Rights of Tax Authorities

1. Tax authorities are entitled to:

1) require, in accordance with the legislation on taxes and fees, from taxpayers, fee payers or tax agents documents in forms and (or) formats in electronic form established by state bodies and local self-government bodies, serving as grounds for calculation and payment (withholding and transfer) of taxes and fees, as well as documents confirming the correctness of the calculation and timely payment (withholding and transfer) of taxes and fees;

(as amended by Federal Laws dated 27.07.2010 No. 229-FZ, dated 29.06.2012 No. 97-FZ)

2) conduct tax inspections in accordance with the procedures established by this Code;

3) seize documents from taxpayers, fee payers or tax agents during tax inspections in cases where there are sufficient grounds to believe that these documents will be destroyed, concealed, altered or replaced;

4) to summon taxpayers, fee payers or tax agents on the basis of a written notice from the tax authorities to provide explanations in connection with their payment (withholding and remittance) of taxes and fees, or in connection with a tax inspection, as well as in other cases related to the implementation by them of legislation on taxes and fees;

5) to suspend operations on the accounts of taxpayers, fee payers or tax agents at banks and to place an arrest on the property of taxpayers, fee payers or tax agents in accordance with this Code;

6) in the order provided for by Article 92 of this Code, inspect any premises and territories used by the taxpayer for generating income or related to the maintenance of taxable objects regardless of their location, including production, storage, trading, and other facilities, and conduct an inventory of the taxpayer's property. The procedure for conducting an inventory of the taxpayer's property during a tax inspection is approved by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation;

7) determine the amounts of taxes payable by taxpayers to the budget system of the Russian Federation by calculation method based on the information available to them about the taxpayer, as well as data on other similar taxpayers in cases where the taxpayer refuses to allow officials of the tax authority to inspect production, warehouse, trading and other premises and territories used by the taxpayer for generating income or related to the maintenance of taxable objects, failure to submit within more than two months to the tax authority documents necessary for calculating taxes, absence of accounting for income and expenses, accounting for taxable objects or keeping records in violation of the established procedure, leading to impossibility of calculating taxes;

8) require taxpayers, fee payers, tax agents, their representatives to eliminate identified violations of the legislation on taxes and fees and monitor compliance with these requirements;

9) to recover arrears, as well as penalties, interest and fines in the cases and order established by this Code;

(subparagraph 9 as amended by Federal Law No. 318-FZ dated December 17, 2009)

10) to require banks to provide documents confirming the fact of debiting from the accounts of taxpayers, fee payers or tax agents and from correspondent bank accounts the amounts of taxes, fees, penalties and fines and their transfer to the budget system of the Russian Federation;

11) to engage specialists, experts and translators for conducting tax inspections;

12) to summon persons who may be aware of any circumstances relevant to the conduct of a tax inspection as witnesses;

13) to submit applications for the cancellation or suspension of licenses issued to legal and physical persons for the right to carry out certain types of activities;

14) to file lawsuits (applications) in general jurisdiction courts or arbitration courts:

(as amended by Federal Law No. 324-FZ dated November 29, 2010)

on the recovery of arrears, penalties and fines for tax violations in cases provided for by this Code;

on compensation for damage caused to the state and (or) municipal formation as a result of the bank's unlawful actions in writing off funds from the taxpayer's account after receiving the tax authority's decision to suspend operations, which made it impossible for the tax authority to recover arrears, penalties and fines from the taxpayer in accordance with the procedures provided by this Code;

on early termination of an investment tax loan agreement;

in other cases provided for by this Code.

2. Tax authorities also exercise other rights provided for by this Code.

3. Higher-level tax authorities are entitled to revoke and amend decisions made by lower-level tax authorities in the event that such decisions are inconsistent with tax and fee legislation

Source: "Tax Code of the Russian Federation (Part One)" dated 31.07.1998 No. 146-FZ (as amended on 28.07.2012)