On January 27, the Moscow Region Federal Tax Service held a webinar "Public catering industry project of the Federal Tax Service". 

Business and public associations of the region representing the interests of business and entrepreneurship were invited to participate the event. Among the participants are representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Moscow Region, regional branches of the All-Russian public organizations of small and medium-sized enterprises "OPORA RUSSIA", the All-Russian public organization "Business Russia", the regional office of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

    Representatives of the Federal Tax Service of Russia for the Moscow Region made speeches at the event: expert of the Legal Support Center at the Russian Union of Taxpayers (RSN), leading lawyer of the law firm Yurlov and Partners, consultant on taxes and fees Nikita Boltinsky.

    The event was moderated by Vadim Vinokurov, Chairman of the Moscow Regional Branch of the RSN, Chairman of the Public Council under the Federal Tax Service of Russia for the Moscow Region.

Within the framework of the online conference, the following issues were considered:

- on the goals of the sectoral project related to the whitewashing of the public catering sector, determining the reasons that contribute to the concealment of proceeds in this area;

- on the development of mechanisms and proposals aimed at withdrawing public catering enterprises from the shadow sector;

- on control measures carried out by tax authorities in relation to dishonest taxpayers;

- on the need to use cash register equipment with the issuance of a cash register receipt containing the required details when providing catering services, on the possibility of checking such receipts by citizens, users of catering services.

    According to the Federal State Statistics Service, in the dynamics of industry development since 2017, there has been both a quantitative increase in public catering facilities (at the end of 2017 - 180 329 units, 2018 - 182 954 units, 2019 - 185 396 units), and an increase in gross  turnover in monetary terms (at the end of 2017 - 1,524,490 million rubles, 2018 - 1,621,608 million rubles, 2019 - 1,763,293 million rubles), the exception is 9 months of 2020, which recorded a decrease in the industry turnover  about 20%, due to the restrictions adopted to prevent the spread of coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

    As the organizers of the webinar noted, the peculiarities of the provision of services in the field of public catering and the prevailing mentality of consumers allowed the formation of risks of making settlements without the use of cash registers or with data transfer in violation of the procedure for using cash registers.

    According to the tax service, an increase in gross turnover in total terms over previous years, an increase in the number of public catering facilities and the presence of the listed risks, oblige the tax authorities to take preventive measures to eliminate the negative consequences for the economy in the public catering services associated with incomplete reflection of revenue . 

    And as a result, in order to whitewash the public catering sector, the Federal Tax Service, through a set of measures aimed at identifying the reasons contributing to the concealment of proceeds in the provision of public catering services, has launched the Public Catering sector project.

    As the Moscow Region Business Ombudsman Vladimir Golovnev said, for a start, the tax authorities plan to inform taxpayers about the implementation of this project.

    “The Regional Institute of the Commissioner, our public receptions will definitely connect to additional informing of the catering business about the mandatory use of cash registers and the possible consequences of violations. 

    I would like to remind you that we will not be able to protect those who do not comply with the laws, so it is better not to violate them, ”said Vladimir Golovnev.

    Currently, the tax authorities are taking measures to identify violators, including through constant monitoring of settlements, subject to the mandatory use of online CRE, for inclusion in the inspection plans and carrying out appropriate control measures.

    Within the framework of the risk-oriented approach, not only the availability of information of data resources of the tax authorities about unstable behavior in transactions made by the taxpayer at the cash register is analyzed, but also the main indicators characterizing the activities of the taxpayers. 

    The most common violations of the law that are identified in the analysis are:

- non-use of cash control equipment.  There are more cases when sellers ask buyers to transfer funds for a sold product or service rendered by phone number, to a bank card;

- failure to issue a check;8

- issuance of a check with incorrect details.  The date, time and place (address) of the settlement are not indicated or incorrectly indicated on the cash register receipt;  the name of the organization or the full name of the individual entrepreneur;  the taxation system used in the calculation;  the name of the product (service);  calculation amount;  form of payment (payment in cash and (or) by bank transfer);  QR code;  in the field "Cashier" the full name of the seller who sold the goods is missing or incorrect.

    Violation of the requisite composition of the check in terms of the absence or incorrect indication of the name of the seller who sold the goods is most common among individual entrepreneurs.

    Attention!  These violations are revealed by the tax authorities at workplaces without going to the place of making settlements as part of the analysis of the taxpayer's activities.

    Thus, after the information campaign, the tax authorities will initiate appropriate control measures against taxpayers in the catering sector based on the information collected as part of the analytical work.

    In addition, according to the tax service, civil control helps to identify taxpayers working in the public catering sector who violate the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation on the use of CCP, including by checking the legality of a cash register receipt through a free mobile application, with the help of which  if you have any questions, you can send a complaint to the Federal Tax Service of Russian Federation. 

    For non-use of cash registers or for the use of cash registers in violation of the procedure for registering cash register equipment established by law, the procedure, terms and conditions for its re-registration, the procedure and conditions for its use, administrative liability is provided for under Art.  14.5 of the Russian Federation Administrative Code. 

    At the same time, the penalty for non-use of CCP directly depends on the amount of calculation carried out without the use of CCP, but not less than 10 thousand rubles for officials and at least 30 thousand rubles for legal entities, and for the repeated commission of an administrative offense, expressed in the non-use of a CCP, any taxpayer, regardless of the organizational form, may receive a suspension of activities for up to 90 days if the total amount of settlements made without a CCP is one million or more.

    The limitation period for bringing to responsibility, calculated from the date of the relevant offense, for all violations related to the use of CCP, has been increased to 1 year (part 1 of article 4.5 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation).

    At the same time, a taxpayer who voluntarily declared to the tax authority in writing that he did not use CCP in the cases established by the legislation of the Russian Federation on the application of CCP and voluntarily fulfilled the obligation before the ruling on an administrative offense is issued, for non-fulfillment or improper execution of which he is brought to administrative responsibility, as well as a taxpayer who has sent a correction cash receipt to the tax authority (a strict correction reporting form) is released from administrative responsibility for an administrative offense provided for in Part 2, 4 or 6 of Art.  14.5 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, if the following conditions are met in aggregate:

- at the time of the person's application to the tax authority  with correct cashier's receipt, the tax authority did not have the relevant information and documents on the committed administrative offense;

 - the information and documents provided or the correction cashier's receipt (correction strict reporting form) are sufficient to establish the event of an administrative offense.