What are the penalties for illegal business? What is illegal business (consequences)? Illegal commercial activity article

Many of us periodically provide some services to our friends (or their acquaintances): help with repairs, get a haircut, order some goods via the Internet, sew a dress or repair a car. And they do this for a certain reward. And if such a business clearly goes beyond a small part-time job and begins to generate significant profits, it can be classified as an illegal business. Not only the tax authorities, but also the police and other structures may be seriously interested in this activity.

You also need to know that to perform some types of work it is not enough to register as an individual entrepreneur or open a company - you will also need a special permit (license). This applies to medical and cosmetic services, passenger transportation, design work, etc. Running such a business without completing all the necessary documents is a much more serious offense than simply being an unregistered business.

Letter of the law

Entrepreneurial, in accordance with the Civil Code, is an activity that is carried out with the aim of systematically generating profit at one’s own risk. Profit can be made by carrying out work, selling goods, leasing property, and providing paid services. A citizen conducting commercial activities must register as an entrepreneur.

As we can see, the main differences between a private transaction between citizens and entrepreneurship are the systematic nature of the activity and the extraction of profit. Thus, a one-time sales transaction or a one-time service provided for compensation cannot be considered illegal business activity. But if done twice or more during the year, they become systematic and fall under the definition of commercial activity.

However, if we are talking about selling a product at the cost for which it was purchased (or less), this will in any case be considered a private matter: there is no profit. Such activities cannot be considered entrepreneurial, even if carried out systematically.

Illegal business in Russia is considered:

1. Commercial activity that is carried out without registration of an individual business or legal entity. This also includes activities registered with violations or with false data indicated in registration documents.
2. Business activities carried out without a license, if required.
3. Gross violations of licensing requirements.
4. Doing business illegally can cause serious trouble for an entrepreneur. For this offense, the legislation provides for three types of liability: tax, administrative and even criminal.

Administrative responsibility

The Code of Administrative Violations for conducting illegal commercial activities provides for the following penalties:

1. For activities that are not registered in accordance with the established procedure (individual entrepreneur or LLC), a fine of 500 to 2000 rubles is imposed.
2. For carrying out those types of activities that are subject to mandatory licensing, without the appropriate permits, fines may be imposed: for individuals - from 1 to 2.5 thousand rubles, for officials 4–5 thousand rubles, for legal entities - 40–50 thousand rubles. In this case, unlicensed products and means of their production may be confiscated.
3. If there is a license, but the licensing requirements are violated, this is also fraught with penalties: for citizens - in the amount of 1.5-2.5 thousand rubles, for officials - 3-4 thousand rubles, for organizations - from 30 to 40 thousand . rubles.
4. If the licensing conditions are grossly violated, business activities may be suspended for 90 days; the fine in this case is 4–5 thousand rubles for individuals and officials, and 40–50 thousand rubles for organizations.

The fact of illegal business can be established by:

• tax office,
• antimonopoly committee,
• consumer market supervisory authorities,
• police,
• prosecutor's office

A protocol on violations can be drawn up as a result of inspection activities: inspection of the premises, making test purchases, etc. The reason for such an inspection may be any signal that illegal business activity is being conducted or irregularities in work are being committed.

Cases of illegal business are considered by a magistrate at the place of its implementation or at the place of residence of the offender. Such a case must be considered within two months after the relevant protocol is drawn up. If this does not happen, the case should be closed. If the protocol is drawn up with violations, there are contradictions and inaccuracies in it, the violator can avoid punishment: while the protocol is being reissued and errors are corrected, the period allotted for bringing to justice may expire.

Criminal liability

In some cases, illegal business activities can lead to criminal liability. This happens if the state, organizations or individuals suffer serious damage as a result of such activities, or when the entrepreneur receives large profits from illegal business. A large amount (both damage and profit) is considered to be an amount of 250 thousand rubles, and an especially large amount – from 1 million rubles.

In this case, the illegal entrepreneur will face punishment in accordance with the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation:

1. Causing damage on a large scale is punishable by a fine of up to 300 thousand rubles or in the amount of the offender’s earnings for 2 years, 180-240 hours of compulsory labor or imprisonment for 4-6 months.
2. Damage on an especially large scale or the same actions committed by a group of persons entails a fine of 100–500 thousand rubles or in the amount of earnings for 3 years or imprisonment for up to 5 years with payment to the state of 80 thousand rubles or in the amount of the convicted person’s income for 6 months.

The prosecutor's office or the police must prove the fact of causing damage or generating large profits. It must be said that it is quite difficult to detect an offense that would fall under criminal sanctions: test purchases are usually made for small amounts, and therefore they cannot become evidence of excess profits.

Responsibility for illegal business conducted by a commercial organization falls entirely on its leader. The following will not be held criminally liable:

• citizens who have entered into an employment contract with an illegal entrepreneur and are acting within the framework of this contract;
• owners of real estate for rent, regardless of the amount of income.

There are also circumstances that can mitigate criminal penalties. These include the positive characteristics of the perpetrator, as well as the uniqueness of the case of bringing him to justice.

In addition to the fact that it is illegal entrepreneurial activity I can hold an entrepreneur criminally liable for:

• using other people's trademarks without appropriate permissions or providing deliberately false information about the origin of the goods;
• production, sale, purchase of counterfeit products.

Tax liability

Sanctions for commercial activities without registration are regulated by Articles 116 and 117 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. They involve the collection of taxes not received by the state and fines for evasion of these taxes.

1. An entrepreneur who is not registered with the Federal Tax Service is fined an amount of 10% of the income he receives (at least 20 thousand rubles). This punishment is applied if, at the time of the tax audit, registration documents have not been submitted to the tax office at all.
2. Conducting commercial activities without registration for 90 days or more is punishable by a fine of 20% of income (but not less than 40 thousand rubles).
3. The fine for late registration of a business with the Federal Tax Service is 5 thousand rubles. If the delay in registration is more than 90 days, a fine of 10 thousand rubles will be charged. Such penalties apply if registration documents are submitted after the first revenue, but before the tax audit. Late registration is considered from the moment of first revenue.

In addition to fines for lack of state registration or late registration, the tax office may assess additional unpaid taxes. In this case, the illegal businessman will need to pay personal income tax (NDFL) on the entire amount of income, the receipt of which will be proven. To this should be added all penalties for late payment of taxes and a possible fine for non-payment - it is 20% of the additional assessed amount.

All these sanctions are applied to the violator only by court decision.

As we can see, liability for illegal business activities can be quite serious. In addition, tax authorities are quite actively collecting information about “illegals,” so it will be quite difficult to conceal their activities from the concerned services.

In some cases, registration can be avoided. For example, if your business is to provide services to enterprises and organizations, you can document this cooperation (conclude a contract agreement or a one-time employment contract).

It is not necessary to register as an entrepreneur for those who rent out housing: it is enough to conclude an agreement with the tenant and pay personal income tax (personal income tax). In this case, you only need to submit a declaration to the Federal Tax Service annually.

However, if you are seriously planning to engage in entrepreneurial activity, you should not delay its official registration: for a serious entrepreneur there is nothing more important than business reputation, and troubles with government agencies can serve a disservice here.

Many Russians receive various types of income bypassing the state treasury, that is, without paying taxes and other obligatory payments. Some people sell goods (including via the Internet), others manage to make money by tutoring or doing repairs. But not all of them realize what they are risking by doing this. After all, serious liability is provided for business activities that are considered illegal. Therefore, it is important to know what exactly refers to such entrepreneurship and what consequences this activity can lead to.

Below we will give a definition of illegal business activity, as well as all the necessary information about the content different types responsibility for it under tax, administrative and criminal legislation. We will tell you what fines and other penalties face violating entrepreneurs in 2018-2019.

What is illegal business?

First, you need to decide what entrepreneurial activity is in general from the point of view of the domestic legislator. According to the Civil Code, this is an independent activity aimed at obtaining a permanent profit from the provision of services, carrying out work, selling goods or using property, which is carried out at one’s own risk. This regulatory legal act also stipulates that persons engaged in business must be registered in the manner prescribed by law.

Thus, the legislator allows doing business only on the condition that the state registration procedure has been completed. If activities are carried out aimed at obtaining a permanent income, without carrying out the necessary registration actions and obtaining mandatory permits, illegal entrepreneurship occurs.

There can be several forms of its manifestation:

• Conducting business without state registration as an individual entrepreneur or legal entity.
• Entrepreneurship without obtaining a license (if its presence is mandatory for the types of activities carried out).
• Entrepreneurial activity in violation of the conditions stipulated by the license.

The fact that illegal business is being carried out, namely unregistered activity, is evidenced by certain facts:

• Services are provided, work or other operations are carried out in order to generate income in the absence of a record of registration as a private entrepreneur or legal entity in the relevant state registers (Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs).
• A person engages in commercial activities without waiting for registration to be completed or after its cancellation.
• The entrepreneur is engaged in a type of activity that he did not inform the tax authorities about during registration or for 2 months after changing his specialization.

Let's consider the following form of illegal business activity - work without a license in an area where it must be required. According to domestic legislation, access to approximately 50 types of business is granted only upon obtaining a license. Both activities that are subject to licensing without obtaining permission for them, as well as failure to comply with the deadlines for its beginning and termination, are considered illegal. In other words, if a business in a certain area was launched before the license came into force, or continued to operate economic activity after its termination, it is as illegal as working without a license. Entrepreneurship in the process of which the terms of use of the license are violated is also contrary to the law.

The following government bodies are vested with the authority to identify facts of illegal business activity:

• Tax service.
• Prosecutor's office and other law enforcement agencies.
• Antimonopoly Service.
• Bodies issuing licenses.
• Rospotrebnadzor.

Fine for illegal business activities

An individual who has violated the law by engaging in illegal business in 2018-2019, as before, risks suffering financially. If a violation is detected, it will be held accountable in the form of a fine. Let us consider to what extent and under what conditions such punishment is applied under tax and administrative legislation.

Tax

Article 116 of the Tax Code provides for penalties for violations related to the registration of business entities with the tax service. Both individuals and companies face a fine if they conduct business without going through the tax registration procedure under this code. For such illegal actions in 2018-2019, you will have to pay 10% of the income received from them, but not less than 40 thousand rubles.

And even if an application for registration as a taxpayer is submitted, the entrepreneur will be fined if he contacts the tax authorities at the wrong time. In this case, the fine will be 10 thousand rubles. In addition to fines, the culprit will have to pay taxes on the amount of illegally obtained income (VAT, property, personal income tax, etc.)

Administrative

Under Article 14.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences, persons guilty of running a business without state registration or a special permit (license) are held accountable. Depending on the content of the violation, the following penalties are provided for them:

• For individuals running a business without registration as individual entrepreneurs and entities not registered as legal entities - from 500 rubles to 2 thousand.
• Business activity without a license(when required):
  • for individuals – a fine in the amount of 2 to 2.5 thousand rubles;
  • legal entities you will have to pay 40-50 thousand rubles;
  • officials are required to contribute 4-5 thousand rubles.

Important: at the same time they can confiscate manufactured products, raw materials and equipment used to conduct business.

• Business in violation of license conditions:
  • for individuals – from 1.5 thousand rubles. up to 2 thousand rubles;
  • for companies – 30-40 thousand rubles;
  • for officials – 3-4 thousand rubles.
• Gross violation of license requirements:
  • for citizens – 4-8 thousand rubles;
  • for companies – 100-200 thousand rubles;
  • for officials – 5-10 thousand rubles.

Important: Instead of a fine, punishment such as administrative suspension of activities for a period of up to 90 days may be applied.

Administrative fines for illegal business activities may be increased in the near future (already in 2018-2019). This will happen if the State Duma passes the corresponding bill that is under consideration. In this case, for running a business without registration you will have to pay 3-5 thousand rubles, and not from 500 rubles. up to 2 thousand, as per the Code of Administrative Offenses in force today. It is proposed to establish the same fine for working without a license.

Criminal liability for illegal business

When business activities that are contrary to the law acquire serious proportions, that is, the amount of income received turns out to be significant, the punishment becomes more severe. Under certain circumstances, if the crime committed is recognized as a crime, the perpetrator will be prosecuted. The decision in such a case is made by the court at the place of residence of the perpetrator or at the place of business.

Article 171 of the Criminal Code is devoted to illegal entrepreneurship. To be eligible, the following must happen:

• The business is conducted without registration or with registration, but without a license (if required).
• Such actions led to major damage to the state, legal entities or individuals, or large income was received.

The perpetrator of the crime described in 2018-2019 may be subject to one of the following punishments:

• Fine – up to 300 thousand rubles. or in an amount corresponding to the salary or other income of the offender for a certain period, which cannot exceed 2 years.
• Mandatory work – up to 480 hours.
• Arrest – up to 6 months.

Responsibility may be even stricter if business is carried out in violation of the law under the following circumstances:

• Actions in an organized group.
• A particularly large income was received.

In this case, the perpetrator will be held accountable in one of the following ways:

• Fine – 100-500 thousand rubles. or an amount corresponding to income for 1-3 years.
• Forced labor – up to 5 years.
• Imprisonment – ​​up to 5 years. Such punishment may be accompanied by a fine of up to 80 thousand rubles. or in the amount of income received during a period of up to 6 months.

A separate article 171.3 introduces liability for illegal business activities in the field of alcohol and alcohol trafficking. If such products are produced, purchased, supplied, stored, transported or sold at retail without a license (when one should be) on a large scale, one of the following negative consequences may occur in 2018-2019:

• Fine – from 2 to 3 million rubles. or in an amount equivalent to one to three years of income.
• Forced labor – up to 3 years.
• Imprisonment – ​​up to 3 years.

In addition to the main punishment, the perpetrator may be deprived of the right to conduct a certain type of activity for a period of up to 3 years. If the same actions were committed with aggravating circumstances, that is, the amount of damage was particularly large or an organized group acted, the liability will be even more serious - up to imprisonment for 5 years.

Important: the large amount of damage referred to in Article 171 of the Criminal Code is considered to be 1.5 million rubles, and especially large - 6 million rubles. As for Article 171.3, here major damage is illegally produced or sold alcohol ( alcoholic drinks) for an amount of more than 100 thousand rubles, and a particularly large amount - for 1 million rubles.

Let's sum it up

Illegal business activity is the provision of services, carrying out work, selling goods, transferring one’s property for use and other actions aimed at repeatedly obtaining income. To gain the right to conduct such activities, it is necessary to undergo state registration, and in some cases also obtain a license. If you do not do this and start running a business, it will be considered illegal.

Responsibility for carrying out unregistered activities is provided for in tax, administrative and criminal legislation. Such actions lead to a fine, the amount of which depends on the severity of the offense. It is possible that already in 2018-2019 there will be a tightening of administrative liability for illegal business, since a corresponding bill is being considered in the State Duma.

Running a business involves paying taxes. But beginning businessmen are sometimes in no hurry to formalize their activities, considering them too insignificant.

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How is illegal business punished in 2020? Illegal business activity is always a violation of the law.

Moreover, to recognize the fact of a violation, the amount of income received and the duration of its receipt do not matter.

It is enough to prove that the purpose of the subject’s actions is aimed at regularly making a profit. What liability is provided for illegal entrepreneurs in 2020?

Basic moments

A citizen who sells goods or services and at the same time bears certain risks in an effort to make a profit is considered an entrepreneur, and his activity is recognized as entrepreneurial.

When starting your own business, you need to take into account legal regulations. In particular, it is required to register with the tax authorities, obtaining the status of an individual entrepreneur or legal entity.

Tax registration as a business entity entails certain obligations.

It is necessary to maintain reports on the activities carried out, timely pay taxes and fees. The amount of taxes depends on the chosen regime and the volume of systematic taxation.

According to the law, income that a citizen receives more than twice during the reporting year is recognized as systematic. Accordingly, an activity that brings systematic profit is recognized as entrepreneurial.

What it is

Illegal business activity is doing business without proper registration.

Some citizens believe that if you run a small business with a small income, then you don’t have to worry about the attention of the tax authorities.

This is not true; punishment can be imposed even for minor offenses. But when is it necessary to obtain official entrepreneur status?

You need to understand that the purpose of business legalization for the state is adequate taxation. For example, when renting out housing, it is not necessary to register an individual entrepreneur.

If the owner rents out the apartment under an agreement and pays regularly, then he is not violating the law. you can pay tax on each transaction.

Conducting profitable activities without paying taxes is considered illegal business.

That is, any law-abiding citizen, if he suspects non-compliance with the law, can report to the appropriate authorities with a request to verify the violation.

Where to report a violation

An individual who is a consumer of a product or service can identify the illegal activities of an entrepreneur.

When this has caused trouble or harm to health, investigations can be initiated on suspicion of illegal business practices.

Employees of the authorities to which the appeal is submitted are required to check:

• availability of activity registration;
• availability (if there should be one);
• compliance with licensing rules and deadlines.

For your information! Failure to obtain the required license is punishable by law more severely than failure to register.

Where to report illegal business activities? Citizens have the right to submit an application to such bodies as:

• law enforcement agencies;
• tax office;
• prosecutor's office;
• antimonopoly service.

If necessary, other structures can be involved. For example, independent communities and public organizations, where you can complain if difficulties arise with official structures.

But such methods rarely have to be resorted to. In 2020, such situations occur less and less often.

If government agencies discover during an inspection the fact of illegal activity, then the violator is unlikely to be able to avoid punishment. But in order for the verification to be carried out, the application must be completed correctly.

How to write an application correctly (sample)

There is no standard form for filing an application for illegal business. The appeal is drawn up in free form.

You can, of course, use ready-made forms (when submitting on behalf of an organization), but in this case the situation is simplified only by the presence of a “header” with details.

Therefore, you need to be prepared that the authorities that accepted the application will check the compliance of the declared personal and contact information. It is not possible to apply anonymously.

The general structure of the application is as follows:

Depending on where the application is being submitted, specific considerations may need to be taken into account.

So, when contacting the tax authorities, you need to know that this department deals exclusively with taxes. Accordingly, one cannot expect a trial in the intricacies of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.

You should contact the Federal Tax Service if you know for certain or with a high degree of probability that the entrepreneur is not registered, there is tax evasion, or there is no license.

For example, illegal activity has caused harm to health and life, or there is reason to believe that the activity poses a threat to others.

Citizens most often turn to the prosecutor's office when a previously filed police complaint has been rejected.

Video: illegal business activities

If you suspect an economic crime, you can contact the OEB. Specialists of the economic security service will independently send requests to other authorities.

Please note that the answer will not be provided immediately. It usually takes several days to verify the request and assign a number to it.

About thirty days pass from the moment the application is registered until the response is provided. In practice, the answer may be late.

If restoration of justice is fundamentally important to the applicant, then a repeated application may be required to remind himself.

What is the responsibility for violations?

Tax, administrative and criminal liability is provided for illegal business activities.

If the fact of violation is confirmed, the tax authorities will collect tax compensation from the violator:

• the amount of unpaid taxes;
• penalty for late tax payments.

Collection is carried out in court. Therefore, the punishment will be imposed not only according to the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, but also according to the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. Administrative liability involves the imposition of a fine.

When illegal activities cause damage to the state or citizens, then criminal liability arises.

The prosecutors in such cases are the police and the prosecutor's office. Punishment ranges from a significant fine to forced labor or imprisonment.

How can you prove it in fact?

When filing a complaint about illegal business activity, it is advisable to have evidence of the violation.

These may include:

Evidence may vary. The main thing is that they confirm that the activity is carried out systematically and illegally.

Amount of fine