What does business want from management company – Economics – Kommersant

The issues that businesses still have to deal with criminal law enforcement were discussed yesterday at the Business Russia site. The expert center of the business association for criminal law policy and enforcement of judicial acts reported on the prepared draft law, which involves amending articles 159.7 and 159.8 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on VAT refunds for tax compositions. “Today, cases of tax fraud are qualified under the ordinary parts of Article 159 (fraud.— “b”) – this means that the entrepreneur cannot count on any guarantees provided for by law: it is impossible, in particular, to compensate for damage and thus be exempted from criminal liability. In addition, such cases cause serious damage to the reputation,” says Ekaterina Avdeeva, head of the expert center.

The number of crimes qualified under these articles is growing (370 in ten months of 2022 against 297 for the entire 2020) – this is also why a specialized team is needed to clarify exactly how the entrepreneur violated the law, according to Delovaya Rossiya. The Federal Tax Service supports the initiative of the business community, but at the same time notes that bringing to criminal responsibility is a “good prevention” of tax crimes: the Federal Tax Service does not remember relapses in such cases.

In the future, members of the expert center propose to change parts of the articles of the Criminal Code related to fraud in the performance of government contracts. The point is to provide business with the same guarantees that are already provided for it under the “traditionally entrepreneurial” articles. Due to the lack of such guarantees, according to Delovaya Rossiya, entrepreneurs are afraid to work in this area.

Some of the proposals that were discussed yesterday at the organization’s site are systemic: experts propose to allocate a separate structural unit in the prosecutor’s office to oversee the observance of the rights of business representatives during the investigation of criminal cases, as well as to create a probation center for entrepreneurs, where it will be possible to receive advisory, methodological and psychological help. The main thing that the participants of the meeting expect is the adoption of amendments to humanize the criminal legislation, which, on behalf of Vladimir Putin, were developed by the Ministry of Justice (see “Kommersant” dated August 5).

Christina Borovikova