.Focus. You can check right now by filling in the information in the search bar.

And one more bonus in conclusion. The material below contains an overview of all interactive services of the Federal Tax Service of Russia. You will surely find something useful for yourself.

The counterparty is a one-day firm. What to do?

Coffee break: mindfulness test

You can leave your answers in the comments below. Be careful, it's not that easy.

In this material, I have combined many ways to check the organizations with which you are going to cooperate. Checking a company is actually quite simple: just follow the steps according to the checklist below. Almost all of the above methods of checking companies are free.

Among the paid services with a demo mode, there are also plenty to choose from, for example, I use this one myself:

Should be one of the most useful services. It is not for nothing that disputes about whether the list of information provided is a disclosure of tax secrets still do not subside.

In the future, the service should become an effective tool for identifying ephemera.

However, as of August 1, 2018 (when its full version should be launched), the service is “knocked out”. There is no recovery timeline.

UPD: Earned! But "somehow". Wretched and ugly. But maybe you are lucky and you will squeeze out the benefit of your counterparty.

One of the main services for checking legal entities. Search is possible by TIN or by the name of the organization. The service is located on the website of the tax office and can be used free of charge. The result of the company search is up-to-date information from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities in the form of an extract.

The most important thing that allows you to check the service (and what is very often ignored when concluding a deal! - which is just a paradox) - the reality of the existence of the organization.

In the statement you can see the information:

• about the director;
• about the founders;
• date of establishment of the legal entity;
• information on reorganization, liquidation, etc.;
• the size of the authorized capital;
• OKVED codes and other information.

An extract from the Check Yourself and Counterparty service can also be used to attach to a claim in the event of a litigation in arbitration courts.

You can check as individual entrepreneurs, and YL.

The service allows you to “break through” the debts of the company, which have already reached the point of enforcement before the bailiff service.

Allows you to evaluate:

• availability and total amount debts of the organization (respectively, its relations with other companies);
• the presence of claims from the tax inspectorate, the FIU, etc.;
• probability of bankruptcy of a legal entity.

Through this database, you can also find the debts of the director of the organization and its founders. It can also reveal a lot about them, and in some cases may have immediate consequences for you (for example, contesting transactions).

There are also very important file cabinets reflecting disputes in arbitration courts throughout Russia.

On the one hand, the presence of disputes in the courts is an indicator of the company's real activities, and this gives some confidence that you are not dealing with a one-day business.

However, for a deeper analysis, it is better to study the most typical court decisions on this legal entity and especially pay attention to whether there are any court decisions related to its bankruptcy. Also look at how regularly your potential counterparty pays off with its partners and how demanding in relations with them.

Information about the bankruptcy of legal entities is officially published in Kommersant. There you can find information not only about the very fact of declaring bankrupt, but also other information provided for by bankruptcy law (for example, about meetings).

Also useful in this regard is the "Unified Federal Register of Bankruptcy Information" bankrot.fedresurs.ru.

Non-state service - aggregator of court decisions of arbitration courts and courts general jurisdiction. Possibility of search by judges, by regions, by concrete representatives.

The greatest usefulness is when searching for decisions of courts of general jurisdiction in relation to the director and founders of a legal entity.

Checking is useful because:

• allows you to find out if the organization belongs to small or medium-sized businesses (in some cases this matters);
• shows that the organization submitted reports in the last reporting period, since it is on the basis of these data that the status is assigned.

Direct utility, of course, for state and municipal organizations.

However, if your potential counterparty is on this "black list" - this is a reason to think about his honesty.

Despite the fact that the inscription “Prosecutor General’s Office…” flaunts at the top, the service shows the planned and passed inspections of other regulatory and supervisory authorities (for example, labor inspectorate). Of course, such inspections can lead to administrative suspension of activities, large fines and other penalties in case of violations. Therefore, the service is very useful.

Useful, for example, in the case of purchasing equipment with identification numbers or cars for your organization. The information in the register is official.

In the case of the acquisition of real estate (buildings, offices, structures), verification of these registers is required!

Currently, there are two de facto independent registries - the cadastre and the USRR. Information about the object is required from both registries.

You can use both the official website and partner sites of Rosreestr. Through partner sites, statements can be received within a period of no more than a few hours, through the official service - in a week.

An example of a quick checkout site: vrosreestre.ru

The extracts contain information about the owners, encumbrances, legal claims, as well as real (legally significant) characteristics of the object.

Of course, in the case of a transaction for the supply of office supplies, this verification is not needed.

But it is useful if you involve some narrow specialist to perform certain works or services (for example, a lawyer or an auditor). Allows you to verify the qualifications of a specialist.

The only problem is that the Rosobrnadzor website barely works as it should every other time. But you might be lucky.

While this database does not have all the documents, but it is replenished.

You need to check the LLC - the counterparty in order to avoid additional taxes. You can do this via the Internet - there are several services. The article contains everything for verification, incl. free online forms.

To date, there is only one online service for checking a company - a counterparty, which provides access to all information about its activities and generates a complete dossier on the company. This is the service "Glavbukh: verification of counterparties". Try for free

Check counterparty online

Why is it important to check the counterparty company

If your counterparty violates tax laws and regulations, this fact alone will not lead to a denial of a VAT deduction or withdrawal of expenses. Tax risks arise when there is a set of circumstances that indicate that the counterparty firm is behaving in bad faith, and a detailed and thorough audit of the firm has not been carried out. In this case, additional taxation becomes a reality.

To minimize tax risks, it is necessary to check the counterparty company via the Internet and collect information about its actual activities.

For what questions to check the company via the Internet

In order for the verification of the company to be recognized as exhaustively complete, when accessing online services, it is necessary to collect not only information about the counterparty itself, but also information about:

• the subject of the transaction;
• counterparty registrations;
• his financial situation;
• its management and owners.

In other services you can get Additional information about a partner. For a list of information and online services where the necessary data is available, see Table 1.

When accessing the listed online services, in order to subsequently confirm that the company was checked, we recommend that you always take a screenshot from the screen, which shows the results of the checks issued by the services.

Checking a legal entity by TIN on the website of the Federal Tax Service

The following service allows you to check a company in terms of whether it is registered as a taxpayer:

Using the service is easy, just follow the following algorithm.

Step 1. Select a search category - a legal entity or an entrepreneur / peasant farm.

Step 2 Enter:

• or the name of the company, TIN or OGRN;
• or full name of the entrepreneur/head farming, region, OGRNIP or TIN.

Step 3

Step 4 Click the "Find" button.

How to understand the result of an online check and in what cases tax risk see Table 2.

Table 2. Checking a legal entity by TIN

Check the company for financial stability

The following free Rosstat service allows you to familiarize yourself with the financial statements in order to check a legal entity:

To get the annual accounting of the counterparty, follow the following algorithm.

Step 1. Specify the period for which you want to receive reports, starting from 2012.

Step 2 Enter the TIN of the legal entity.

Step 3 Select the response format (display, generate a Word file or an Excel file).

Step 4 Enter the verification characters from the picture.

Checking the company for tax debt

The following service allows you to check a company for free in terms of outstanding tax debts:

To get the information you need, follow a simple algorithm.

Step 1. Enter the verification characters from the picture.

Step 2 Enter the TIN of the legal entity or entrepreneur.

Step 3 Click the "Search" button.

If the counterparty is found, then either he has tax debts, or he has not submitted reports for more than a year. That is, there is a real risk of insolvency of the counterparty.

Checking a company for bankruptcy

To find out if a bankruptcy procedure is being conducted against a counterparty, you can use the “advanced search” function for free in a single federal database:

The algorithm of actions is simple.

Step 1. In the "Search for debtors" menu, select the "advanced search" option.

Step 2 Fill in the fields "Name", "Address", "Region", "Category" and "Code". In the "Code" field, you can enter OKPO, TIN or OGRN.

Step 3 Press the "Search" button.

How to check a legal entity in relation to its head and owners

The free service of the Federal Tax Service will help to remove the risk of "mass" director of the counterparty or its founders:

You can check the leader in four steps.

Step 1. Select a search category - head or founder (participant).

Step 2 Enter the TIN and full name of the individual being checked.

Step 3 Enter the verification characters from the picture.

Step 4 Click the "Find" button.

The service will show whether the person being checked is a director or owner of several companies.

How to check LLC according to open data

From August 1, 2018, a new free service of the Federal Tax Service "Transparent Business" has been operating, designed to check a company or entrepreneur. The amount of information provided will increase over time. Read about it in table 3.

Table 3 How to check a legal entity

Every business inevitably faces the need to verify its business partners. Before concluding an agreement, and even more so sending an advance payment, we will do our best to check who our counterparty is (by TIN, for example): does he really exist? who signs the contract? how long has the company been on the market? do you know this company?

In a more particular case, the accountant is faced with the need to have confirmation of his diligence in the event of tax audits, even though the Tax Code does not directly dictate such a duty.

The easiest first step is to check the counterparty by TIN on the Tax website for free. Online verification is called “Check yourself and the counterparty” (nalog.ru). This method makes it possible to view an extract about the company from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities by TIN. As practice shows, this is good, but not enough to fully check the company and secure your business both from fraudsters and from claims from regulatory authorities.

We will tell you all the subtleties and details of checking companies: how and what to check, whether it is enough to check a company by TIN, using what paid and free options to do this.

Counterparty check - tools:

Counterparty check - detailed help

What does "verify counterparty" mean?

On the website of the Tax Service and in special programs, you can collect and analyze documentary and other information about a business partner. Such actions will allow you to determine how conscientiously your partner is doing business.

Who should be doing this?

In an organization, a tax audit of a counterparty by TIN is usually carried out by employees legal department or department of economic security. If the organization does not have such a department, then checking counterparties (by TIN on the IFTS website, for example) is the responsibility of the person entering into the contract.

Why do I need to check the counterparty by TIN on the website of the Tax Service or in a paid program?

There are various reasons that justify the need for this activity. This includes the risks of financial and economic life: the risk of non-delivery of goods, supply low-quality goods, untimely delivery of goods, etc., up to fraudulent schemes.

We must also remember that any transaction is subject to taxation. The Federal Tax Service has repeatedly emphasized that the responsibility for choosing a company with which to cooperate lies entirely with the organization. The possible consequences of this choice are the entrepreneurial risk of the organization. For example, when checking, tax authorities can exclude a dubious transaction from expenses or not accept VAT for deduction. To avoid such troubles, it is easier to check the company in advance by TIN on the website of the Tax Service, having received an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (nalog.ru).

The state has not established any formal obligation to check companies when concluding contracts, much less the criteria for such a procedure, a list of necessary actions, and a minimum package of documents.

The Tax Code does not contain concepts such as “checking a counterparty” or “bad faith of a taxpayer”. Meanwhile, there is paragraph 10 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Arbitration Court Russian Federation dated October 12, 2006 N 53 "On the assessment by arbitration courts of the validity of obtaining a tax benefit by a taxpayer", which states: "The benefit may be recognized as unreasonable if the tax authority proves that the taxpayer acted without due diligence ...". After that, the state actually placed on business the duty to check their partners, and a practicing accountant is constantly faced with the need to find a counterparty by TIN on the tax website, and then check "what he breathes."

business practices

For many years, organizations must first check the counterparty by TIN (the Federal Tax Service allows you to do this for free), and then document the conduct of such a check. During this time, the most frequently requested package of documents has been formed:

• a copy of the Charter;
• extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities;
• a copy of the certificate of registration;
• a copy of the tax registration certificate;
• letter from statistics with codes;
• documents confirming the authority of the person with whom the contract is signed, for example, a power of attorney and a copy of the passport.

Please note that checking the fact of entering information into the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and obtaining a document confirming the authority of a person to sign documents from the point of view of the Ministry of Finance indicates due diligence (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated 10.04.2009 No. 03-02-07 / 1-177).

In addition, depending on the activity, the following may be requested:

• organization card;
• extract from staffing(if a narrow specialist is required to perform the work);
• licenses with their annexes, necessary permits;
• certificates from the Federal Tax Service on the absence of debt;
• copies of accounting and tax reporting for the past period with a mark of the Federal Tax Service;
• a copy of the lease agreement (office, warehouse, etc.).

Much less often, but there are already precedents when it is requested:

• policy briefs (i.e. short summary companies about the implementation of similar projects);
• letters of recommendation(usually requested by banks);
• audit report;
• and even a current account statement for the last month-quarter-year.

Public sources of information

Acting independently, it is worth using the sources of information:

• request an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities for your partner;
• check if he has a website;
• send a request to the Federal Tax Service Inspectorate in a free form about the good faith of the taxpayer;
• check if it is registered at the “mass registration” address on the website of the Federal Tax Service;
• you can check yourself and the counterparty in the FTS service of the same name on the website “check yourself and the counterparty” nalog.ru (initially, you will need to check the TIN on the tax website);
• check it in the State Registration Bulletin to see if it has started the liquidation or reorganization procedure;
• check it in the service of the Federal Tax Service "Transparent Business";
• look for the passport of the sole executive body on the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to find out if it was lost some time ago;
• on the website of the licensing authority, you can check the license data;
• on the website of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation and other courts, you can find out whether the company participated in litigation;
• enter the name of the company you are interested in and the surname, name, patronymic of the director in any search engine and view all the mentions of them.

What organizational measures should be taken in the company to be protected from unscrupulous contractors?

Each company independently decides the degree possible risk when concluding contracts and takes appropriate organizational measures. Usually, a person is appointed responsible for this procedure, and the procedure itself is regulated by the internal Regulations or Regulations for the verification of counterparties. At a minimum, each organization checks the counterparty on the tax website by TIN for free.

One-day counterparties are capable of causing damage both to the state in case of tax evasion, and to the taxpayer, who will have to prove the validity of the tax benefit received when refunding VAT or when accounting for expenses for profit tax purposes as a result of interaction with such unscrupulous counterparties.

Inspections are guided by the Decree of the Plenum of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated October 12, 2006 No. 53 "", which fixed the main signs of dishonesty taxpayer and rules for their determination.

Taxpayers, in order to prove the exercise of due diligence and caution when choosing a counterparty, can turn to public criteria
self risk assessment for taxpayers used by the tax authorities in the process of selecting objects for on-site tax audits (approved by order of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated May 30, 2007 No. MM-3-06 / [email protected]""), as well as clarifications from the financial authorities regarding the case in which the taxpayer is considered to have fulfilled the obligation to verify the counterparty.

In order to protect yourself from the risks of running economic activity and possible claims from the tax authorities, there are many opportunities to verify the integrity of a potential business partner.

We have identified a number of actions that, in the opinion of the tax inspectorates and the courts, must be taken in order to confirm the exercise of due diligence and caution when choosing a counterparty.

You can find out if a license was issued to a potential counterparty at websites of licensing authorities- for each type of activity, the licensing authority will be different. For example, the Rospotrebnadzor website allows you to search through registers of licenses issued for activities related to the use of pathogens of infectious diseases, and for activities in the field of the use of ionizing radiation sources.

7. Familiarize yourself with the annual financial statements of the counterparty. In accordance with paragraph 89 of the Regulations on the maintenance accounting and financial statements in the Russian Federation (approved by the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated July 29, 1998 No. 34n), the organization's annual financial statements are open to interested users(banks, investors, creditors, buyers, suppliers, etc.) who can familiarize themselves with it and receive copies of it with reimbursement for copying costs, and the organization should provide an opportunity for interested users to familiarize themselves with the financial statements.

In addition, Rosstat is obliged to provide information on the annual financial statements of organizations free of charge (Regulations on the Federal Service state statistics, approved Government of the Russian Federation dated June 2, 2008 No. 42, Rosstat dated May 20, 2013 No. 183 "On approval of the Administrative Regulations for the provision Federal Service state statistics public service"Providing interested users with data from the accounting (financial) statements of legal entities operating in the territory of the Russian Federation").

8. Examine the register of unscrupulous suppliers. Of course, a potential counterparty is not necessarily a participant in the procurement system for state and municipal needs, but there is such a possibility. Therefore, we still recommend that you go through this optional verification stage and search for the appropriate registry, updated by the FAS Russia.

9. Check the authority of the person signing the contract. Courts often point to the need to verify credentials as a condition for recognizing a taxpayer in good faith (FAS ZSO of May 25, 2012 in case No. A75-788 / 2011, of the Eighth Arbitration Court of Appeal of September 20, 2013 in case No. A46-5720 / 2013) . Moreover, if the taxpayer received all the necessary documents and information, but did not verify the authority of the representative of the counterparty to sign the documents, this will be the basis for recognizing this taxpayer as bad faith (Decree of the FAS MO dated July 11, 2012 in case No. A40-103278 / 11 -140-436).

When considering a case, in the event that the signatory refuses to sign on the documents, it is usually appointed handwriting expertise- but sometimes it does without it (FAS UO dated June 30, 2010 No. F09-4904 / 10-C2 in case No. A76-39186 / 2009-41-833). However, more often the courts emphasize that a simple visual comparison of signatures and testimony of a taxpayer's representative cannot be considered sufficient grounds for recognizing that documents were signed by unidentified persons (decision of the Third Arbitration Court of Appeal dated October 13, 2010 in case No. A33-4148 / 2010).

And of course, the courts ascertain the fact of bad faith of the taxpayer in the event that the authorized representative of the counterparty at the time of signing the documents died(VAS RF dated December 6, 2010 No. VAS-16471/10) or his powers were terminated(FAS PO dated February 28, 2012 No. F06-998/12 in case No. A65-14837/2011). On the other hand, the latter case cannot, in the opinion of the courts, testify to the receipt of an unreasonable tax benefit if, before the conclusion of the disputed transaction, the taxpayer had long-term economic relations with the counterparty (FAS SKO dated April 25, 2013 No. Ф08-1895 / 13 in the case No. A53-12917 / 2012, decision of the FAS ZSO dated October 27, 2011 No. F07-8946 / 11 in case No. A52-4227 / 2010).

Before signing the documents, you should pay attention to the following:

• is the transaction being concluded for your counterparty major;
• hasn't expired term of office representative of the counterparty (it is determined by the charter of the organization or a power of attorney);
• not limited whether charter powers of the director to conclude transactions, the amount of which exceeds a certain value.

10. Make a request to the tax office at the place of registration of the counterparty. The courts emphasize that this is also regarded as a manifestation of the taxpayer's prudence (FAS ZSO dated October 14, 2010 in case No. A27-26264 / 2009, FAS ZSO dated March 5, 2008 No. F04-1408 / 2008 (1506-A45-34) in case No. A45-5924 / 07-31 / 153, of the Third Arbitration Court of Appeal of October 11, 2013 in case No. A74-5445 / 2012, of the Eleventh Arbitration Court of Appeal of September 5, 2012 in case No. A55-1742 / 2012 ).

Moreover, district arbitration courts confirm duty of the tax authorities provide the requested information within the range of information not recognized in accordance with tax secrecy. Thus, the FAS ZSO emphasized that the inspectorate’s refusal to provide information about the taxpayer’s counterparty affects the rights of the latter related to obtaining tax benefits, taking into account the taxpayer’s obligation to confirm due diligence and caution when choosing a counterparty (Resolution of the FAS ZSO dated December 14, 2007 No. F04- 67/2007(77-A67-32) in case No. A67-1687/2007).

Sometimes the courts even emphasize that the taxpayer had the opportunity to contact the relevant services to check the counterparty, but he did not do this (FAS MO dated September 14, 2010 No. KA-A40 / 10728-10 in case No. A40-4632 / 10- 115-57).

True, occasionally the courts still come to the conclusion that the taxpayer could not apply to the inspectorate at the place of registration of the counterparty, since only tax authorities have such authority (FAS SZO dated July 31, 2013 in case No. A13-8751 / 2012).

But even if the tax office refuses to respond to the request, he the fact of his direction will indicate that the taxpayer wanted to protect himself when choosing a counterparty and can serve as evidence of due diligence in the future. At the same time, it is important that the request be submitted personally to the office of the tax inspectorate (a copy of the request with a mark of acceptance must remain on hand) or by mail with a return receipt and an inventory of the attachment (in this case, one copy of the inventory and the returned notification remain).

As we can see, the positions of the courts regarding the scope of actions that must be performed to verify the counterparty's good faith differ. True, sometimes the courts are a little cunning.

So, they point out that the tax inspectorate did not prove the lack of due diligence of the taxpayer - on the contrary, when making controversial transactions, they were requested notarized copies required documents. At the same time, the courts emphasize that in the field of tax relations there is presumption of good faith, and law enforcement authorities cannot interpret the concept of "conscientious taxpayers" as imposing additional obligations on taxpayers that are not provided for by law (Decree of the FAS MO dated January 31, 2011 No. KA-A40 / 17302-10 in case No. A40-30846 / 10-35 -187, decision of the FAS MO of December 16, 2010 No. KA-A40 / 15535-10-P in case No. A40-960 / 09-126-4, decision of the FAS MO of July 22, 2009 No. KA-A40 / 6386 -09 in case No. A40-67706/08-127-308).

Such an understanding of good faith was developed by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in No. 329-O of October 16, 2003, which is often referred to by taxpayers when substantiating their position. In particular, the Court emphasized that the taxpayer cannot be held responsible for the actions of all organizations participating in the multi-stage process of paying and transferring taxes to the budget.

At the same time, courts often point to the need to request relevant documents from the counterparty, emphasizing that these actions have for the taxpayer nature of duty(FAS PO dated July 14, 2010 in case No. A57-7689 / 2009, FAS ZSO dated July 20, 2010 in case No. A81-4676 / 2009).

Sometimes the attention of the courts may be drawn to other details - for example, the conclusion of a contract for a "trial" delivery of goods. small party to verify the counterparty (decree of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Moscow District dated December 16, 2010 No. KA-A40 / 15535-10-P in case No. A40-960 / 09-126-4), the fact of registration of the counterparty in several days before the transaction (FAS UO dated November 28, 2012 No. F09-11410 / 12 in case No. A60-7356 / 2012), etc. The tax authorities may also refer to the fact that the counterparty organization has "mass leaders and founders", and this fact should have alerted the taxpayer (FAS MO dated November 3, 2011 No. F05-11505 / 11 in case No. A41-23181 / 2010).

In conclusion, we note that the presence only one sign of dishonesty counterparty, as a rule, is not an obstacle to the recognition of the tax benefit received by the taxpayer as unjustified. However, their combination often makes tax inspections alert, and the courts - to decide not in favor of the taxpayer.