Five businessmen told what legacy the main tax officer of Russia brings to the White house.

The new prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, has been digitalizing the tax service for a decade. With him, VAT rose to 20%, a tax on self-employed, online cash registers appeared and the process of massive blocking of business accounts has began. Fees has also increased significantly, reports of which are said to have been so pleasing to Vladimir Putin. Does this make him a good chairman of the government?

We asked this question to a some prominent representatives of large business. Yet not everyone agreed to speak openly.

Sergey Bodrunov, Director of the Institute for New Industrial Development and former head of the Smolny Economic Development Committee:

– Mistakes, documents not submitted on time, inaccuracy in accounting positions … A significant part of the problems with the tax business had arisen earlier because the procedures themselves were not worked out either administratively or technologically. With the appointment of Mishustin at the post of head of the Tax Service, a roll began towards digitalization, the development of the service component of tax services. And if evaluate now, in reality in the country very few changes have been made such as in the tax system.

For a long time it was like that: you yourself must calculate everything in accordance with a huge pile of volumes of the Tax Code, and then they check you.As for now the information comes to the tax service  from various sources, in advance, and they can immediately tell the taxpayer – you have to pay so much. Do not agree? Pay and argue as you want. As they do in the developed countries. Though we need to develop the service further so that people can do business, and not endless tax accounting and calculations.

I am far from idealizing. And I believe that the statements that this is the best tax system in the world are evaluative. It is impossible to compare with other countries without having worked there. But if comparing Russia today with Russia 10 to 15 years ago, it is earth and sky.

It is said that Putin liked Mishustin for the reports. I do not think that Putin is so easily led to beautiful reports. He has the opportunity to assess the real activities of one or another of his nominees.

Leonid Yatsuk, director of the Torzhkovsky market:

– I will not talk about the 90s, but compared with what happened in the 2000s,, and with what is now, it has become easier and more clear to work. And this is not only I say as a director. But so say the accountants. Have the tax service become harder to work with? You know, at our enterprise not at all. All clear. On the contrary, there are much fewer checks. It became calmer – they stopped to flinch at the mention of the tax service. Inspectors do not come, we do not give them rooms. But here, probably, the merit not only of the Federal Tax Service, but also ours. Maybe someone still shudders, but maybe because they have something because of what they should?

I can’t say whether it is Mishustin’s merit personally. I know him neither far nor close. Probably, all the same, the mechanisms are being debugged. But in order for them to work properly, someone must surely manage this, in this case Mishustin.

Maria Evnevich, co-owner of “Maxidom”:

– If we talk about changes in recent years in the Federal Tax Service from the point of view of Maxidom, then we do like the new approach to conducting tax audits. Previously, tax inspectors checked all major taxpayers. Roughly speaking, according to the schedule, they came once every two years – once “large”, that is, it makes sense to look for something. After the introduction of the ASC VAT and the risk method when conducting tax audits, it became much easier.

We are in the “green zone”, and we have not had large-scale on-site inspections for five years now. This is good, as it frees up time and energy for creative business processes.

If you look at the statistics of the tax department, under Mishustin they reduced the number of tax audits (they conduct them on purpose), fines increased for each one and the general tax collection in the “normal mode”. Compared with other regulatory authorities, the tax service is now the most modern, technologically advanced, digitalized and advanced. Will this play role in prime minister duties? I don’t know. We shall see.

But I want reduction of administrative barriers, deliverance from excessive bureaucracy, change of the approach to control and verification measures, and generally improvement the business environment.

Yuri Ayvazov, CEO of Karjala Pulp:

– Compared with what was 10 years ago, it became better: constructively and systematically. Transparency has appeared. All the law abiding people only rejoice at the changes. And the collection rate has increased. When the direction of movement is clear, then it is more comfortable for everyone to plan, and interact, and solve problems. Probably my most striking impression of working with the Federal Tax Service for 10 years is that, thank God, I no longer work with the Federal Tax Service! At the process level. Everything works, and no one has additional questions.

 
Igor Vodopyanov, managing partner of Teorema trust company:

In general, I have the impression that it was considered there that if a person knows how to milk a cow very skillfully, then he will be able to grow it somehow. But he is still a specialist in milking, not rearing, and he will concentrate on this. It is clear that the state needs money now. They do not need business development, because it is a complex procedure, and whether it will turn out or not is unknown.

– You can say different words about the Federal Tax Service. As is feel, it is now best to agree with the tax. Even if you have any doubts about what the inspector tells you, you must agree. If you argue, it would not be better for sure. This is my conclusion from the activities of Mr. Mishustin.

Илья Казаков, «Фонтанка.ру»

Reference:

Now the Prime Minister of Russia is 53 years old; He was born in Moscow, studied at the Moscow Machine-Tool Institute, and graduated from graduate school there. Mikhail Mishustin came to public service at 32, having worked for several years in the private sector. His first post was connected with fiscal policy: in 1998, he became deputy head of the State Tax Service, then, after administrative reform, becoming the deputy minister for taxes and duties. In this position, Mikhail Mishustin worked for five years, despite the leapfrog of the bosses: during this time, five heads of the main tax department managed to change. Having left his post in 2004, Mishustin headed federal agencies for three years: first, the cadastre and real estate agency, then the agency for managing special economic zones.

It was not possible to leave the civil service for a long time: after working for two years – from 2008 to 2010 – as the president of the OFG Invest group of companies specializing in direct investments and asset management, he was called at that time by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to the post of head of the Federal Tax Service. In this post, he replaced Mikhail Mokretsov, well-known in St. Petersburg, who later transferred to the St. Petersburg government, under the leadership of ex-governor Georgy Poltavchenko. The resignation of Alexei Kudrin, who headed the Ministry of Finance until 2011, had no effect on the fate of the head of the department under his control: Mishustin continued to work under the new Minister Anton Siluanov.

For five years, from 2013 to 2017, the Federal Tax Service under the leadership of Mikhail Mishustin reported on the “almost constant” positive dynamics of tax revenues to the consolidated Russian budget – in nominal terms, they grew by 58% in this time, the head of the Federal Tax Service said the year before. year. At the end of 2018, the department even reported a record growth in tax revenues – they increased by 23%, or by 4 trillion rubles. From 2015 to 2019, the volume of tax collections increased by 1.4 times, said Mikhail Mishustin, linking the positive dynamics with the “whitening” of the Russian economy.