The Russian Federal Tax Service has clarified the procedure to be followed by taxpayers claiming subsidies when they have tax arrears

According to Resolution No. 576 of the Russian Government dated 24 April 2020, one of the conditions that SMEs from the “most affected” sectors should meet to be entered into the register of subsidy recipients is that they should not have had tax arrears of over RUB 3,000 as at 1 March 2020. This amount is calculated taking into account all the existing arrears and overpayments (penalties, fines and interest are not taken into account).

However, in accordance with Resolution No. 658 of the Government dated 12 May 2020 (which comes into force tomorrow) the tax authority should take into account not only the arrears as at 1 March, but also the data on settling such arrears as at the date of the subsidy application. That is to say, the tax authority may not refuse to enter the taxpayer into the list of subsidy recipients referring to arrears as at 1 March 2020 if such arrears have subsequently (before the application date) been repaid.

Besides, in the event a taxpayer does not agree that it has arrears, the Russian Federal Tax Service proposes as follows:

• checking the settlements in the legal entity’s (individual entrepreneur’s) personal account;
• requesting a statement of payments to the state budget or a reconciliation statement from the tax authority, including via TCC;
• after the specified reconciliation, in the event the taxpayer does not confirm the result of such reconciliation, it should submit to the inspectorate a well-grounded request for the arrears to be settled.

Source: https://www.nalog.ru/rn77/taxation/debt/psub_576/