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And why is it important

A company may look prosperous on the outside, have a beautiful office and a polite sales department, but inside there are huge debts, courts and the director is on the run.

Alena Iva

And if you deduct VAT, the tax office may give you years taken out just because the counterparty seems to be somehow unreliable.

Therefore, counterparties must be checked. Here's how to do it.

Let me make a reservation right away: there are 16 ways to check a counterparty using different databases, sites and services, and if you use them all, it will cost time. On the other hand, a counterparty that has completed all 16 steps is gold. If you started checking, and the first five stages turned out to be a failure, you can immediately refuse this counterparty - it is unlikely that you will find something good further.

How to check a counterparty: step-by-step steps

1. Request copies of key documents from the potential counterparty.
2. Receive a current extract from Rosreestr.
3. Check whether the counterparty has a mass address.
4. Check to see if the director is disqualified.
5. Clarify what kind of business the counterparty is running: small or medium. This will show the level of turnover of the company and the number of employees in the organization.
6. Check to see if the counterparty is bankrupt.
7. Check whether the counterparty is excluded from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
8. Search for the counterparty in the bailiff database.
9. Check the counterparty in the file of arbitration cases.
10. Study the counterparty's financial statements. This will show whether his business is profitable.
11. Check the passport of the manager or individual entrepreneur for validity.
12. If a person with a notarized power of attorney is going to sign the contract on the part of the counterparty, check whether its term has expired.
13. If your counterparty must have a license to operate, check its validity.
14. See if it's a nominee director.
15. Check whether the counterparty makes changes to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
16. Check whether the counterparty is included in the register of unscrupulous suppliers.

Why check counterparties?

Unscrupulous companies are very good at feigning trustworthiness. You can’t trust abundant advertising on the Internet, generous discounts, or expensive suits. That's why you need to check your counterparties based on documents.

Identify those who will not fulfill their obligations. My clients often talk about the dishonesty of their partners. The beauty salon was poorly renovated and disappeared - the losses amounted to a third of the original repair amount. The customer did not pay the builders for the work performed for three years - they had to sue, but the customer went bankrupt.

It often happens that the buyer accepts the goods and does not pay. Or vice versa: the supplier receives an advance and does not ship the goods. The check will help you decide whether it is worth cooperating with the counterparty, or whether there is a risk that he will not fulfill his obligations.

Do not work with one-dayers. The counterparty may turn out to be a shell company that was created a week ago specifically to take advances from customers and disappear. In this case, you will only lose money, but this is also unpleasant.

It may turn out that the company does not exist at all. There is a website, there is a name and an account for transferring money, but there is no legal entity, and behind the website there are deceivers.

Identify scammers. Your counterparty may be committing financial crimes, such as cashing out or collecting illegal loans. In this case, law enforcement agencies will check not only the counterparty, but also you as his partner.

Avoid working with a bankrupt. You can contact a company that is in bankruptcy. If you transfer money to such a company, you will not see it soon, if at all.

Creditors have the right to challenge any transaction with a bankrupt, including yours, in court. To get money back, you need to be included in the register of creditors and wait for the end of the bankruptcy procedure, which can last several years.

No problems with the tax authorities. If the tax office considers that you have not sufficiently checked the integrity of a potential counterparty, you may be denied a tax benefit. That is, you will not be able to pay less taxes - receive a tax deduction or apply a lower tax rate.

A case from one's life. After a tax audit, one company was assessed additional income tax and VAT in the amount of 10 million rubles. The fine and penalties amounted to another 4 million.

The reason for this was one supply contract. The tax office said that the company did not exercise due diligence when concluding the agreement: the counterparty could not conduct real business activities, did not pay taxes and generally existed only on paper.

We went to court, but he sided with the inspectorate. It turned out that the counterparty was completely excluded from the register of legal entities.

During the audit, the tax office found out that the passport of the person who signed the agreement on behalf of the counterparty does not exist, and the signatures are forged. Then the police got involved in this case and the real fun began. The police were looking for the undelivered goods, the general director, and raised awareness of all the partners of the dishonest contractor, including our unfortunate company, which eventually had to pay additional taxes and a fine.

Enforcement proceedings begin after cases are won in court. This suggests that the potential partner not only sues and loses, but also continues to not pay his bills.

On the same resource you can view tax debts; they are also collected through bailiffs.

Check the counterparty in the file of arbitration cases

If there is no power of attorney on the website or it has been revoked, the agreement cannot be signed - such a transaction may be declared invalid. First you need to contact the head of the counterparty, obtain evidence of approval of the transaction and request a new power of attorney.

Check license validity

If your counterparty must have a license to carry out activities, it is better to check its validity - you never know. Without a license, he simply does not have the right to enter into transactions.

The presence of a license can be viewed in an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities on the tax website, and its validity can be checked directly.

For example, you can check a license for the sale of alcohol in the register of licenses of the Federal Service for Regulation of the Alcohol Market, and for educational activities - in the register of licenses of the Federal Service for Supervision of Education and Science.

Inclusion in the register of unscrupulous suppliers does not immediately characterize the organization as unreliable. But together with other verification methods it will create an overall picture of the counterparty.

Regulations so as not to get confused and forget anything

On August 1, the tax office published more information about the companies in the public domain. But this information is why I have prepared the Counterparty Verification Regulations, which can be printed and attached to transactions. This way you will show the tax authorities or the court that you have checked your partner in as much detail as possible.

The regulations will also help you decide whether it makes sense to work with a potential counterparty.

I recommend considering all verification steps together. If a potential counterparty does not pass the verification in one or two steps, you can clarify the reasons with him and then decide to conclude an agreement. If you see that the counterparty has not passed the verification process for most of the steps, you should not take risks - look for a more reliable partner.

How to check a counterparty by TIN at the tax office?

You can check your counterparty by TIN using various paid services or by using the official resource of the Federal Tax Service. In our article we will tell you what information about the counterparty can be obtained on the official website of the Federal Tax Service and how to do it.

Explanations from the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation: why is it necessary to check the counterparty?

Checking information about a partner and assessing his reliability to a certain extent can reduce the risk of negative economic, production and tax consequences, for example, the refusal of the tax office to provide a VAT deduction due to the choice of an unscrupulous counterparty (see the resolution of the AS of the Ural region dated May 26, 2016 in the case No. A76-17369/2015, etc.).

At the same time, it is noted that the law does not define the term “due diligence”, and therefore the list of proposed measures aimed at checking the reliability of the counterparty is not closed and can be supplemented (as well as the list of documentation requested for verification) taking into account the circumstances in each specific case (see letter of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation dated May 12, 2017 No. AS-4-2/8872).

Thus, to conduct an audit of a counterparty, the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation recommends that the taxpayer, in order to minimize tax risks that may be associated with the establishment of a business relationship with a particular counterparty, conduct a number of checks in relation to such a counterparty for:

• lack of information about the counterparty in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities/Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs;
• registration of the counterparty at the mass registration address;
• presence/absence of the counterparty at the address indicated by him, etc.

In addition, other information about taxpayers is currently publicly available on the official website of the Federal Tax Service, including:

• about tax obligations fulfilled by the subject;
• tax offenses of the subject, etc.

Extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities on the website of the Federal Tax Service

You can check the availability of information about the counterparty in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities/Individual Entrepreneurs (hereinafter referred to as the Unified State Register of Legal Entities/Unified State Register of Entrepreneurs, respectively) on the official website of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation. The Federal Tax Service offers to check the counterparty by TIN using this service.

To do this, in the search form it is enough to indicate the TIN or OGRN of the counterparty being inspected. The check can also be carried out by the name of the organization / full name of the individual entrepreneur (hereinafter referred to as the individual entrepreneur).

Based on the results of the search, if the counterparty is not excluded from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities/Unified State Register of Legal Entities by the time of verification, an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities will be presented containing all the information provided for in Art. 5 of the Law “On State Registration of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs” dated 08.08.2001 No. 129-FZ (hereinafter referred to as the Law “On State Registration of Legal Entities”), by order of the Ministry of Finance “On approval of the composition of information...” dated December 5, 2013 No. 115n.

We will tell you below about what other resources you can use on the Federal Tax Service website to check the counterparty by TIN.

How to use the tax website to check a counterparty by TIN for liquidation, reorganization or upcoming exclusion from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities

Even if information about the counterparty at the time of its inspection is properly reflected in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, there is still a possibility that this entity may be in the process of liquidation or reorganization, which may entail certain negative consequences for its partners.

In order to eliminate these risks, you should use the following services on the website of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation:

• Messages from legal entities published in the journal “Bulletin of State Registration”. Using this link, you can check any information about the organization if it is subject to publication in this publication. These, in particular, include information about liquidation, reorganization, reduction of authorized capital, acquisition by LLC of 20% of the authorized capital of another organization, etc.
• Information published in the journal “Bulletin of State Registration” about the adopted registry. authorities make decisions on the upcoming exclusion of inactive legal entities from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. The administrative procedure for exclusion from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities is applied by the tax authorities in the case when an organization stops filing tax reports and does not carry out transactions on at least one of its bank accounts during the last 12 months preceding the date of the said decision reg. authority (Clause 1, Article 21.1 of the Law “On State Registration of Legal Entities”).

To work with these services, it is enough to know either the TIN or OGRN of the counterparty.

Checking the counterparty for registration at the mass registration address using the website of the Federal Tax Service

As practice shows, for the Federal Tax Service, the address of mass registration is one of the signs of a fly-by-night company. Therefore, if this sign is detected in the taxpayer’s counterparty, there is a possibility of negative tax consequences for the latter (we discussed them in the first section of our article).

In addition, the Federal Tax Service considers checking a counterparty by TIN (or on the basis of other data) for its registration at the address of mass registration of legal entities as a manifestation of due diligence when choosing a counterparty (letter of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation dated May 12, 2017 No. AS-4-2/8872 ).

You can check a company based on this criterion using the Addresses service specified during state registration as the location of several legal entities on the Federal Tax Service website.

In this case, to fill out the search form, you no longer need the company’s TIN, but the registration address indicated by it. If this address is found in the Federal Tax Service register, the taxpayer should think about the risks that cooperation with this counterparty may cause, and additionally carry out other recommended types of checks of the counterparty.

Similarly, it is worth checking the company in which the subject is going to join as a participant (including the only one).

Our other articles on this topic will also be useful:

• How to check the address of mass registration of legal entities? ;
• Legal address for registration of LLC, etc.

How to check whether a counterparty has paid tax

Has a potential business partner paid any other tax? Checking the counterparty by TIN on the website of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation will help answer this question.

At the moment, any entity can check the counterparty for the presence of tax arrears in the amount of over 1,000 rubles, which was sent for collection to the bailiffs using the service Information about legal entities that have tax arrears and/or have not submitted tax reports for more than a year.

As the name suggests, using the resource you can also identify a legal entity that has not submitted reports to the Federal Tax Service for more than 12 months, which means that it can be excluded from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities administratively.

To use the service, it is enough to know the INN/OGRN of the counterparty.

Like other publicly available information on the website of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation, information on this request is provided online and without charging a fee.

How can you check the head of an organization?

Currently, the taxpayer can obtain information not only about the counterparty as an organization, but also specifically about the head of the potential partner. To do this, users will find the following resources useful.

It is useful for any organization to know how to verify debts on taxes and contributions of a limited liability company. In this article, we will reveal the reasons why this may be necessary, what risks the lack of proper verification of the welfare of counterparties entails, and we will also provide two options for checking the debt of an LLC to the budget using the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) and list additional services that provide this opportunity.

Why is it necessary to check the debt of an LLC to the budget?

Legal services of companies, when concluding contracts with new counterparties, must check their welfare. One of the indicators of the reliability of an LLC is the absence of arrears in taxes and contributions. Along with this, verification is carried out both in the field of lending and in the field of settlements with other counterparties. Such information gives a more or less complete picture of how sustainable the company’s activities are.

Checking the debts of an LLC to the Federal Tax Service may also be necessary if a person wants to purchase this company.

Another reason why it may be necessary to check the debts of an LLC using the TIN is that the image of your company has sharply deteriorated for unknown reasons.

What risks can checking an LLC's debt on taxes and contributions eliminate?

As mentioned above, in order to assess the risks, before starting work with a new organization, it is necessary to check it for all calculation options. But what risks are we talking about?

Firstly, when purchasing an unverified LLC, you can run into problems with payment, that is, debts. This may apply not only to taxes, but also to settlements with counterparties.

The second significant risk is that if there are arrears in taxes and contributions, the LLC may declare itself bankrupt, which can lead organizations working with them to loss of funds.

The third risk is that when working with such a counterparty, claims from the tax authorities may arise.

Free method: checking the debt of an LLC to the budget using the TIN on the Federal Tax Service website

Basically, all checks of counterparties can be carried out knowing only their TIN or OGRN. Checking the debt of an LLC to the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation is no exception. You can check your tax debt using the official service on the Federal Tax Service portal; you don’t even have to register with it.

Important! In this service, you can check not only by TIN, but also by the name of the organization. However, the option using a TIN is still considered more reliable.

It should be noted that when checking through the Federal Tax Service, information on debtors is provided here only if the organization did not send the necessary reports during the year. The tax office will also provide information about debtors whose debt amounts to more than 1 thousand rubles.

Paid resources for checking debt by TIN in the “Checking counterparties” service

Along with free debt checking services, there are a number of paid ones. Their advantage is that, as a rule, they provide information not only on tax debts. In it you can check the non-current and current assets of the organization, information about reserves and liabilities, etc. In this article, we will look at checking an LLC in the “Checking Counterparties” service.

As an advantage of this service over similar others, I would like to note that upon initial registration it is provided free of charge for 24 hours.

On the page that opens, register in your personal account, then return to the same page and enter the TIN of the limited liability company being inspected in the search field. After this, all the necessary information will be displayed on the screen.

Other ways to check LLC tax debt

There are other ways to check tax debts and contributions of various organizations, including limited liability companies.

For example, you can send a corresponding request by registered mail to the Federal Tax Service.

Another way is to contact representatives of the organization that provides the audited company with services for sending financial statements to the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation, as well as to the Pension Fund of Russia and the Federal Social Service of the Russian Federation. However, it does not give a one hundred percent guarantee that if they provide the requested information, it will be true and accurate.

There are also various paid services, for example, Focus.Kontur or a service in the Glavbukh system. Sberbank of Russia also provides a service for checking the debts of counterparties.

Users of new versions of accounting and management information systems produced by the 1C company also have a chance to check the reliability of their counterparties. These systems have the 1C:Counteragent service, which is not activated. Its activation and connection occurs when the organization pays for the appropriate information technology support services.

Most of the refusals to recognize expenses as unfounded and tax deductions as unconfirmed are usually associated with unscrupulous counterparties.

Note: counterparty – an individual, individual entrepreneur or organization with whom you enter into a transaction or agreement. For these persons, you, in turn, also act as a counterparty.

“Shell companies” or “transit companies,” as tax authorities call them, are a stumbling block for taxpayers and regulatory authorities. The latter insist that responsibility for unscrupulous business partners should fall entirely on the shoulders of those who enter into a deal with them.

It is worth noting that there is no direct reference in legislative acts to the obligation to check the counterparty, but there is Resolution of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation No. 53, which provides criteria for assessing the validity of obtaining a tax benefit.

Note: tax benefit - reducing the amount of tax payable to the budget through the use of deductions, accounting for expenses incurred, reducing the tax rate, using benefits, etc.

Examples of obtaining tax benefits are declaring VAT deductions and recognizing income tax expenses on the special tax system, taking into account costs when calculating the simplified tax system “income minus expenses,” applying benefits, etc.

In accordance with Resolution No. 53, a tax benefit may be recognized as unjustified (illegal) if it is proven that the organization or individual entrepreneur did not exercise the due degree of care and diligence when choosing a counterparty.

note that Resolution No. 53 does not contain clear instructions on what measures the taxpayer must take in order for the Federal Tax Service to recognize his actions as meeting the criteria of prudence and caution. In this connection, the tax office may refuse even if all possible measures to verify business partners have been carried out. This is due to the fact that tax authorities are vested with a much wider range of powers than ordinary taxpayers.

Cooperation with unverified business partners may also expose the entrepreneur to the risk of being subject to an unscheduled on-site inspection. This is directly stated in paragraph 12 of the Concept of the planning system for on-site tax audits.

How to check a counterparty

• Free electronic services (Federal Tax Service, Federal Antimonopoly Service, Federal Bailiff Service, Federal Migration Service, VAS, etc.);
• Paid electronic services (My Business “Bureau”, Contour “Focus”, Taxcom “Dossier”);
• Requests to government agencies (IFTS, Rosstat);
• Request a package of documents from the counterparty;
• Assessing the activities of a business partner (checking business reputation, studying the counterparty’s website and reviews of people who collaborated with him);
• A personal meeting.

Free electronic services

You can check your counterparty for free using a large number of electronic services provided by government agencies.

Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation (“Check yourself and your counterparty”)

To obtain information, you must indicate the TIN or name of the supplier being checked.

Main Directorate for Migration Issues of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation

Using this service, you can check the authenticity and validity of the passport data of the general director of an organization or individual entrepreneur.

Note: when conducting a verification of a counterparty, it is better to save all received information in the form of screenshots, so that later you can confirm the care and diligence shown.

Paid services for checking counterparties

You can also check the counterparty using paid Internet services:

• My business is "Bureau";
• Contour "Focus";
• Taxi "Dossier" and others.

Written requests to government agencies

Tax office

You can request information from the Federal Tax Service regarding the existence of debt on mandatory payments from the inspected counterparty, as well as receive an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.

Note: the tax authority may refuse to provide information regarding violations of tax legislation and the presence of arrears on taxes and fees, citing tax secrecy, but the fact that this request was made will serve as further evidence of the taxpayer’s good faith when choosing a counterparty.

Extracts from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities can be obtained by contacting the tax office in person, or by filling out a request on the website of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation.

The cost of a paper document will be 200 rubles (state fee for the service of issuing a document) if the document is produced within 5 days and 400 rubles for urgent issuance of a certificate.

Receiving an electronic statement is not subject to state duty.

Note: paper and electronic statements are considered equivalent.

Federal State Statistics Service – Rosstat

You can obtain data on annual financial statements by submitting a written request to the territorial statistics office.

Self-regulatory organization - SRO

If the counterparty’s activities involve obtaining a license or permission to perform certain types of work, you can verify the authenticity of the document provided by making a request to the SRO that issued the specified permit.

Requesting a package of documents from a future counterparty

List of documents that it is advisable to request from the counterparty:

1. A copy of the constituent document;
2. Certificate of state registration of a legal entity or individual entrepreneur;
3. Decision on the appointment of the General Director;
4. License (if the work performed requires it);
5. Data on staffing levels;
6. Annual financial statements;
7. Extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities;
8. Documents confirming the rights of persons acting without a power of attorney;
9. Card with sample signatures and seal impression (if available);
10. Certificate on the status of settlements with the budget;
11. Recommendations from persons who collaborated with the counterparty;
12. Certificate of value of fixed assets.

Note: the signature of the general director or a person authorized to act without a power of attorney must be compared with those indicated on the card.

Before concluding a contract, the company finds out what is known about the potential business partner. To check a counterparty, it is convenient to use the free service of the Federal Tax Service. Go to the tax office website and get the necessary information.

Attention! You are on a professional website with specialized legal content. Registration may be required to read this article.

To quickly check a counterparty, the Federal Tax Service offers its own free service

One of the stages of preparation for a transaction is obtaining information about the future counterparty. If the companies have not interacted before, you need to find out how the counterparty conducts business, how reliable it is, and whether there are any problems with the tax authorities or other companies. This will allow you to predict the risks of the transaction and reduce them. In addition, the company is required to exercise caution: if it enters into an agreement with an unreliable counterparty or a shell company, the consequences of this fall on it. In particular, the Federal Tax Service may regard such a transaction as an attempt to evade tax obligations. The company will have to pay additional taxes or spend time challenging the accrual.

To avoid negative consequences, find out about your future business partner, who runs the company, whether it really exists at the specified address, etc. You can check the counterparty by TIN or other data on the official website of the Federal Tax Service nalog.ru (even if you enter “ tax.ru" in Russian, the search engine will automatically redirect to the tax website, and the verification service will be available). You can get information about the company:

• by TIN,
• according to OGRN,
• by name.

How to check a counterparty on the tax website

Checking the counterparty and obtaining information about it using the Federal Tax Service website will not take much time: it is enough to know the TIN or name. The step-by-step algorithm is as follows:

1. Open the main page of the site.
2. Find the “Electronic Services” section on it.
3. In the section, select the link “Business risks: check yourself and your counterparty.”

On the verification page:

1. Select the “Legal entity” option if the counterparty is an organization, or “Individual entrepreneur/peasant farm” if you are going to conclude a deal with an individual entrepreneur.
2. Enter your INN, OGRN or company name into the search form. When entering a name, you can also indicate the region in which its main office is located, but this is not necessary. To search for information about an individual entrepreneur, instead of the OGRN, enter the OGRNIP, and instead of the name, enter the full name and region of residence.
3. Enter a verification combination of letters and numbers.
4. Click Find.

If the system has information about the person you are interested in, it will provide it.

When checking, the tax website provides information about the counterparty from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities

The information that you receive during the verification is data from the register of legal entities (or the Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs, if you are checking an individual entrepreneur). The system generates a file in PDF format for downloading. In particular, the file contains information:

• on company registration;
• about the registration authority;
• about tax registration;
• on registration of the policyholder with the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation and the Social Insurance Fund;
• on the authorized capital (share capital, authorized capital, share contributions);
• about the head of the company who has the right to act on its behalf without a power of attorney;
• about the scope of the company’s activities according to OKVED;
• about company licenses;
• about representative offices and branches;
• about changes in information in the registry.

In case you need to confirm that you checked the counterparty, request an extract from the Federal Tax Service. It can be obtained in electronic format, the document is certified with an enhanced signature. To receive such an extract, please use the special form.

The tax office carefully analyzes the information that is provided to it when registering a new company or when a reorganization occurs, a change of director of an LLC, etc. As a rule, the data in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities is reliable. However, there is a risk that the counterparty provided incorrect or incorrect information, and this escaped the attention of the tax authorities. It also happens that the company did not report changes, although it was obliged to. And the registry data is outdated. This needs to be taken into account when you are vetting a future business partner. The more complete analysis you conduct, the lower the risks. On the Federal Tax Service website, you can independently check whether the company’s address is included in the mass list, and also whether its director is on the list of disqualified persons or among directors who have several companies listed at once. The site will also allow you to find out whether the counterparty has a significant tax debt. A positive answer to each of these questions may indicate an unsafe counterparty.

The process of verifying a counterparty can take a lot of time: you will need to use not only the Federal Tax Service website, but also other free resources: a file cabinet of arbitration cases, Federal Resources, etc. The “Counterparty Verification” service will save time and effort. The service is paid, but you don’t have to collect information from various resources yourself: the system will do it for you. The depth and variety of the check depends on which tariff you use. But even with the simplest tariff, you will receive information that will allow you to assess the risks of the transaction.

Checking counterparties for reliability