How to authenticate an organization. How to check a counterparty: step by step instructions. Does the firm have patents

First of all, you need to make sure that the company is registered in the prescribed manner and conducts business. This can be done in a number of ways.

Check TIN

Make sure that the supplier's TIN is not a random set of numbers, but a real digital code that belongs to the company offering the deal.

It is very easy to check this, since the TIN has its own algorithm, and the fake number, most likely, will not correspond to it. You can recognize an error in the TIN in any program for preparing information about the income of individuals by entering the number in the "Employer's TIN" field. If the number does not satisfy the algorithm, an error message will appear.

At the same time, you can establish the authenticity of the TIN and its belonging to a particular company on the FTS website or using the counterparty verification service.

Request a copy of the certificate of state registration (or record sheet in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities)

The certificate of state registration confirms that the counterparty exists as a legal entity and is accounted for as a taxpayer. From January 1, 2017, when registering legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, instead of a certificate of state registration, an entry sheet of the required register is issued - ERGUL or EGRIP. Thus, a record sheet is a document confirming the fact of making an entry in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities or EGRIP.

In accordance with clause 13 of the Rules for maintaining the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, the list of the state register entry is included in the registration file of the legal entity. In accordance with clause 19 of the Rules for maintaining the USRIP, the list of records of the state register is included in the registration file of an individual entrepreneur.

Get an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities / EGRIP

A fresh extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities confirms that the counterparty is registered and at the time of its receipt is not deregistered. In addition, according to the extract of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, you can check the details specified by counterparties in contracts and other documents.

The statement can be requested directly from a potential partner or using the FTS service.

The balance allows you to draw several important conclusions about the company at once:

First, he confirms that the firm is submitting reports.
Secondly, it allows you to establish whether the organization has conducted economic activities.
Thirdly, from the accounting records, you can learn about the "portfolio" of funds that the company has. If a company has practically zero asset value, significant debt obligations and an authorized capital of 10,000 rubles, this is a reason to think whether it is worth giving such a company, for example, a commodity loan. Too low in comparison with the amount of the proposed transaction, the company's turnover may indicate that the supplier is hiding part of the income. In this case, it is better to refuse the deal.

Based on the data of the financial statements, it is easy to draw up a financial analysis that will show the dynamics of the company and will allow you to assess its financial stability. In the service on the company's card, you can find links to accounting and mini-financialization, which will allow you to immediately see the key points in the accounting forms without having to study a large and complex financial report for the company.

Information about legal entities that have tax arrears and / or have not submitted tax reports for more than a year can also be obtained on the FTS website.

Additional analytics

It is necessary to verify the bona fide counterparty and collect evidence that you have performed the necessary verification. Why is it important? In the event of litigation, this will allow you to confirm what your company has shown.

From the tax authorities' point of view () a company has not done due diligence if it does not have:

personal contacts of the management in the counterparty company when discussing the terms of supply and when signing contracts;
documentary confirmation of the powers of the head of the counterparty company, copies of his identity document;
information about the actual location of the counterparty, as well as the location of warehouse, production, retail space;
information on the method of obtaining information about the counterparty (advertising, recommendations of partners, official website, etc.);
information on the state registration of the counterparty in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities;
information on whether the counterparty has the necessary license (if the transaction is concluded within the framework of licensed activity), a certificate of admission to a certain type of work, issued by a self-regulatory organization;
information about other market participants for similar goods, works, services, including those who offer lower prices.

Company details

Mass registration address

A mass address is one of the hallmarks of fly-by-night firms. At the end of 2017, the Ministry of Finance issued a warning that in the presence of confirmed information about the inaccuracy of the submitted information about the address of the legal entity, the registering authority has the right to refuse registration. According to the document, the facts of including information about the address of mass registration is the basis for checking the reliability of data in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. Thus, by registering a company at a mass address, a legal entity or individual entrepreneur risks being denied registration.

But the tightening of control of mass addresses applies not only to newbie businesses, but also to already registered companies: the tax office sends letters to companies that need to provide reliable information about their address to the registering authority. It will not be possible to ignore the notification of the tax authorities: if the address is not confirmed, the submitted documents do not correspond to the reliability, then an entry is made in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities about incorrect information about the address, which may lead to the exclusion of the organization from the register, according to. It is all the more dangerous to conclude contracts with counterparties registered at mass addresses.

How to check the "mass character" of an address? Firstly, a service is available on the FTS website that compares the address entered by the user with a list of mass addresses. Secondly, it shows which companies are registered at the same address as the counterparty or service of interest to the user. In a number of cases, such "neighborhood", even if we are not talking about mass registration, may be significant.

Actual location of the counterparty

By itself, the discrepancy between the actual and legal address does not characterize the counterparty in any way. According to the Federal Tax Service, almost 80% of Russian companies are not located at the legal address indicated during registration. But the tax office recommends checking the actual location of the counterparty along with other data.

Such information can be obtained by leaving the legal or actual address of the prospective partner. This will make it possible not only to clarify whether the counterparty's office is actually located there, but also to look at the premises, production or retail space, talk with employees and neighbors in the office building. Such a visit can be especially productive if it is made incognito, under the guise of a buyer or a potential partner.

In Contour.Focus, you can view a panorama of buildings and surroundings for a specified legal entity in one click. This option is called.

The strength of the terms of the contract for the counterparty

It is necessary to have clear evidence that the counterparty has a real opportunity to fulfill the terms of the contract. It takes into account, first of all, the time spent on delivery or production of goods, performance of work or provision of services.

Tax violations

The taxpayer has the right to request from the tax authorities information about the payment of taxes by counterparties. In this case, it does not matter whether the inspection will respond to the company's request. The Code does not establish the obligation of the tax authorities to provide taxpayers, upon their requests, with information on the performance by counterparties of the obligations provided for by the legislation on taxes and fees, or on their violations of legislation ().

As the arbitration practice shows, the very fact of contacting the tax office with a request to assist in checking the good faith of counterparties testifies to the company's due diligence.

In order for the fact of contacting the inspectorate to be recorded, the request should be sent by registered mail with a receipt acknowledgment (you have one copy of the inventory and the returned notice) or submit the request personally to the office of the tax inspectorate (in this case, a copy of the request with a mark of acceptance remains on hand) ...

Arbitration cases

"Black list" on the website of the Federal Tax Service

This is a register of disqualified persons. Disqualification is an administrative punishment, which consists in depriving an individual of certain rights, in particular, the right to hold managerial positions in the executive management body of a legal entity, to be a member of the board of directors (supervisory board), to carry out entrepreneurial activities to manage a legal entity.

The grounds for disqualification may be deliberate or fictitious bankruptcy, concealment of property or property obligations, falsification of accounting and other accounting documents, etc.

To avoid cooperation with companies whose head was disqualified, it is enough to check a potential partner through a special service on the FTS website. The search is carried out by the name of the legal entity and OGRN.

By the end of 2018, the FTS launched the Transparent Business service in test mode, which can be used to collect complex information about the taxpayer - organizing and exercising due diligence.

If you enter data on TIN, PSRN or company name into the search, the following information will appear:

the date of state registration and the main state registration number of the legal entity, the method of formation of the legal entity and the name of the registering authority;
information about the registration of the organization with the tax authority;
the state of the legal entity;
legal entity address and information about the address of the mass registration;
OKVED;
the size of the authorized capital;
inaccurate information about the head of the company, management of the activities of many other legal entities;
category of the subject of small and medium-sized businesses.

Pay attention to the triangle sign, which may appear in the section as a warning. This means that the information requires special attention.

Powers of the person signing documents

The Ministry of Finance recommends, when checking counterparties, to receive documentary evidence of the authority of the head (his representative). If the documents are signed by a representative of the company, a power of attorney or other document must be obtained from the counterparty, authorizing this or that person to sign documents on behalf of the company.

The Ministry of Finance also recommends that taxpayers request identity documents from the head of the counterparty company. This will confirm that the documents are signed by the person who has the authority to do so. In addition, there may be cases when the counterparty is registered for a lost or stolen passport. You can find out on the FMS website.

Trade information

Confirmation of personal contacts at the conclusion of the transaction

Lack of personal contact during the transaction may indicate that the taxpayer did not exercise due diligence. The collected data on the circumstances of the conclusion of the contract with the counterparty (who participated in the negotiations, who released the goods, etc.) will help prove the opposite.

Verification of documents for the transaction

This procedure avoids not only claims by the tax authorities, but also possible litigation.

check the address indicated in the documents of the counterparty, in particular, in the invoices;
make sure that the supplier's documents do not contain logical contradictions and comply with the Tax Code of the Russian Federation and other laws;
compare the signatures of employees on documents in order to exclude a situation when different signatures are put on behalf of one person (it is better to exclude such documents so that the IFTS does not declare that they are fictitious).

The above list of "filters" is incomplete. There are other ways to show discretion in choosing a counterparty and get the most complete information about him.

The lion's share of refusals to deduct input VAT and recognize transaction costs are due to dishonest counterparties (TC). Insufficient verification of a future business partner, especially for a large transaction, can threaten not only with the risk of default on obligations under the contract, but also with claims of regulatory authorities on the claimed deductions and profit expenses. You can protect yourself by carefully checking your partner in all possible ways. At the moment there are more than 17 of them.

Almost every company at least once in its life faced a refusal to deduct value added tax and recognition of profit expenses due to an unscrupulous counterparty. The tax authorities consider transactions with such persons doubtful, expenses unconfirmed and overestimated, and the tax benefit - unreasonable. A partner who, at the conclusion of the transaction, seemed reliable and quite real, is subsequently recognized by the tax authorities as a "one-day" or "transit company". There is a reasonable question of how to check the counterparty before an important transaction and prove to the tax authority the exercise of due diligence and caution. There are several ways that can be divided into 5 groups:

Electronic verification services (FTS, FAS, FMS FSSP, RNP, etc.);
Requests to state authorities (tax inspectorates);
Provision of a package of documents from the transaction partner;
Personal meeting with the counterparty (his representative)
Interviewing companies and individual entrepreneurs that cooperated with this supplier / contractor / performer / seller;
Studying the website of the company / individual entrepreneur and reviews about it on the Internet

How to threaten an organization with cooperation with an unverified partner

Material losses, disrupted deals, “tarnished” reputation
Refusal to deduct (reduce) VAT;
Additional assessment of value added tax;
Refusal to recognize as justified expenses for the purpose of taxation of profits and reduction of the tax base for the disputable person;
Additional accrual of income tax (NP);
Bringing to tax liability for non-payment of VAT, NP;
Calculation of penalties, interest
Appointment of a field tax audit (GNP)

Interaction with a dubious company (entrepreneur) can become the basis for the appointment of GNP. This right is granted to the controlling authorities by clause 12 of the Concept of conducting field inspections:

This point assumes the use of tax evasion schemes, tax minimization. The use of "fly-by-night firms" is one such scheme. It consists in reducing the tax burden on VAT and profits, illegal refund of value added tax from the budget, unjustified recognition of profit expenses. Therefore, interaction with unverified companies (IE) recognized by the tax authorities as unscrupulous, "one-day", threatens the taxpayer with an on-site audit. The main document that guides the regulatory authorities in this situation is the FAS Plenum Resolution No. 53. It defines the main criteria for a person to exercise due diligence and care (DOIO).

It should be noted that at the moment there is no clear list of actions, the commission of which will be an unequivocal confirmation of the manifestation of DOIO. Even if all of the following methods of verification are carried out, the tax authority may recognize the counterparty as unfair and the tax benefit unreasonable.

The reason is that at the moment taxpayers do not have the same rights that are granted to government agencies, in particular: interrogating the heads and founders of controversial counterparties, inquiries to banks and inspections at the place of registration, requesting documents, and much more. But using all possible methods of checking a trading partner is more likely to save you from the risk of adverse consequences.

Electronic resources for checking a counterparty

Using the Internet sites of official government agencies, you can get basic information about a future business partner, find out whether a legal entity is in the stage of bankruptcy, amendments to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, whether the main persons of the company are disqualified, check the reliability of the basic data of legal entities, and much more.

Federal Tax Service website

It should be noted that a disqualified person does not have the right to sign documents on behalf of the company, therefore it is advisable to use this search when concluding large transactions.

If the counterparty is absent at the registration address, this is very often another sign of bad faith of the taxpayer, which the tax authorities refer to during the audit.

You can find out if the organization is a plaintiff or a respondent by referring to the file of arbitration cases.

When checking information using Internet resources, it is necessary to save screenshots of checks to confirm the fact of DOIO in case of claims from the tax authorities.

Obtaining an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities

One of the main ways to check the legal capacity of an organization before concluding contracts is to obtain an extract from the state register. The performance of this action, even in the absence of other evidence, may serve as the basis for confirming the fact of the DOIO manifestation when choosing a business partner. You can get an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities in two ways:

Through the tax authority;
By means of an electronic request on the FTS website

To receive a statement in paper form, you must pay for the services for its presentation in the amount of:

200 RUR - the term of receipt is five days from the date of receipt by the tax authority of the request;
400 RUR - an urgent statement, the term of receipt of which is 1 day.

It is also necessary to make a request for the presentation of this statement. It is composed in any form. It must contain the name, TIN, OGRN of your organization and counterparty, postal (email) address and telephone number of the applicant.

To receive an electronic statement, you must have a taxpayer's personal account or be registered on the FTS website.

An electronic statement is provided free of charge, has an EDS and is equivalent to a paper one.

Receiving a package of documents from a future partner

A sign of conscientiousness and caution when choosing a business partner will be the fact that the last package of necessary documents was requested, including:

Charter;
Certificate of state registration;
Certificate of registration with the tax authority;
Decision on the election (appointment) of the head of the legal entity;
License or certificate of admission to certain types of work (SRO)

You can check the license on the appropriate type of work on the website. The validity of the SRO certificate data is on the website of the self-regulatory organization, as well as by requesting an extract from the register of SRO members.

It should be noted that these documents must be valid not only at the time of the conclusion of contracts, but also at the date of recognition of expenses.

Documents confirming the authority of persons entitled to act without a power of attorney.

Such documents are: a copy of the passport of such a person, a copy of the order of employment, a copy of the minutes of the general meeting of founders, a copy of a bank card, a power of attorney, if such a person is not the head of the organization.

Copies must be certified by the seal and signature of the person concerned.

It is also advisable to verify the signatures in the passport and bank card.

You can verify the authenticity of the identity document on the FMS website.

You can also request from the organization additionally:

Certificate on the status of settlements with the budget;
Letters of recommendation from companies cooperating with this legal entity;
Certificate of the value and quantity of fixed assets;
Availability of labor resources;
Balances and income statements
Business partner website and reviews
It is also worthwhile to carefully study the company's website, if it contains TIN and certificate numbers, compare them with documents received on purpose. It is also necessary to carefully check the reviews about the organization on the Internet.

Personal meeting with the CEO

Before concluding a deal, a major contract, it is better to meet with the director or manager in person. Very often, transactions carried out "in absentia" and by mail raise doubts among the tax authorities and, as a rule, are justified.

In conclusion, it should be noted that all of the above checks of the counterparty, even in the aggregate, cannot serve as 100% confirmation that the organization will turn out to be a bona fide taxpayer, but they will help to confirm the fact of the DOIO manifestation when choosing a party to the contract. As a rule, even if the tax authorities refuse to deduct and recognize the costs of a disputable legal entity, the courts side with the bona fide taxpayer if they have documents confirming the manifestation of DPI.

You can also get acquainted with these and other methods of checking legal entities in the following video:

Summarizing the above, we will briefly reflect the ways to check the future partner for reliability:

Through the Internet resources (the website of the Federal Tax Service, FMS, FAS, FSSP, Registers of unscrupulous suppliers and information about the facts of the legal entity's activities);
Request for a package of documents;
Obtaining an extract from the state register;
Checking the company's website and reviews;
Personal meeting with the head of the organization

Before concluding a contract, the company finds out what is known about a potential business partner. To check a counterparty, it is convenient to use the free service of the Federal Tax Service. Go to the tax website and get the information you need.

When preparing materials, we use only information

For a quick check of the counterparty, the Federal Tax Service offers its own free service

One of the stages of preparing for a deal is obtaining information about a future counterparty. If the companies have not interacted before, you need to find out how the counterparty is doing business, how reliable it is, whether there are any problems with the tax or other companies. This will allow us to predict the risks of the transaction and reduce them. In addition, the company is required to exercise discretion: if it enters into an agreement with an unreliable counterparty or a one-day firm, the consequences of this fall on it. In particular, the FTS may regard such a transaction as an attempt to evade the fulfillment of tax obligations. The company will have to pay additional taxes or spend time challenging the charge.

To avoid negative consequences, find out about the future business partner, who runs the company, whether it really exists at the specified address, etc. You can check the counterparty using the TIN or other data on the official website of the Federal Tax Service nalog.ru (even if you enter “ tax.ru "in Russian, the search engine will automatically redirect to the tax site, and the verification service will be available). You can get information about the company:

by TIN,
by OGRN,
by name.

How to check a counterparty on the tax website

Checking the counterparty and obtaining information about him using the IFTS website does not take much time: it is enough to know the TIN or name. The step-by-step algorithm is as follows:

Open the home page of the site.
Find the section "Electronic services" on it.
In the section, select the link "Business risks: check yourself and the counterparty".

On the checkout page:

Select the option "Legal entity" if the counterparty is an organization, or "Individual entrepreneur / PFH" if you are going to conclude a deal with an individual entrepreneur.
Enter INN, PSRN or company name in the search form. When entering the name, you can also specify the region in which its head office is located, but this is not required. To search for information about the individual entrepreneur, instead of the OGRN, enter the OGRNIP, and instead of the name - the full name and region of residence.
Enter a test combination of letters and numbers.
Click Find.

If the system has information about the person you are interested in, it will provide them.

When checking the website of the tax office provides information about the counterparty from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities

The information that you receive during the verification is data from the register of legal entities (or USRIP, if you are verifying an individual entrepreneur). The system generates a PDF file for downloading. In particular, the file contains information:

about company registration;
about the registration authority;
about tax accounting;
on the registration of the policyholder with the Pension Fund and the FSS;
on the authorized capital (share capital, authorized capital, share contributions);
about the head of the company, who has the right to act on its behalf without a power of attorney;
on the scope of the company according to OKVED;
about the company's licenses;
about representative offices and branches;
about changes in information in the register.

In case you need to confirm that you checked the counterparty, ask the Federal Tax Service for an extract. It can be obtained in electronic format, the document is certified with an enhanced signature. To obtain such an extract, apply using a special form.

The tax office carefully analyzes the information that is provided to it when registering a new company or when there is a reorganization, a change of director of an LLC, etc. As a rule, the data in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities is reliable. Nevertheless, there is a risk that the counterparty provided incorrect or incorrect information, and this escaped the attention of the tax authorities. It also happens that the company did not report the changes, although it must. And the registry contains outdated data. This should be taken into account when you are checking out a future business partner. The more complete your analysis, the lower the risks. On the FTS website, you can independently check whether the address of the company is among the mass ones, as well as whether its director is on the list of disqualified persons or among directors who have several firms at once. Also, the site will allow you to find out if the counterparty has significant tax debts. A positive answer to each of these questions may indicate the counterparty's insecurity.

The process of checking a counterparty can take a lot of time: you will need to use not only the FTS website, but also other free resources: a file of arbitration cases, Fedresurs, etc. The Counterparty Check service will save time and effort. The service is paid, but you don't have to collect information from different resources yourself: the system will do it for you. The depth and variety of verification depends on which tariff you use. But even at the simplest tariff, you will receive information that will allow you to assess the risks of the transaction.

Every business inevitably faces the need to check its business partners. Before concluding an agreement, and even more so sending an advance payment, we will do our best to check what our counterparty is (by TIN, for example): does it really exist? who signs the contract? how long has the company been on the market? do they know this company?

In a more specific case, an accountant is faced with the need to have evidence of his prudence in the event of tax audits, even though the Tax Code does not explicitly dictate such a duty.

The easiest first step is to check the counterparty by TIN on the Tax Office website for free. Online check is called "Check yourself and the counterparty" (nalog.ru). This method makes it possible to view the extract about the company from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities by TIN. As practice shows, this is good, but it is completely insufficient to check the firm fully and secure your business both from fraudsters and from claims from regulatory authorities.

We will tell you all the subtleties and details of checking companies: how and what to check, whether it is enough to check a company by TIN, with the help of which paid and free options to do it.

Counterparty check - tools:

Counterparty check - detailed help

What does “check a counterparty” mean?

On the website of the Tax Service and in special programs, you can collect and analyze documentary and other information about a business partner. These actions will determine how well your partner is doing business.

Who should do this?

In an organization, a tax audit of a counterparty by TIN is usually carried out by employees of the legal department or the department of economic security. If the organization does not have such a department, then checking the counterparties (according to the TIN on the IFTS website, for example) is the responsibility of the person concluding the contract.

Why do I need to check a counterparty by TIN on the website of the Tax Service or in a paid program?

There are various reasons to justify the need for this activity. This includes the risks of financial and economic life: the risk of non-delivery of goods, delivery of low-quality goods, late delivery of goods, etc., up to fraudulent schemes.

We are also obliged to remember that any transaction is subject to taxation. The Federal Tax Service has repeatedly stressed that the responsibility for choosing a company with which to cooperate lies entirely with the organization. The potential consequences of this choice are the organization's business risk. For example, during the audit, tax authorities may exclude a dubious transaction from expenses or not accept VAT for deduction. To avoid such troubles, it is easier to check in advance the company by TIN on the website of the Tax Service, having received an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (tax.ru).

The state has not established a formal obligation to check companies when concluding contracts, much less the criteria for such a procedure, a list of necessary actions, a minimum package of documents.

In the Tax Code, there are no concepts like "counterparty verification" or "bad faith of the taxpayer." Meanwhile, there is clause 10 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation of 12.10.2006 N 53 "On the assessment by arbitration courts of the reasonableness of the taxpayer's receipt of tax benefits", which says: "The benefit may be recognized as unjustified if the tax authority proves that the taxpayer acted without due diligence ... ”. After that, the state actually entrusted the business with the obligation to check its partners, and a practicing accountant is constantly faced with the need to find a counterparty by TIN on the tax authorities' website, and then check "what he breathes".

Business customs

For many years, organizations have to first check the counterparty by TIN (the Federal Tax Service allows this to be done free of charge), and then documentary evidence of such an audit. During this time, the most frequently requested package of documents was formed:

copy of the Articles of Association;
extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities;
copy of the registration certificate;
a copy of the tax registration certificate;
letter from statistics with codes;
documents confirming the powers of the person with whom the contract is signed, for example, a power of attorney and a copy of a passport.

Please note that the verification of the fact of entering information into the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and obtaining a document confirming the authority of the person to sign documents from the point of view of the Ministry of Finance testifies to due diligence (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated 10.04.2009 No. 03-02-07 / 1-177).

In addition, depending on the activity, the following may be requested:

organization card;
an extract from the staffing table (if a narrow specialist requires to perform the work);
licenses with attachments to them, necessary permissions;
certificates from the Federal Tax Service about the absence of debt;
copies of accounting and tax statements for the past period with a mark of the Federal Tax Service;
copy of the lease agreement (office, warehouse, etc.).

Much less common, but there are already use cases when the following are requested:

analytical notes (i.e. a short summary of the company on the implementation of similar projects);
letters of recommendation (usually requested by banks);
audit report;
and even a statement of the current account for the last month-quarter-year.

Publicly available sources of information

Acting on your own, you should use the sources of information:

request an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities on your own to your partner;
check if he has a website;
send a request to the Federal Tax Service in a free form about the conscientiousness of the taxpayer;
check if he is registered at the "mass registration" address on the FTS website;
you can check yourself and the counterparty in the service of the Federal Tax Service of the same name on the site "check yourself and the counterparty" nalog.ru (initially you will need to check the TIN on the tax site);
check it in the "Bulletin of State Registration", whether it has started the liquidation or reorganization procedure;
check it in the service of the Federal Tax Service "Transparent Business";
look for the passport of the sole executive body on the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to find out if it was lost some time ago;
on the website of the licensing authority, you can check the license data;
on the website of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation and other courts, you can find out if the company participated in the litigation;
fill in the name of the company you are interested in and the surname, name, patronymic of the director in any search engine and view all references to them.

What organizational measures should be taken in the company to be protected from unscrupulous counterparties?

Each company independently decides the degree of possible risk when concluding contracts and takes appropriate organizational measures. Usually, a person responsible for this procedure is appointed, and the procedure itself is regulated by the internal Regulation or the Rules of Procedure for the verification of counterparties. At a minimum, in each organization, a counterparty is checked on the tax website by TIN for free.

In conclusion, we must say that, unfortunately, even all these actions taken together will not protect you 100% from possible problems or from the likelihood of claims from the Federal Tax Service. However, it is within our power to reduce this risk to an insignificant one.

The problem of the integrity of the counterparty is quite acute in modern business. Every year, the state makes many amendments to tax and administrative legislation to increase the transparency of transactions, fight against fly-by-night firms and fraudulent schemes.

If an organization has come to a certain sector of the market seriously and for a long time, values its name and reputation, it needs to be as confident as possible in its partners.

Let us consider in more detail what risks arise from the imprudent conclusion of contracts with unverified counterparties and how to protect ourselves from such risks.

Why you may need to find out the counterparty by TIN before concluding an agreement

A partner applying for long-term cooperation with an enterprise may turn out to be unreliable for the following reasons:

Lack of a license or permission to conduct certain types of activities. If you are working in licensed areas, this is extremely important. You need to find out the types of activities according to OKVED, prescribed by the potential partner in the statutory documents, the availability of the necessary licenses and permits.
Unreliable person in the position of a leader. When one person acts as the CEO of a dozen companies, half of which are at the stage of bankruptcy, this is a serious reason to think about the advisability of working with such an enterprise. The check of the general director of the company makes sense also in the case of tenders for the place of the contractor. If all the firms that have submitted applications to you for such a competition belong to one person, this clearly does not testify in his favor.
Initiated liquidation or bankruptcy proceedings. The counterparty may be silent about such facts, but you better be aware in advance.
The terms of the firm's activities. If the representatives of the organization of interest assure you that they have been on the market for decades, and the company was registered six months ago, it is better to find another partner.
Registration mass address. In itself, this fact does not mean that the enterprise is unreliable, but it is definitely worth keeping in mind.
Disqualification of the entire enterprise or its management. This term means a prohibition on the right to engage in certain activities.
Inconsistency of the provided details with reality. This moment may arise simply due to the carelessness of the legal service of the future partner. For example, the inconsistency of the TIN with the specified checkpoint, however, if you do not focus on this in the future, such a situation will bring a lot of headaches to your accounting department when trying to submit VAT reports or an alcohol declaration, where the data is checked by invoice.

This is not a complete list of reasons why you may need to check a counterparty by TIN.

Why check yourself

Considering that now checking a potential counterparty by TIN is very popular and does not take much time, it will be useful to check your company in this way. So, you can see the information that your partners will receive.

By constantly monitoring this data, you will be able to quickly respond to undesirable nuances that have arisen. For example:

pay tax debts on time;
control your accounting service for the quality and completeness of the submitted reports;
be sure that you do not become a victim of a raider takeover.

The information in the IFTS database is updated promptly and it will be more convenient and faster to carry out such a check on a regular basis than ordering an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities each time.

How to check yourself and find out the counterparty by TIN on the website tax.ru - step by step instructions

Step one

You need to go to the IFTS website at https://egrul.nalog.ru/index.html.

The start page will look like this.

It has two active windows for data entry. In the top, you need to enter the TIN number of the partner being checked or his OGRN number, and in the second captcha, that is, enter the numbers that you see below the window, in figure one these are the numbers 703799, you will have new ones every time.

Step two

So, let's check the counterparty by TIN using an example. Take, for example, the TIN of OAO Gazprom. His TIN 7736050003. Enter these numbers in the first window and the captcha in the second, click find.

Step three

In just a few seconds, the system processed our request and issued just such information.

Already at this stage, we see that two legal entities were registered in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities with the same name - Gazprom, a single organizational and legal form - Open Joint Stock Company and an identical TIN number. But one of them was registered in 2002 and is still operating, and the second functioned for only 21 days. In addition, in this window you can see information about the checkpoint and OGRN of these companies, they have a different, different and legal address.

Theoretically, if the audit was carried out not in relation to the mentioned firms, but, for example, in relation to a potentially dishonest organization, already at this stage it would be possible to establish whether this organization is active, where it is actually registered and when.

The data in the first column, namely the name of the legal entity, is active, that is, by clicking on it, you can continue the analysis of a potential business partner.

Step four

When you click on the name of the first legal entity, the system automatically downloads to your computer a PDF file with an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities for this taxpayer. This is what it looks like - LINK.

A lot of information can be gleaned from this file. For example, it indicates what date and in which IFTS the entry was made in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities on the registration of this enterprise. There is also information why this company was declared invalid.

In this example, the following reason is indicated - the inclusion of an entry on the state registration of a legal entity upon creation was recognized as erroneous by a decision made by the registering authority.

The date of the end of existence and the name of the issued in confirmation of this are reflected - a certificate of the presence of signs of an inactive legal entity. Certificate number 855 was issued on July 26, 2006, and a certificate reflecting the presence of this entry in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, its details and the date of submission 15 000686143 12/20/2006.

Step five

Now let's analyze the operating company. This is the PDF file that the system loads when you click on the second legal entity - LINK. There is much more information here, already 55 sheets, we will analyze the entire extract.

What information about the counterparty can be obtained

After analyzing the obtained extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, you can obtain the following information about an existing legal entity:

Its full and abbreviated legal name.
Details of the certificate of data inclusion in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
Date and form of creation of the legal entity.
The body that registered the creation and the body that put the company on tax records.
The name of the branch of the Pension Fund in which the company is registered, the registration number in this fund and the date the number was assigned.
The size and date of formation of the authorized capital of the enterprise.
Information about the person entitled to act on behalf of the company without a power of attorney. His f. and. about., position and TIN.
Information about the main type of economic activity according to OKVED and the date of its assignment.
Information about all additional types of economic activities and the dates of their assignment.
Information about all licenses available to the enterprise. Their numbers, dates of issue, the names of the authorities that issued these licenses, their validity period. As well as the type of licensed activity and location of licenses.
Information about all branches and representative offices of the legal entity. Their addresses, names, dates of organization and numbers of certificates of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
Information about all changes made to the constituent documents from the date of registration of the enterprise. The essence of these changes and their dates.

From the second example, it becomes obvious that the information that can be learned