Large trucking companies are massively avoiding taxes by splitting up their businesses

The Federal Tax Service (FTS) has filed a claim against X5 Group's subsidiary, Agro—Auto logistics company, for tax evasion in the amount of 320 million rubles. The court decision has entered into force, Izvestia has reviewed the document.

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The decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court, confirmed by the Supreme Court, states that so-called "technical" companies were used to avoid taxes and withdraw funds.

The "technicals" are used by businesses to turn it into a multi-stage intermediary scheme to reduce value added tax (VAT), Alexey Kozhevnikov, head of the Risk Control analytical agency, told Izvestia. They are also used to cash out funds, he added.

"Techies" do not have a staff, their own vehicles and are used to withdraw money from tax accounting. During the inspections of Agro-Auto, the Federal Tax Service revealed a dozen such "technical problems". With the help of dubious counterparties, the amount of VAT could be reduced by 90%-99.99%, the court said.

As a result of the investigation, the tax inspectorate added 320.47 million rubles of additional value-added tax to the company. Agro-Auto challenged this decision all the way to the Supreme Court, but it upheld it.

A similar situation occurred with another large trucking company, Celta (a subsidiary of Magnit). Dozens of "technicals" were also found in her activities, which were used to reduce VAT and cash out funds. The court's decision noted that the company created a fictitious document flow in order to obtain unjustified tax benefits. As a result, in December 2024, 584 million rubles were recovered from Celta, excluding fines and penalties.

As Alexey Kozhevnikov told Izvestia, there are, however, much more impressive examples of tax claims and the creation of fictitious counterparties. For example, the Federal Tax Service is collecting more than 799 million rubles from the ATL Regions trucking company from St. Petersburg (legal proceedings are in full swing). And one of the record holders in the number of fictitious counterparties was Quick Line Logistics LLC from St. Petersburg. The Federal Tax Service counted 123 "technicals" from him at a time and charged 235 million rubles in additional taxes, the expert added.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:

The Technica case: Large carriers evade taxes by splitting up their businesses