The tax office has blocked a bank account: what should a business owner do? What to do if your bank account is closed.

– an unpleasant and troublesome event for an entrepreneur. However, the financial organization must have a good reason for introducing such a restriction, and usually the basis is a decision of the Federal Tax Service related to the person’s debts or other violations (Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Also, the block is imposed by the bank’s financial monitoring on suspicion of illegal transactions and dubious payments. In any case, the account owner must know what steps need to be taken to unfreeze the current account.

How to solve a problem

Upon receipt of notification that it is impossible to carry out transactions on the account, the company has the right to agree to the requirements of the Federal Tax Service and repay the debt. A company can also appeal a tax decision if, in its opinion, the action taken is unlawful. However, the company does not have the right to open new accounts if the main ones are blocked (Article 76, paragraph 12 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

Cancellation of account blocking is carried out:

• By decision of a judicial authority.
• According to the decision of the Federal Tax Service sent to the bank.
• According to the verdict of another higher department in accordance with the norms of the federal legislation of the Russian Federation.

If the decision to lift the blocking was made on the basis of other federal laws, additional tax consent to carry out such an action is not required (clause 3 of Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

Correct sequence

If an inaccessible account is detected, the company is obliged to quickly find out the reason for its blocking. In a financial institution, bank employees must provide information about the document (its number and date) on the basis of which the account was “frozen.” The company representative needs to go to the tax office and use the details of the decision to find out the reason and the initiator of the blocking.

• Debt. The tax office is presented with a bank statement confirming the repayment of the debt and additional penalties. The blocking is lifted the next business day after receiving the statement.
• Failure to provide a receipt for sending electronic documents or absence of a declaration. After submitting the relevant receipts and attached documents, the Federal Tax Service will remove the blocking on the next business day.

The bank does not have the right to remove restrictions from the account from the moment it receives the decision to block it until the sending of permitting documents from the Federal Tax Service. At the moment, accounts are unblocked very quickly. If previously decisions of authorities were transmitted by courier, now they are sent to financial institutions via electronic channels, which significantly speeds up the unblocking process.

In case of illegal blocking and delay in lifting restrictions, the taxpayer has the right to take legal action. At the same time, he has the right to demand from the tax authorities the payment of interest on the amount of funds blocked unlawfully (clause 9.2 of Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). However, if restrictions are imposed for objective reasons, the taxpayer is obliged to resolve the issue of “unfreezing”, since during this period he is deprived of the right to open accounts in other banks.

Companies often have their accounts frozen, and the unblocking of the account can be delayed by tax authorities for several months. In accordance with Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, a temporary cessation of transactions on bank accounts can bring huge losses to companies and entrepreneurs, and even a couple of days of seizure of bank accounts can have serious negative consequences.

This article will discuss whether it is possible to more quickly remove the seizure from a current account using legal methods and what is the most appropriate way to do this.

Seizure of funds in the account and blocking of the current account

What measures exist to limit the rights to dispose of funds in the bank accounts of organizations? From a legal point of view ( Article 858 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation), there are two restrictions:

• Seizure of funds that are in the account of an organization or entrepreneur;
• Suspension (blocking) of transactions on a current account.

Situations related to account seizure and comments on them

When is an account blocked?

According to paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the Federal Tax Service may suspend transactions on a current account in the following cases:

• When an organization or individual entrepreneur failed (ignored) to pay taxes (fines or penalties) upon request from the Federal Tax Service;
• When a tax return was not submitted by the due date.

In the first case, in accordance with paragraphs 3 and 4 of paragraph 2 of Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, transactions for spending funds are suspended by the bank within the amount that was specified in the decision on suspension, the remaining amounts, in addition to those seized, according to the letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation No. 03-02- 07/1-268, dated 07/09/2008 and No. 03-02-07/1-304 dated June 21, 2007, can be used by organizations and individual entrepreneurs for their intended purpose.

In the second case, according to information from the letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation No. 03-02-07/1-182 dated April 17, 2007, there are no restrictions on the amount of blocking, and, therefore, organizations and individual entrepreneurs do not have the right to spend these funds from their account accounts. It is important to note that new arrivals are also subject to blocking.

So, how long does the blocking of a current account last? The answer to this question is information from paragraph 7 of Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, on the basis of which we can say that the blocking of accounts lasts from the moment the bank receives a decision from the Federal Tax Service or the Federal Customs Service to suspend operations on the organization’s accounts until the moment this decision is cancelled.

On what basis can the account seizure be lifted?

We list the solutions that serve as the basis for unblocking a current account:

• Decision of the Federal Tax Service;
• The court's decision;
• Decision of any other body or department in accordance with the norms of the legislation of the Russian Federation.

Question: Is it possible for a bank to unblock the account of an organization or individual entrepreneur after it receives from a representative of the organization or individual entrepreneur a copy of the decision to cancel the blocking of the account from the Federal Tax Service or the Federal Customs Service?

Answer: No, such an outcome is not possible.

A comment: The bank (its representative) can receive a decision to unblock an account from the Federal Tax Service or the Federal Customs Service against a receipt or in electronic form (this is important in order to know exactly the date of receipt of this decision), in accordance with paragraph 4 of Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation and paragraph 6 of Article 155 of Federal Law No. 311 dated November 27, 2010

Consequently, no copy of the decision to unblock the account can serve as a basis for the bank to cancel the suspension of operations on the account; only the original of this decision has an impact on the bank’s actions in relation to the blocked account. This opinion is also confirmed in letters of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation No. 03-02-07/1-150 dated March 30, 2007, No. 03-02-07/1-266 dated May 31, 2007.

How is the account unblocked?

Situations related to account unblocking

Legal ways to help speed up the unlocking process

Blocking a company's current account by the tax office is not a rare procedure. The Federal Tax Service has quite a lot of reasons for suspending debit transactions on an account. However, amendments to the legislation are being prepared, as a result of which tax authorities will have even more reasons to “freeze” the account. For BUKH.1S, a tax and accounting expert spoke about the reasons and consequences of account blocking Angelina Volkonskaya.

The concept of “account blocking,” which we use in this article, means the suspension of debit transactions on the taxpayer’s bank account. That is, if the account is blocked, there are no problems with crediting funds, the only difficulty is with writing them off (with the exception of some amounts, which we will talk about a little later).

6 reasons to block your current account

There are several reasons for suspending operations on company accounts.

1. The company did not file a tax return within 10 days after the expiration of the deadline established for filing (clause 1, clause 3, article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Failure to submit declarations (even if no activity was carried out during this period) may cause the account to be blocked. Therefore, you should not delay filing “zero” declarations. But if the tax office at one time missed the fact of non-filing of a declaration, and discovered this only three years later, then it can no longer block the account.

Sometimes a company may face blocking of an account even if it submitted a declaration on time, but the Federal Tax Service refused to accept it for good reasons. The reasons for refusing to accept the declaration are given in clause 28 of the Administrative Regulations, approved. By Order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated July 2, 2012 No. 99n. This could be, in particular, the use of an unspecified form or format for submitting the declaration, the absence of a manager’s signature, etc. But an error in indicating the checkpoint is not a good reason, because it is not included in this list. Consequently, it cannot be a basis for refusal to accept a declaration and, accordingly, a reason for blocking an account (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated July 4, 2013 No. 03-02-07/1/25589).

Please note that all of the above does not apply to declarations that must be submitted at the end of the reporting period and not the tax period (for example, income tax returns for the first quarter), since clause 3 of Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation refers specifically to the tax return. A tax return means a declaration submitted at the end of the tax period. Such clarifications are contained in letters of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated August 19, 2016 No. 03-11-03/2/48777, Federal Tax Service of Russia dated December 11, 2014 No. ED-4-15/25663. The Supreme Court came to this conclusion in its ruling dated March 27, 2017 No. 305-KG16-16245.

But with regard to the calculation of insurance premiums (for pension, insurance and medical insurance), there is no complete clarity, since the tax and financial departments cannot come to a common opinion. The Federal Tax Service of Russia believes that failure to submit this calculation may lead to account blocking (letter dated January 27, 2017 No. ED-4-15/1444), while the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation in letter dated January 12, 2017 No. 03-02-07/1/556 cites exactly the opposite explanations.

We believe that local tax authorities will adhere to the position of their department, so it is better not to be late in submitting calculations for insurance premiums. In addition, in the near future this basis will most likely officially appear in tax legislation (the bill “On Amendments to Part One of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation in Connection with Improving Tax Administration” is currently undergoing public discussions). By the way, the appearance of this project confirms the illegality of the position of the Federal Tax Service, which requires blocking accounts now, when the corresponding amendments have not yet been adopted.

Cheat sheet on the article from the editors of BUKH.1S for those who do not have time

1. Reasons for suspending debit transactions on the account:

• The company did not file a tax return within 10 days after the expiration of the deadline established for filing (clause 1, clause 3, article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). This does not apply to declarations that must be submitted at the end of the reporting period and not the tax period.
• The company did not fulfill the requirement of the Federal Tax Service to pay taxes (penalties, fines, insurance contributions) (clause 1 of Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).
• The company did not ensure receipt of documents in electronic form from the tax inspectorate under the TKS within 10 days from the day the Federal Tax Service Inspectorate revealed the fact of failure to fulfill such an obligation (subclause 1.1, clause 3, article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).
• The company, obliged to submit tax reporting electronically, did not timely send to the INFS an “electronic” receipt for the receipt of documents sent to it by the tax inspectorate as part of tax control.
• The tax inspectorate has concerns that the decision made based on the results of the tax audit will not be implemented, since the total value of the company’s property according to accounting data is less than the total amount of arrears, penalties and fines specified in the decision.
• The company, which is a tax agent for personal income tax, did not submit a calculation in form 6-NDFL to the tax inspectorate within 10 working days after the deadline established for its submission (clause 3.2 of article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

2. There is no complete clarity regarding the calculation of insurance contributions (for pension, insurance and medical insurance). The Federal Tax Service of Russia believes that failure to submit this calculation may lead to blocking of the account, while the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation has the opposite position.

3. Failure to submit financial statements should not be a reason for blocking an account.

4. Tax authorities do not warn about the upcoming blocking of the account.

5. Even if the account is completely blocked (for example, due to failure to submit a declaration), it is possible to make some types of transfers (for example, paying taxes, paying wages, payments for which belong to the third priority).

6. To unblock a current account, it is enough to fulfill the tax authorities’ requirement and inform her about it. The account will be unblocked within 24 hours.

As for financial statements, failure to submit them should not be a reason for blocking the account (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated July 4, 2013 No. 03-02-07/1/25590).

By the way, the tax authorities will not warn you about the upcoming blocking of your account. In a letter dated July 28, 2016 No. AS-3-15/3463, the Federal Tax Service of Russia clarified that it considers it inappropriate to inform taxpayers in advance about the upcoming suspension of transactions on their bank accounts in case of violation of the deadline for submitting a tax return.

Account blocking

Has the tax office blocked your company's accounts?

2. The company did not fulfill the requirement of the Federal Tax Service to pay tax(penalties, fines, insurance premiums) (clause 1 of Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). If the requirement is not fulfilled within the prescribed period, then first the Federal Tax Service will send a decision to collect the tax, and then a decision to suspend operations (clause 2 of Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

In this case, the current account is blocked in order to ensure the execution of the decision to collect the arrears.

The bank must stop debit transactions on the account only within the amount specified in the decision on suspension. The suspension of operations should not apply to funds in excess of the amount specified in the said decision of the tax authority (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated April 11, 2016 No. 03-02-08/20569).

Unfortunately, in practice it happens differently.

3. The company did not ensure receipt of documents in electronic form from the tax office under the TKS within 10 days from the day when the Federal Tax Service revealed the fact of failure to fulfill such an obligation (subclause 1.1, clause 3, article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). This obligation arises for those companies that must submit tax reports exclusively electronically. The list of such companies is given in clause 3 of Article 80 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. These include:

• organizations whose average number of employees for the previous calendar year is more than 100 people;
• newly created (reorganized) organizations, if during the month of creation (reorganization) the number of employees exceeded the limit of 100 people;
• largest taxpayers;
• other organizations for which such an obligation is provided for by part two of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation in relation to a specific tax (insurance contributions).

The last category includes the majority of VAT payers, as well as payers of insurance premiums, if the average number of citizens in whose favor payments are made subject to insurance premiums for the previous billing (reporting) period exceeds 25 people (clause 5 of Article 174 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, p. .10 Article 431 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

In this case, no later than five days before making a decision to suspend transactions on accounts on this basis, tax authorities must send an information letter to the organization. The form of the letter is given in Appendix No. 2 to the Letter of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated June 29, 2016 No. ED-4-15/11597. It will recommend checking the possibility of receiving documents from the Federal Tax Service sent electronically via TKS through an EDF operator.

The obligation to provide communication via TCS is considered fulfilled if the payer (his legal representative) has:

• agreement between the taxpayer and the e-document flow operator for the provision of relevant services with the given tax office at the place of registration;
• qualified certificate of the key for verifying the electronic signature of the legal representative of the taxpayer.

4. The company, obliged to submit tax reporting electronically, did not timely send to the INFS an “electronic” receipt for the receipt of documents that the tax inspectorate sent to it as part of tax control.

The fact is that when accepting documents in electronic form, the company is obliged to submit a receipt of their acceptance to the tax office (clause 5.1 of Article 23 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). And this must be done within 6 working days from the date they were sent by the Federal Tax Service.

Accordingly, if this obligation is not fulfilled, transactions on the company account may be suspended.

5. The tax inspectorate has concerns that the decision made based on the results of the tax audit will not be implemented, since the total value of the company’s property according to accounting data is less than the total amount of arrears, penalties and fines specified in the decision.

But before blocking the account, tax authorities must make a decision on taking interim measures in the form of a ban on the alienation (pledge) of all the organization’s property (clause 2, clause 10, article 101 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

6. The company, which is a tax agent for personal income tax, did not submit a calculation in form 6-NDFL to the tax inspectorate within 10 working days after the deadline established for its submission (clause 3.2 of article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

To identify such situations, the Federal Tax Service will take into account the facts of personal income tax transfer to the budget, as well as the facts of submitting certificates in form 2-personal income tax and other information that indicates that the company has an obligation to submit 6-personal income tax (letter of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated 08/09/2016 No. GD- 4-11/14515).

What can you pay for from a blocked account?

You cannot make debit transactions on an account that is blocked. For example, you cannot make transfers to counterparties from it. However, this does not mean that all movement on the account stops. If only part of the funds in the account is blocked (this is possible if the blocking occurred due to non-payment of taxes, penalties, fines, insurance premiums), then the organization can carry out any expense transactions regarding the “balance”.

But even in the event of a complete blocking of an account (for example, due to failure to submit a declaration), the company still has the opportunity to make, although not all, but some types of transfers. The fact is that paragraph 3 of paragraph 1 of Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation gives the right to exercise:

• payments, the priority of execution of which in accordance with civil legislation (clause 2 of Article 855 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation) precedes the fulfillment of the obligation to pay taxes, fees, insurance premiums (these are 1st, 2nd and 3rd priority);
• operations for writing off funds to pay taxes (advance payments), fees, insurance premiums, relevant penalties and fines and transferring them to the budget system.

Please note that, according to officials, the “freezing” of the account does not apply to the transfer of contributions “for injuries” that go to the Federal Social Insurance Fund of Russia (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated February 20, 2012 No. 03-02-07/1-41).

Thus, blocking the account will not prevent the company from paying timely, for example, current taxes (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated February 15, 2017 No. 03-02-07/1/8454), as well as paying its employees for wages, payments for which relate to third stage (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated 03/05/2014 No. 03-02-07/1/9536).

What to do to unblock a current account

It is clear that the current account of any company needs to be unblocked “yesterday”. The most important thing that needs to be done for this is to comply with tax requirements.

The reason for the blocking must be indicated in the decision of the Federal Tax Service, which it sends to companies by mail or via telecommunication channels.

If you have not received a decision, but the account is nevertheless blocked, you should find out the reason from the tax authorities. The date and number of the decision can also be provided by the servicing bank.

For all the reasons for blocking a current account, the scheme for lifting the seizure is the same - the tax inspectorate needs to provide what is not provided (declaration, receipt of electronic documents, etc.) and pay what is not paid (tax, fine, penalty).

After receiving documents or funds, tax authorities will unblock the account within 24 hours.

Good day, dear readers. Recently I was faced with the fact that a credit institution did not allow me to carry out a transaction to transfer funds to the details of another company. I had to figure this situation out.

Today we will talk about what to do if your bank has blocked your current account.

Blocking an account is an extremely difficult moment for any individual entrepreneur, LLC or JSC, since it suspends the activities of the enterprise for an indefinite period, which affects current income, the ability to make payments and generally carry out work in some way. And at the moment, accounts are being blocked more and more often, citing various checks, possible fraud or receipt of funds illegally. In connection with the tightening of anti-terrorism measures, banks are allegedly catching possible terrorist financing.

But today we will figure out what powers these organizations have, according to the legislation of the Russian Federation.

Restrictions or prohibitions on banking transactions

Try to figure out exactly what sanctions the bank has imposed on your account. A complete ban on debit transactions (seizure) and partial blocking of funds in the account is possible.

Blocking of funds on the account is carried out at the request of various government agencies, while it remains possible to write off funds in accordance with the priority in accordance with Article 855 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The arrest of an account can be carried out by courts, arbitration courts, judges and bailiffs on the basis of writs of execution.

Government agencies include:

• tax authorities
• Customs
• Federal Service for Financial Monitoring

Such measures began to be applied in connection with the tightening of the work of government services to identify financial crimes (money laundering, financing of criminal and extremist organizations) or in connection with non-fulfillment of obligations to pay taxes, payments or other violations.

Why can a bank refuse a transaction?

A credit institution has grounds for refusing to carry out an operation if it is regulated by law.
Refusal occurs if the client did not provide all the documents requested by the bank. Also, the operation may be canceled due to suspicion of possible participation of a person or organization in illegal activities of money laundering or transferring money to criminal organizations.

Suspicious transactions

Law No. 115-FZ “On combating the legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime and the financing of terrorism” specifies a list of operations that the bank has the right not to carry out. They require additional control and obtaining the necessary documents.

First of all, any actions with an amount exceeding 600 thousand rubles are controlled. This includes withdrawal, transfer, exchange for another currency and other procedures.

All transactions related to real estate begin to be controlled by the bank starting from an amount of 3 million rubles.

But this does not mean that the bank will not pay attention to amounts less than those indicated above.

There is a small list of signs that indicate a possible crime of a financial nature.
This list includes the following signs that indicate the unusual nature of the operation:

• The transaction is confusing, there is no obvious benefit or purpose.
• Inconsistency between the operation and the goals of the company's core business as described in the company's documents. Your bank has the right to refuse to perform a transaction if, for example, you are engaged in the retail trade of food products, and the transaction specifies the transfer of funds to the account of an automobile concern.
• Several similar actions in a row. If you try to split one large payment into several large ones, this will definitely be noticed. Then the bank has every reason to cancel the operation until the circumstances are clarified.
• Anxiety and concern about payment confidentiality. It may indicate that the client is trying to hide the action from the tax office or other government agencies.
• Requests to speed up the operation, especially when such haste is completely unjustified.

This is not a complete list of signs; here I have indicated only the main ones. However, the bank can always change and supplement it.

Accounts through which large sums periodically pass through but do not stay there for long come under suspicion. Or when funds go to newly registered companies.

Also, one of the suspicious signs can be considered large amounts of salaries, rent payments and other standard expenses of an unusually large size.

Documents required by the bank

If, nevertheless, you are suspected of illegal activity, the bank has the right to ask for anything. In this case, the law provides the credit institution with complete carte blanche. The bank, in addition to documents confirming payment information, may ask for tax extracts and other papers related to the enterprise. They may also request evidence of the legality of funds received into the client’s account.

Should you obey the bank?

Definitely worth it. In any case, if you really did not commit any illegal actions, providing the necessary documents will not be difficult. If you refuse, the credit institution has every right to refuse to carry out any transactions with your account. Litigation is usually useless. In most cases, the court is on the bank's side.

But if you provided all the necessary papers, and the operation does not go through, this is a reason to complain. It often happens that the bank does not even request documents, but simply cancels the transaction marked “suspicious”. In this case, be sure to write a corresponding complaint.

Where and how to apply?

Suspension of the work of an individual entrepreneur or LLC by freezing an account must be carried out in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation. If you are faced with a refusal to carry out any operation, while providing the documents necessary for the credit institution, you can calmly write a claim to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, Rospotrebnadzor, FAS or the prosecutor's office.

You can also file a claim against a credit institution in an arbitration court. The time frame for consideration of such cases, as a rule, does not take much time, and in this case, the court is usually on your side.

The bank has no authority to monitor cash flows or delay transactions without any reason. This is clearly stated in the Civil Code in Articles 845 and 849.

In addition, during the trial, it is the credit institution that is obliged to prove that there were reasons for canceling the operation and there are suspicions that the client is involved in any financial crimes.

If you win in court, you can recover from the bank all losses incurred during the account downtime, as well as compensate legal costs. Moreover, during the time the account was in such a suspended state, you are entitled to receive interest.

Only by taking the initiative can you punish the organization and get your money back.

Closing an account

If your company has decided to refuse bank services, you can always close the account. This procedure will not cause any particular difficulties for a legal entity or individual entrepreneur.

First of all, you must write a statement in which you indicate the details of the new account where the remaining money will be transferred. The credit institution will be required to send all funds within seven days after receiving the document.

However, the bank may resist and say that transferring a large amount of money from account to account is suspicious. In this case, the court will again help, recognizing such actions as unlawful and illegal.

The fact is that at the time the application is accepted, the agreement with the bank is terminated and any actions of the credit institution are invalid. Therefore, they have no right to control the actions of a person who is not their client.

But sometimes the contract specifies a commission, which is established when withdrawing balances to another account if the bank refuses to carry out any operations. It can reach 30% and its collection is quite legal. Be sure to read the agreement before writing an application to close the account.

Otherwise, you will have to go to court again to prove the illegality of such a collection. Or accept it and pay the commission.

Results

This article describes the necessary actions that an entrepreneur must take when canceling a banking transaction or freezing an account. Now you can competently respond to such situations.

Tax officials can block an organization’s bank account for various reasons. How to avoid this trouble and how to unblock a current account blocked by the tax office if this does happen?

The Federal Tax Service has the right to block or suspend transactions on a taxpayer's current account. Situations in which this is possible are strictly regulated by the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. However, the laws do not say how an entrepreneur or organization should act and how to unblock a bank account blocked by the tax authorities. So, what to do in this difficult situation? We have prepared instructions with examples of how you can quickly and without losses get out of such trouble and resume activities. After all, starting from 2014, the taxpayer will not be able to open a second current account and transfer all transactions to it.

The tax office blocked the account: causes and consequences

The right of the Federal Tax Service of Russia to block the current account of an organization is defined in Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, which contains an exhaustive list of reasons why banking operations may be temporarily suspended:

• the legal entity was late in submitting a tax return to the Federal Tax Service by 10 working days from the date of expiration of its submission (clause 1, clause 3, article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation);
• the tax agent did not submit the calculation in Form 6-NDFL to the Federal Tax Service within 10 working days from the date of expiration of its submission (clause 3.2 of Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation);
• the taxpayer did not comply with the request of the tax service to pay taxes, insurance contributions, penalties or fines (clause 2 of Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation);
• a taxpayer who, by virtue of the requirements of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, is obliged to submit reports in electronic form, did not submit to the tax service an electronic receipt for the receipt of a document received from the Federal Tax Service in electronic form within 6 days from the date of its receipt (clause 2, clause 3, article 76 Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

As follows from the letter of the Ministry of Finance dated 04/21/2015 N 03-02-08/22548, such documents include requirements for the submission of documents and for the provision of explanations, as well as notifications of summoning representatives of the organization to the tax office.

In addition, operations on the account may be suspended for the reasons specified in paragraph 10 of Article 101 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. If the Federal Tax Service decides that the organization does not comply with the decision that was made based on the results of a desk or on-site audit, due to the fact that the total value of its property, according to accounting data, is less than the amount of arrears, penalties and fines. However, in this case, before blocking the account, the Federal Tax Service must make a decision on interim measures in the form of a ban on the alienation (pledge) of all property of such a legal entity.

It must be said right away that the Pension Fund, the Social Insurance Fund and Rosstat do not have the right to block the bank accounts of organizations and individual entrepreneurs. The same as the Federal Tax Service in all other cases of violations of tax legislation, such as untimely provision of advance payments or balance sheets. There is no right to take this measure even if a calculation of insurance premiums is not provided. True, officials intend to change this point in the near future: the corresponding bill is already under consideration.

Let's look at how to unblock a bank account blocked by the tax authorities, an organization or an individual entrepreneur in different situations in more detail.

Blocking of a current account for failure to comply with tax authorities' demands to pay taxes or insurance contributions

This reason is provided for in paragraph 2 of Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, which states that the Federal Tax Service can limit the debtor’s banking operations only to the extent of the amount of arrears, the payment of which was demanded from him. All bank accounts are blocked and funds are debited from them until the arrears are fully repaid. If there are balances in several blocked accounts, the permissible limit may be exceeded.

Example : The organization had an income tax arrears in the amount of 5 thousand rubles; it was presented with a demand for payment of 7 thousand rubles, including penalties. The tax account was blocked, not just one, but transactions on all bank accounts of this organization, of which there were three. Each of them had a balance of 10 thousand rubles. Thus, the Federal Tax Service seized not the 7 thousand rubles stated in the demand, but 21 thousand rubles. This situation can only be resolved by sending a written application to the Federal Tax Service before the arrears are written off in triple the amount.

Blocking a current account for late submission of a declaration

If a taxpayer is delayed in submitting any of the declarations provided for by the Tax Code of the Russian Federation for more than 10 days, the Federal Tax Service has the right to restrict all transactions on his bank accounts. This is provided for by paragraph 3 of Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, as well as paragraph 6 of Article 6.1 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. Tax officials have this right only in relation to failure to submit tax returns; late submission of all other reports does not lead to such consequences. The account is blocked completely; its owner cannot manage it in full. The law exclusively allows payments related to labor relations and the payment of taxes and fees. Data on such payments and their order are given in the table.

Blocking a current account in the absence of a receipt confirming the taxpayer’s acceptance of electronic documents from the Federal Tax Service

The ability to limit bank transactions in the event of failure to submit an electronic receipt to the Federal Tax Service for receipt of documents or requirements is effective from January 1, 2015. The corresponding requirements are provided for in Article 23 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. Taxpayers are required to confirm receipt of documents sent to them from the Federal Tax Service within six days. An electronic receipt can be sent to the tax office via telecommunication channels upon receipt of the following documents:

• requirements for the submission of documents;
• requirements for providing explanations;
• notification of a call to the Federal Tax Service.

The Federal Tax Service blocks the account if a receipt is not submitted within 6 days, however, a decision can be made within 10 days after the expiration of this period. Therefore, the taxpayer still has time to correct the mistake and prevent blocking. The account is blocked completely. Mandatory payments are allowed in the same order as when blocked for failure to declare.

How to unblock a current account blocked by the tax office

If operations on bank accounts are suspended, it is necessary to act promptly, since the inability to fully use financial resources paralyzes the economic activities of an organization or entrepreneur. There is a common horror story among lawyers and tax agents that it is very difficult to remove restrictions and cannot be done without the help of specialists. In reality, everything is quite simple. It is important to respond adequately to the situation and act consistently and without panic.

The scheme of actions for each of the reasons for introducing restrictions is similar. Because it only involves three important steps. The result directly depends on the speed and accuracy of all actions.

Step 1. Finding out the reason why restrictive measures were introduced

In the bank branch where the current account is opened, you need to find out on the basis of which decision of the Federal Tax Service the operations were suspended. Employees of the credit institution must provide the date and number of this document. After this, you need to go to the Federal Tax Service and use the details of the decision to clarify who made it and why. Most often, the decision reaches the addressee through specialized communication channels a little later than it does to the bank. Finding out the reason for such measures will reduce the time to solve the problem.

Step 2. Eliminate the cause

When the reason why such unpleasant consequences occurred is known, it needs to be eliminated quickly. If there was a tax arrear, it must be paid off. If there was a delay with the declaration, the report must be sent to the Federal Tax Service. If there is no electronic receipt, it must be transferred, simultaneously fulfilling all the requirements from the document to which it concerned. The Federal Tax Service must be notified of the elimination of the reasons as soon as possible.

If restrictive measures are related to failure to submit a report or submitting it in the wrong format (on paper instead of TKS), then you need to arrange a connection to one of the special communication operators for.

Step 3. Informing the Federal Tax Service about the elimination of the violation

Usually unlocking occurs within 24 hours after the inspection receives money from the budget or the required reports or documents. To guarantee, you can exchange electronic documents with the Federal Tax Service (for example, you have a personal key or the organization uses the services of special intermediaries) and inform the inspectorate that the violation has been eliminated. Article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation establishes the following maximum terms for removing seizure from taxpayer accounts:

• in case of arrears - on the next business day after receiving a bank statement on payment of tax and penalties on demand;
• in the absence of a declaration - on the next business day after the submission of the declaration or calculation of 6-NDFL or documents confirming their submission earlier in time;
• in the absence of a receipt for acceptance of electronic documents - on the next business day after the receipt is transferred to the Federal Tax Service and the requested documents are submitted.

Before the introduction of specialized electronic communication channels, unblocking accounts took longer, because the decision of the Federal Tax Service was delivered to the bank by couriers. Currently, taxpayers are not involved in relations between the Federal Tax Service and banks, and data exchange takes a matter of minutes. By the way, if the bank’s financial monitoring has blocked the account of a legal entity for other reasons, for example, for suspicion of money laundering or terrorist financing, this instruction will not help and the algorithm of actions will be different.

Possible difficulties

1. The arrears have been repaid, but operations have not resumed

The time difference between making a payment and receiving funds to the budget can reach 3 days. You can speed up the unblocking process by submitting proof of tax payment to the Federal Tax Service. This may be a bank statement or an original payment order with a bank mark.

2. The account is blocked in one bank, and another bank refused to open an account

Until 2014, if an account in one bank was blocked, it was possible to open another account and work through it. Now banks are prohibited from opening new current accounts for individual entrepreneurs and organizations whose operations on existing accounts have been suspended. Therefore, you still have to eliminate the cause.