How to protect your business from account freezes under 115-FZ

Check that your company's details in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities are up to date

The Federal Tax Service regularly verifies the accuracy of information about the address, director, and founders. If any changes occur, it is necessary to promptly inform both the tax authority and the bank.

If the Federal Tax Service identifies inaccurate information, it will send a notice requesting updated data. Failure to provide accurate information within 30 days may result in a record of inaccurate information being entered and even subsequent removal from the register.

It is necessary to notify the bank of any change in your legal status or of any amendments and additions to the constituent or other documents provided to the bank within 5 business days from the date of state registration of the changes (clause 7.2.9 of the Terms for opening and servicing current accounts).

Monitor transactions carried out through the account

Provide detailed payment purposes: specify what types of goods, works, or services the payment is for, including the number and date of the agreement, invoices, specifications, and other documents on the basis of which the payment order is prepared. Ask your counterparties to do the same.

Accept payments and carry out account transactions in accordance with your primary OKVED activity code. Make payments related to administrative and business operations (rent, utility payments, office supplies, etc.). Try to avoid payments in favor of third parties.

If you sell goods or provide services for cash, deposit cash proceeds into the account or connect acquiring.

Try to conduct all transactions through one bank account: settlements with counterparties, salary payments, tax payments and other budget contributions, and other business-related payments. This will help keep settlements transparent, and the bank will have fewer reasons to request additional documents and information.

Do not split your business into many different companies and sole proprietors

For example, creating separate entities such as an asset-holding company, a contract-holding company, a purchasing company, a selling company, a company to which staff is assigned, etc.

This may indicate schemes aimed at minimizing the tax base and possible tax violations.

Minimize cash withdrawals

Try to use cashless payments. For these purposes, you can issue a business card and connect a payroll project.

The maximum amount of cash settlements between legal entities and sole proprietors must not exceed RUB 100,000 under one agreement.

When withdrawing cash, keep the volume to no more than 30% of outgoing turnover on the accounts.

Keep all documents confirming cash and cashless settlements and be prepared to provide them to the bank.

Exercise due diligence when selecting counterparties

Use the bank's Advisor and "White Business" services in the Uralsib Business Online online bank, as well as open sources: Bank of Russia platform "Know Your Customer", "Transparent Business" – Federal Tax Service service, SPARK, Kontur.Focus, CaseBook, Rusprofile and others.

It is important to verify the reliability of counterparties:

1. Before entering into agreements and transactions and throughout the entire cooperation period
2. Before issuing invoices for goods, works, and services and receiving payment from the buyer or customer
3. Before preparing a payment to suppliers or contractors

If you work with self-employed individuals, check the validity of their status before each payment is made.

Do not enter into transactions with questionable counterparties. They may negatively affect your business reputation.

Monitor tax payments

Taxes and other mandatory payments of a company or sole proprietor must be commensurate with the scale of the activity.

Try to maintain the tax burden at no less than 0.9% of outgoing turnover on the accounts.

Please remember that credit institutions do not have complete information about where and in what amounts you pay taxes.

You can also use the "White Business" service when working with your account in the Uralsib Business Online online bank

"White Business" is a service for preliminary assessment of your transactions for compliance with 115-FZ based on the following documents:

• Methodological recommendations of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation
• Requirements, letters, and directives of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation
• Federal laws of the Russian Federation
• The bank's internal regulatory documents

"White Business" makes it possible to see your business through the bank's eyes:

• shows a reliability rating and risk zones online
• warns about the risk of receiving a request from the bank, as well as a possible suspension of account transactions
• assesses account transactions as a whole and each payment separately (movement of funds in the account, volume of taxes paid, impact of counterparties on the business reputation, etc.)

"White Business" can be connected in Uralsib Business Online.

If you have received a request from the bank:

1. Do not leave it unattended
2. If you are unable to provide the documents on time, be sure to inform the bank of this in any convenient way. Request an extension of the document submission deadline; most likely, the bank will accommodate you
3. Provide all required documents and explanations in full, observing the established response deadlines through the following channels:
   • Online banking Uralsib Business Online or the Uralsib Business mobile app. This is the recommended method to speed up document processing; when sending your response, select the letter type "8800. Response to request".
   The size of one message must not exceed 45 MB.
   • Bank branch. Documents submitted directly to a bank branch must be certified by the signature of an authorized representative and the organization's seal (if any).
4. Before sending documents to the bank:
   • Check that the set is complete. For example, if the bank requested an agreement, then together with the agreement send all annexes and supplemental agreements, specifications, goods and transport waybills, invoices, and other documents that serve as the basis for the transaction
   • Make sure that the explanations disclose in as much detail as possible the specifics and procedure of conducting the business, including the economic substance of the transactions: include data on operating payments, payment of employee salaries, tax payments, etc.
5. Wait for the results of the document review
   

Please note that if documents are not provided on time or are provided not in full, the bank may restrict (limit) the functionality of the online banking and mobile app, the use of cards, and/or refuse to carry out the transaction.

If you have any questions, please call: 8 800 700-77-16.

Recommendations for running a business

Maintain financial discipline:

• Prepare financial plans
• Clearly plan your income and expenses
• Keep your records in order
• Make sure to formalize relationships with counterparties through contracts
  
• Record changes to contract terms in supplemental agreements
  
• Prepare documents for settlements with counterparties (invoices, VAT invoices, delivery notes, acceptance certificates, etc.)
  
• Comply with the terms of the concluded contract, including the specified settlement procedure
  

Inform banks and the Federal Tax Service about significant changes in your business.

If the address has changed, a new type of activity has been added, or there has been a change of participants, it is necessary to inform the bank and the tax authority — the Federal Tax Service of Russia — in a timely manner.

Check information about your company in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.

The Federal Tax Service of Russia constantly checks the accuracy of the information contained in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities: about the address, director, and founders. Make sure that the information in the register remains up to date.

If the tax authority establishes that the information is inaccurate, it will send a notice to the legal entity, its participants, and the director. If, 30 days after that, accurate information is not provided to the tax authority, a record of inaccurate information will be entered in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, and after 6 months the legal entity may be removed from the register.

Do not split your business into many different companies and sole proprietors.

For example, separate entities: an asset-holding company, a contract-holding company, a purchasing company, a selling company, a company to which staff are assigned, etc.

Business splitting may indicate schemes aimed at minimizing the tax base and possible tax violations.

Make sure your counterparties are reliable.

Be sure to check counterparties in advance, before entering into a transaction. Working with unscrupulous counterparties may draw the attention of the bank and the Federal Tax Service to your settlements with them.

What you should pay attention to:

• Whether the counterparty's registration address is a mass registration address
• Whether it has employees on staff
• Whether it has an accountant on staff
• What type of activity is designated as the primary one, etc.

Counterparty data can be checked through the following services:

• egrul.nalog.ru
  
• kad.arbitr.ru
• fssprus.ru
  
• bankruptcy.kommersant.ru
  
• reestr-zalogov.ru/state/index
  
• services.fms.gov.ru/info-service.htm
  
• zakupki.gov.ru/epz/main/public/home.html
  

Or use the "Counterparty Check" service in the online bank Uralsib Business Online. The service will allow you to verify the reliability of a counterparty by automatically consolidating all information and checking it against 40 risk factors in a single-window mode.  

When working with an account in Uralsib Business Online, use the "White Business" service

"White Business" is a service for preventive assessment of client transactions for compliance with the provisions of 115-FZ. It will help you regularly monitor your reliability rating and risk areas in your operations, and will give you an opportunity to learn in advance about possible account restrictions.

The service constantly monitors transactions and generates a security rating based on the following parameters:

·       payment purpose

·       account activity

·       amount of taxes paid

·       influence of counterparties on the business reputation

Connect "White Business" in Uralsib Business Online as an additional service. Protect your account from blockings and run your business without business and financial losses.

1. Complete an application and prepare the documents

Submit to the bank a completed Application for removal of the grounds for refusal (hereinafter, the Application).

The Application must be accompanied by documents and/or information confirming the absence of grounds for deciding to refuse the transaction according to the list, as well as any other information relevant to the bank's review.

Copies of documents must be certified by an authorized representative: the documents must bear the note “true copy”, indicate the surname, first name, patronymic, and also include a handwritten signature, certification date, and seal imprint (if any).

Before sending the Application and the set of documents to the bank, make sure that:

1. The Application is submitted to the bank in the prescribed form
2. The requirements for the formatting of the Application and documents have been complied with
3. The text of the Application is legible and makes it possible to determine its substance
4. The Application is accompanied by documents (information) that may indicate the absence of grounds for deciding to refuse the transaction
5. The Application does not contain obscene and/or offensive language or threats to the life, health, or property of bank employees or other persons

2. Send the Application to the bank

You may submit the Application in hard copy together with supporting documents to the servicing branch of the bank or send a scanned copy of the Application (with scanned copies of the documents attached) via Uralsib Business Online online banking (link to instructions).

3. Wait for the review results

Your Application will be reviewed within 7 business days from the date it is submitted to the bank.

The bank's response will be sent via online banking and the mobile app; if these are unavailable, it will be sent by post.

IMPORTANT! In the event of a negative response, you may collect a new set of documents and resubmit them to the bank for review.

If the bank informs you that the refusal decision remains in force (a notice that it is impossible to remove the grounds on which the refusal decision was previously made), you may обратиться в Interdepartmental Commission (Clause 13.5, Article 7 of Federal Law No. 115-FZ).