Statute of limitations for payment of transport tax

Recently, a friend of mine received a "letter of happiness" from the tax office demanding to pay a penalty on the transport tax for as much as 2008. Needless to say, that was the first time a person heard about a fine? And what is the penalty if the "culprit of the debt" - the car Nissan - has already been sold a long time ago? A situation that is familiar to many by hearsay ... How many of us - "guilty without guilt" - all over the country? And it’s absolutely not clear what to do next. I don’t want to pay, but I don’t want to “swear” with the tax office either ... So let's talk today about your rights, obligations and about the statute of limitations for transport tax.

Who is to blame for the delay?

The obligation to pay transport tax arises from the moment a vehicle (hereinafter referred to as the vehicle) is registered with an authorized state body - the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate or Rostekhnadzor - and ceases only after re-registration or removal of this vehicle from the register (Article 357 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Individuals and legal entities must fulfill their obligations to pay tax on a regular basis (Article 45 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Individuals - once for the entire period, legal entities - every quarter, unless a different procedure is defined in regional legislation (Article 363 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

Individuals make payments on the basis of a notification received from the Federal Tax Service, but no later than October 1 of the year following the reporting year. Legal entities are given greater independence - they themselves calculate and pay tax amounts themselves within 1 month after the end of the reporting period (quarter). The last payment in the tax period must be made within the timeframes determined by the law of the constituent entity of the Federation, but not earlier than February 1 of the year following the reporting year (the day of filing the annual tax return with the Federal Tax Service).

Thus, individuals can pay tax for 2014 from the date of receipt of the tax notification until 01.10.15. Legal entities should have already made all the calculations for 2014 (the deadline expired in March).

The next day, after the expiration of the deadline for the transfer of tax, the unpaid amount will be recognized as a debt (arrears). From that moment on, for every day of delay, a penalty equal to 1/300 of the discount rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation will be charged on it.

How to determine who is to blame for the delay?

Based on all of the above, this is not difficult to do. If we are talking about a legal entity, in almost all cases it will be the only and unequivocal culprit, since it is not him who is entrusted with the obligation to timely calculate and pay the transport tax to the budget. The only case when a claim for payment of transport tax to a legal entity can be considered unjustified is the disposal of the vehicle, its recognition as unfit for use or its removal from registration.

As for citizens, as we have already said, the obligation to pay tax to the budget arises from the moment the tax notification is received. Such a notification cannot be sent by the fiscal authority less than 30 days before the deadline for the transfer of funds (clause 2 of article 52 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). If a citizen has not received the notification, then he does not have to pay anything either.

However, keep in mind: if you do not live at the place of registration and did not inform the fiscal authority in advance, the court will recognize you, and not the fiscal authority, responsible for the untimely transfer of tax. So be careful!

So, we have determined from what moment the vehicle tax will be considered overdue and who is to blame. The next question that we need to consider: is there a limitation period for the payment of transport tax and penalties, and if so, which one?

Debt recovery for legal entities

The limitation period is the time after which the government agency that has identified the violation cannot go to court to satisfy its claims. The limitation period for fiscal violations begins to be calculated from the moment the arrears are formed and until the court makes a decision to bring the payer to justice.

In accordance with the current tax legislation, the general limitation period for payment of transport tax is 36 months (Article 113 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). In this case, the procedure for the tax service when it detects arrears in relation to legal entities will be as follows:

1. from the moment the fiscal authority has identified the arrears within 90 days, it must send the payer a claim for payment of tax and penalties on it, but if the arrears are revealed during the audit, then the time for sending the claim is reduced to 20 days;
2. the demand is considered delivered from the date of its transfer against receipt to the person in charge of the organization or six days from the date of sending a written mail notification;
3. from the date of the transfer of the claim, the taxpayer - a legal entity has eight days to fulfill the claim to repay the debt, unless otherwise stated in the claim;
4. if the paying organization has not paid off the debt on time, the tax service has the right to collect the amount of debt forcibly from an account with a credit institution (Article 46 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation), or collect the debt at the expense of other property (Article 47 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation) within a year;
5. if for some reason the FTS was unable to cover the arrears on its own, a year later, but no later than 2 years after the payer received the claim, it has the right to go to court.

Return of arrears from individuals

According to paragraph 3 of Art. 363, the fiscal authority has the right to require an individual to pay transport tax only for the previous 36 months. So in 2015 the statute of limitations for debt collection for 2012 expires.

In turn, the limitation period for fiscal offenses, which include late payment of transport tax by individuals, is also three years from the date of receipt by the payer of the claim to repay the overdue debt. The procedure and terms for sending a claim for payment of debt for individuals are similar to the procedure provided for legal entities, with the exception of the time of appeal to the court.

Article 48 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation enshrines the right of the Federal Tax Service to file a claim six months after the expiration of the deadline for a citizen to fulfill the tax requirement.