The Arbitration Court of the Moscow District upheld the fine for failure to submit counter-verification documents. The ruling was issued on July 14, 2026 in case no. A41-71153/2025.
The organization based its defense on the interpretation of Article 93.1 of the Tax Code: documents can only be claimed from the counterparty of the taxpayer being audited and only those documents that the company itself has compiled and reflected in its tax reports.
The courts rejected this argument. According to their assessment, the legislator laid down two independent criteria in article 93.1: the person's possession of the requested documents or information and the relevance of these documents to the activities of the taxpayer being audited. Nothing else.
The courts then listed what the possibility of a claim was not related to: the nature of the civil law relationship between the taxpayer being audited and the addressee of the claim, the number of links in the business chain, and the person's direct participation in the transaction.
The courts read the wording "other persons with documents (information)" literally: it gives the tax authorities the right to obtain evidence from any persons who have the information necessary for verification. What matters is not the procedural status of the addressee of the claim, but the availability of documents capable of confirming or refuting the circumstances of tax control.
For participants in foreign economic activity, the position hits a sensitive point. Import shipments almost always go through several links: a foreign manufacturer, a reseller, a freight forwarder, a customs representative, and a buyer. The request may come from checking a company that you did not work with directly and which you might not have known existed.
What a business should do. Do not ignore the requirement on the grounds that the company under review is unknown to you: the courts do not accept a refusal based on the lack of direct relations. Check the internal regulations — who accepts the requirements, within what time frame collects the documents, who is responsible for the response. Store documents on the supply chain in a structured form: contracts, transport documents, correspondence on specific shipments.
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