How the FTS and the courts authorize and deny refunds from the UST of overpayments.

Companies and sole proprietorships send virtually all payments of taxes and contributions to the Unified Tax Service. From there, the FTS distributes the money to the appropriate taxes based on notices and reports filed. If the amount in the account exceeds the liabilities, a positive balance or balance is formed. They may be refunded, or left in favor of future liabilities.

One legal entity sent over a million rubles to the Unified Tax Service, thus hiding them from creditors. But when the company applied to the FTS with a request for a refund with proof of overpayment, it was refused. The director appealed to the court.

Arbitration sided with the plaintiff. In the operative part, they indicated that the balance of the payer’s UNS after the fulfillment of all obligations is positive. According to Article 78 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the amount of overpaid tax is refunded or offset against future payments. In the opinion of the Federal Tax Service, the funds were not subject to refund because they were provided in fulfillment of a nonexistent obligation. The defendant refused to return the payment because of the audit. The agency considered that the crediting fell within the scope of a doubtful transaction. Nevertheless, the courts summarized that the Tax Code does not provide for such checks. Moreover, the inspectors did not specify their type, grounds, terms, and there were no acts. In addition, the company had a reconciliation act confirming the overpayment, and there were no tax debts at the time of the application for withdrawal of the money. As a result, they were returned to the current account.

What happens if another organization transfers the money to your tax account? Is it realistic to transfer them to the current account if there is an overpayment? Not if we proceed from court practice.

For several years, taxes can be paid not only for yourself, but also for other organizations. For example, a company sends money to the Unified Tax System of its counterparty. They can be used to repay VAT or UST. If the sender decides to return the transferred money to his account, he will not be able to do so. Not only the Federal Tax Service refuses, but also the courts. According to the law, forming a positive balance of the STS funds from third parties implies their use exclusively for the payment of taxes, penalties, fines. Return to the current account is prohibited.

In general, the leadership of the Federal Tax Service praises the Unified Tax Account tool in every possible way. According to the agency, it has reduced the number of requests to request documents from businesses after audits. There have been six times fewer blocked settlement accounts, and the number of errors in payments has fallen by more than 20 times. The number of cases when a company had an overpayment for one tax and an underpayment for another tax was reduced threefold. Along with the pluses, there are also minuses, which is confirmed by business complaints. To check tax debts, companies have to check payments on the Unified Tax System from the very beginning. After all, transfers to the budget are accumulated on one account and distributed from it in the order of their accrual. At the same time, before the introduction of the Unified Tax System, it was possible to look at the reconciliation act in the personal office of the Federal Tax Service, see the debt for a particular tax and charge or dispute the debt.

Source: https://antifinrazvedka.club/kak-fns-i-sudy-razreshayut-i-otkazyvayut-v-vozvrate-s-ens-pereplachennyh-denezhnyh-sredstv/