The Russian State Duma passed a bill on Friday sharply increasing fines for tax violations, as well as providing business tax credits, business daily "Kommersant" wrote today.
The government-sponsored tax administration bill, approved in a third reading, boosted fines which have not been reviewed for a decade and "do not have an effective impact on the offenders", government representatives told the State Duma.
The bill will increase the minimum fine for failure to submit tax returns by companies and individuals to 1,000 rubles from the current 100 rubles. For failure to submit documents to tax officials, the fine per document will increase fourfold to 200 rubles. The penalty for not providing information to the tax authorities rises to 5,000 rubles. A second violation within a year will incur a fine of 20,000 rubles.
The new law also specifies the conditions under which a company can prove to the Federal Tax Service that a delay in paying taxes can save it from bankruptcy.
According to the Finance Ministry's authors of the bill, the existing rules on deferment on tax payments are ineffective.
The bill also aims to modernize the economy by providing businesses investment tax credits (allowing payment of taxes in installments with interest payments for up to 5 years). In addition, the law specifies the procedure for cancellation and recognition of uncollectible debts for taxes, fines and penalties.
Currently, the Russian Government, regional and local authorities define these rules. Now they will be entered directly into the tax code. Tax debts will be written off if a court decides that it is impossible to pay them off because of the expired penalty.
MOSCOW, July 19 (RIA Novosti)
