The Federal Tax Service has submitted for discussion a draft order with a list of mitigating circumstances for calculating tax penalties. The document sets out clear guidelines that the inspectorate should rely on when deciding whether to reduce sanctions. In business practice, such decisions often rested on the quality of the arguments and the documents that the company brings to the audit or to the commission.
The project list includes situations that occur in most companies: minor offenses, a small degree of guilt, actions to voluntarily stop violations, as well as the absence of harm to the budget or its elimination, including compensation for damage. A separate point is the difficult financial situation, which is especially important for small businesses with cash gaps.
Another practical block is related to how the company behaves before and during the proceedings. It is important for the Federal Tax Service to see the sequence: the error has been identified, the risk has been stopped, the consequences have been corrected, the amounts have been paid, and control within the company has been strengthened. The sooner this is done, the easier it is to show good faith. In such cases, a bundle of primary documents, bills, explanatory notes, internal orders, screenshots from the accounting system and regulations works.
The order comes into force on September 1, 2026. For companies, this means that it is already possible to review the “protection folder”: what facts confirm the minimum guilt, where the elimination of consequences is visible, who is responsible for control, and how accounting adjustments are recorded.
Tax risks often arise at the intersection of logistics, payments, and documents from counterparties. If, in a controversial situation, evidence is quickly gathered and it is shown that the damage to the budget is closed, the chance of reducing the fine becomes a real management tool, rather than the hope of a “human factor".
