FTS repaired the UNS – Kommersant

The report of the Federal Tax Service (FTS) in the Federation Council coincided with the consideration by senators of the law on solving the main tax problem of the beginning of this year – the delay in the transfer of personal income tax to regional budgets due to the launch of the single tax account (UNS) mechanism. The head of the service, Daniil Yegorov, estimated the amount of personal income tax lost by the regions at 188 billion rubles – this money will reach the budgets before the end of the year. For the rest, the tax department considers the problems of the UNS to be generally resolved – previously limited in functionality, personal accounts of taxpayers are opened, and the amounts of payments credited with errors are rapidly declining.

The report of the head of the Federal Tax Service, Daniil Egorov, to the Federation Council was largely devoted to the state of the single tax account mechanism introduced in the Russian Federation on January 1 this year. Recall that we are talking about the formation of a balance of all accruals and payments of the taxpayer – the amounts are transferred to a single account in the treasury (indicating only the amount and TIN), and the tax authorities themselves distribute them on account of the payment of all taxes. The transition to the UNS, according to Daniil Egorov, took place, but “the implementation of the project did not go as we expected.”

Before turning to problems, the head of the Federal Tax Service reminded the senators of the reasons for the introduction of the UNS – in particular, massive errors in payments to the budget. Previously, out of 650 million such payments annually, 80 million were erroneous. In January-April 2023, the number of such revenues decreased by 2.5 times, and in general, the number of tax payments almost halved.

Daniil Egorov said that now the previously “frozen” personal accounts of taxpayers are gradually opening. Recall that the Federal Tax Service closed access to information on settlements with the budget due to the fact that some entrepreneurs were faced with unreasonable display of tax debts in their personal accounts. Because of this, a moratorium was even introduced on the collection of arrears until the completion of reconciliations between taxpayers and tax authorities (see Kommersant of January 31 and March 31). Daniil Egorov called the cause of the problems yesterday “errors in the code”. Now, according to him, personal accounts of 46 million individuals, 70 thousand legal entities and 800 thousand individual entrepreneurs have already been opened.

The problems of regions that have experienced cash gaps due to delays in the distribution of the single tax payment, apparently, will require more time to resolve. We are talking about the amounts of personal income tax that were not received by regional and local budgets, due to the fact that, first of all, they were directed to pay off taxpayers’ arrears on other taxes. To solve this problem yesterday, senators approved the law previously adopted by the State Duma on the priority and accelerated transfer of personal income tax to budgets (see Kommersant of May 18).

In development of this topic, the government, according to Daniil Egorov, has prepared another bill that provides for the preservation of tax overpayments at the disposal of the regions until the completion of desk audits of declarations or the receipt of an application from the taxpayer for a refund. There will also be an opportunity for tax agent companies to provide notifications of calculated personal income tax amounts twice a month (and, accordingly, transfer them to budgets just as often – and not once a month, as it is now).

Speaking about the dynamics of tax revenues in the budgets of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation as a whole, Daniil Egorov said that most of the problems have been overcome. Revenues to the regional budgets in January-April increased to 5.5 trillion rubles – by 10% in annual terms (taking into account the balance on the single account). The decrease in income from personal income tax, according to him, was due to a number of reasons. Due to an increase in the rate of return of overpayments, revenues decreased by 99 billion rubles, due to a decrease in income from dividends – by 58 billion rubles, due to a change in the terms of accrual – by another 47 billion rubles. The biggest minus to the budgets – 188 billion rubles – was given by the repayment of debts on other taxes at the expense of personal income tax due to the rules for distributing funds within the framework of the UNS. By the end of the year, Daniil Egorov assured, “this money will be evenly directed to income tax revenues – and this issue will be finally closed.”

Evgenia Kryuchkova