Section 6. Tax Offenses and Liability for Committing Them

Chapter 15. General Provisions on Liability for Committing Tax

Offenses

Article 106. Concept of Tax Offense

Tax offense is an unlawful (in violation of tax legislation) act (action or inaction) of a taxpayer, tax agent or other persons entailing liability under the present Code.

Article 107. Persons Liable for Committing Tax Offenses

1. Liability for committing tax offenses shall be borne by organisations and natural persons in cases provided for in Chapter 16 of this Code.

2. Natural persons can be held liable for tax offences from the age of sixteen.

Article 108. General Conditions of Holding [Taxpayers] Liable for Committing Tax Offenses

1. No one can be held liable for committing a tax offense other that on the grounds and in the manner stipulated in the present Code.

2. No one can be held liable for the same tax offense twice.

3. Liability provided for under this Code for an act committed by a natural person shall arise if the said act does not contain elements of crime provided for by criminal legislation of the Russian Federation.

4. Holding an organisation liable for a tax offense shall not release its officials from administrative, criminal or other liability under federal laws, provided that the appropriate grounds for that exist.

5. Holding a taxpayer liable for a tax offense shall not release him from the obligation to pay the tax and penalty liability. The calling of a tax agent to account for committing a tax offence shall not release him from the duty of transferring the due sums of the tax and the penalty.

6. A person shall be presumed innocent of committing a tax offense until his guilt is proven in accordance with the procedure provided for by the federal law and established by a legally effective court decision. The person called to account shall not be required to prove his innocence of committing a tax offense. The burden of presenting evidence of the tax offence and proving person's guilt in committing it shall be carried by the tax authorities. Ineradicable doubts as to the guilt of the person called to account shall be interpreted in favor of the person.

Article 109. Circumstances Which Rule out the Possibility of Holding a Person Liable for Committing a Tax Offense

A person cannot be held liable for committing a tax offence if at least on of the following circumstances is present:

1) absence of the event of a tax offence;

2) absence of guilt of the person in question in committing a tax offense;

3) action containing elements of a tax offense committed by a natural person who had not reached sixteen years of age at the time of the action was committed;

4) expiry of the statute of limitations for the tax offence committed.

Article 110. Forms of Guilt of Committing a Tax Offense

1. Recognized as a defaulter [ a person at guilt] shall be a person who has committed an unlawful intentionally or by negligence.

2. A tax offense shall be recognized as committed intentionally, if the person who committed it was aware of the unlawful nature of his action (inaction), was desiring, or conscientiously admitting the possibility of occurrence of, harmful consequences of such actions (inaction).

3. A tax offence shall be considered committed through negligence, if the person who committed it was not aware of the unlawful nature of his actions (inaction) or of the harmful nature of consequences of such action (inaction), even thought he should have and could have been aware of it.

4. A guilt of an organisation in committing a tax offence shall be established depending on the guilt of it officials or its representatives whose actions (or inaction) provided the conditions for the tax offence.

Article 111. Circumstances Ruling Out the Guilt of a Person in Committing a Tax Offense

1. The following circumstances shall rules out the guilt of a person in committing a tax offense:

1) committing an act that contains elements of a tax offence in consequence of a natural calamity or other extraordinary or insurmountable circumstances (said circumstances shall be established by the presence of generally known facts, by publications in mass media and by any methods that are not in need of special means of proof);

2) committing an act that contains elements of a tax offence by an natural person whose condition at the time of committing that act was such that he could not understand or control his actions as a result of his sickly state (said circumstances shall be proved by submitting to a tax body documents, which by their meaning, content and date relate to that tax period in which a tax offence was committed);

3) the taxpayer of tax agent was acting on the strength of written explanations on the questions of the application of the legislation on taxes and dues given by a tax authority or another authorized government agency of officials thereof within the scope of their authority (said circumstances shall be established, given appropriate documents of these bodies, which by their meaning and content relate to tax periods in which a tax offence was committed, regardless of the date of the date of the publication of these documents).

2. In the presence of circumstances listed under Item 1 of this Article, the person shall not be held liable for committing a tax offence

Article 112. Attenuating and Aggravating Circumstances for Committing a Tax Offense

1. Circumstances attenuating the liability for committing a tax offense shall be the following:

1) committing an offense on account of a coincidence of difficult personal or family circumstances;

2) committing an offence under threat for force, or due to pecuniary, administrative or other dependence;

3) other circumstances recognized by court as those attenuating the liability for a tax offense.

2. The aggravating circumstance shall be that when the tax offence is committed by a person who was already held liable for committing a similar offence in the past.

3. The person from whom a tax sanction has been collected shall be deemed to have been subject to this sanction in the course of 12 months since the effective date of the decision made by court or tax body on application of this sanction.

4. Circumstances mitigating or aggravating the responsibility for the commission of a tax offence shall be established by a court of law and taken into its consideration when it imposes sanctions for tax offences in the order prescribed by Article 114 of this Code.

Article 113. Statute of Limitations for Tax Offenses

1. A person cannot be held liable for a tax offense if three years (the statute of limitations) have expired since the day when the offense was committed or since the first day after the end of the tax period during which the offense committed.

Computation of the statute of limitation from the day when the tax offense was committed shall be applicable to all tax offenses, except for those provided for under Articles 120 and 122 of this Code.

Computation of the statute of limitation from the first day after the end of the respective tax period shall be applicable to tax offenses provided for under Articles 120 and 122 of this Code.

Article 114. Tax Sanctions

1. A tax sanction is a measure of liability for tax offenses.

2. Tax sanctions shall be established and imposed in the form of money charges (fines) in the amounts provided for in Chapter 16 of this Code.

3. Provided there is at least one attenuating circumstance, the amount of fine shall be reduced, but not more that by half of the amount fine established under the appropriate Article of Chapter 16 of this Code for committing a tax offense.

4. In the presence of the aggravating circumstance stated in Item 2 of Article 112, the amount of fine shall be increased by 100%.

5. Should one person commit two or more tax offenses, tax sanctions shall be imposed for each offense separately, without a heavier sanction absorbing a lesser one.

6. The amount of fine imposed on the taxpayer/payer of charges - tax agent for a violation of legislation on taxes and charges that resulted in an overdue tax or fee liability shall be subject to remittance from the accounts of the taxpayer/payer of charges - tax agent only after the full amount of the said liability and accrued penalizing interest were remitted in the order of sequence established by the civil legislation of the Russian Federation.

7. Tax sanctions shall be recovered from taxpayers only in court proceedings.

Article 115. Statute of Limitations on Collecting Tax Sanctions

1. Tax authorities can file a claim at court for collecting a tax sanction not later than within six months after the day when the tax offense was discovered and an appropriate act was drawn up (the period of limitation for the recovery of sanctions).

2. In case on non-suit or dismissal of a criminal case, but in the presence of a tax offense, the statute of limitations for filing a statement of claim shall be computed from the day the tax authority receives a ruling of non-suit or dismissal of the criminal case.