Why is it always necessary to check contractors? Company Risks.

[Демитрий]

Why is it always necessary to check contractors?

Before making a transaction (especially if it is a major transaction), it is always necessary to make sure that the counterparty is reliable and conscientious. In addition to the risks associated with the counterparty's banal failure to fulfill the terms of the contract (supply of defective products, receivables, etc.), you also have great chances to be closely monitored by the tax inspectorate and Rosfinmonitoring if your counterparty is “cash-in”.

Tax risks:
● Extraordinary tax audit;
● VAT charge:
● Penalties.
Financial risks:
● Verification of Rosfinmonitoring banking operations;
● Blocking of a current account and bank cards, with further blacklisting of the company and denial of banking services.

Checking contractors is not only possible, but also necessary. It follows from judicial practice that the verification of counterparties is in the nature of a duty, since
when choosing counterparties, the taxpayer must exercise reasonable care and discretion in dealing with law-abiding partners. The position of the courts is such that in the event of an error in choosing a counterparty, negative consequences cannot be assigned to the budget. Since the taxpayer is completely free to choose partners and entrepreneurial activity is initially risky in nature, all risks and negative consequences of his choice are assigned to him in full
volume.

What are the ways to check counterparties?
The courts and the tax authorities indicate that before concluding a transaction it is necessary to request from the counterparty documents confirming the state registration of the legal entity and its registration with the tax authorities. However, requesting corporate documentation from the counterparty
is not yet a panacea for all ills. The counterparty’s corporate documentation may be in full order, but at the same time it may participate in “cash-out” and other
illegal schemes. Therefore, in addition to requesting documents from the counterparty, it is necessary to check it against various databases. In open Internet sources (paid and free) you can check:
● Information from the register;
● The presence or absence of disqualification of senior employees;
● Information about bankruptcy;
● Information on the presence / absence of enforcement proceedings against the counterparty;
● Information about the lawsuits in which the counterparty is involved;
● Information of financial statements for the last year;
● Information on the presence or absence of licenses (if the counterparty carries out licensed activities).
Analysis of the information received about the counterparty will allow you to make the right choice, but in order to draw the right conclusions, such an analysis should be deep and detailed.
TOP 3 resources that provide information on counterparties, pros and cons.

Information about counterparties can be checked at open databases of the tax, arbitration court, FSSP, bankruptcy registry, Rosstat and other regulatory bodies. This data is provided free of charge. But to obtain the completeness of the picture, it is necessary to check for a variety of parameters, which takes quite a long time.

Among the paid web resources that provide information about counterparties should
highlight:
● Contour Focus;
● SPARK;
● VLSI

These systems allow you to quickly track information, but the cost of services is quite high and not all data is updated daily.
What to do if there is reason to believe that the counterparty is “unrealistic”?

If during the verification of a counterparty you suspect that this is a “cash-out” office, refuse to make transactions with it. In addition, you can report a suspicious counterparty to the tax and other regulatory authorities.

If you are already with the “cashier” in contractual legal relations, then in this case, mentally prepare for the upcoming tax audit and invite an experienced private detective specializing in solving tax problems, and the sooner this is done, the better.

Cope with the verification of the counterparty. Or?...
Using services that provide information on contractors, you can get a lot of useful information. However, a number of problems still remain:
● Information about your counterparty may not be available or it may be
incomplete (for example, government agencies have not yet taken your “cash-in worker” to clean water);
● Information from data banks must be able to correctly evaluate (not always
based on the information received, we can make an unambiguous conclusion);
● Counterparty verification takes a long time and requires a professional approach.

Therefore, it is best to involve experienced private detectives in the verification of counterparties. In addition, the fact of appeal to https://detective- agency 21st century.rf to verify the counterparty is already proof of your good faith and prudence in the eyes of the tax and the court.

Example. As a simple omission can result in serious problems, the Company carried out settlement operations with the old counterparty, since they worked together for a long time, the counterparty was not checked. The counterparty asked to transfer funds to the account of another LLC, explaining that it would be more convenient for him. So it was done, the money in payment for the contract was transferred to the account of an unknown LLC. As a result, the company underwent a tax audit, which resulted in additional accrual of income taxes and VAT.