The FNS has become more active in checking companies that have moved to preferential regions for low simplified tax system rates. Even those who changed their registration several years ago and have long been listed in a "cheap" region are being questioned, lawyers told Forbes.
The scheme is known as "tax tourism". A company formally registers where the rate is lower, for example, 1% instead of the standard 6%, but employees, clients, cash registers, warehouses, and management remain in Moscow, St. Petersburg, or another region.
Now the inspection looks not at the address in the documents, but at where the business actually operates. The FNS sees where payments come from, where employees work, where counterparties are located, and where key decisions are made. If all this does not match the preferential registration, the company may be summoned to a commission and offered to pay additional tax at the general rate.
Moreover, additional charges are increasingly being attempted without a full on-site inspection – through a commission or desk audit. For businesses, this is a signal: simply moving "on paper" no longer works, even if the scheme has been going on for years.
The problem is that normal companies with remote teams, internet projects, and a distributed structure can also be affected. Their connection to the region may be genuine, but now they will have to prove it with documents, an office, employees, and real activity on site.
Read more on the topic:
- When a transfer to mom became a tax issue: the State Duma appealed to the FNS
- The Federal Tax Service Will Check All Cross-Border Transfers Over Three Years: Sham Loans and Advances in Focus
- More than 200 thousand rubles a month and you are under scrutiny: The Federal Tax Service is targeting "gray" incomes