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- The stripes were combed: taxes were underpaid by 9.5 billion during the construction of highways.
The stripes were combed: taxes were underpaid by 9.5 billion during the construction of highways.
During the construction of highways in the Russian Federation, 9.5 billion rubles of taxes were underpaid, Izvestia found out. According to the statistics of arbitration courts for 2024-2025, the average amount of tax claims amounted to 300-700 million for large companies. In particular, they were engaged in the construction of the M-12, M-4 "Don", R-22 "Kaspiy" expressways, roads in the Moscow region. Up to 60% of organizations will not be able to pay their tax debts and are likely to go bankrupt, about 30% of construction companies are already undergoing this procedure, experts said. How this may affect construction in 2026 and whether it will be possible to quickly replace organizations that have left the market — in the Izvestia article.
How construction companies evaded taxes
Dozens of road construction companies are faced with the need to pay significant tax surcharges. The Federal Tax Service (FTS) has issued general claims to road workers in excess of 9.5 billion rubles over several years. This became known from the results of the arbitration courts for 2024-2025, which were reviewed by Izvestia. Large companies participated in the implementation of government orders for the construction of the M-12, M-4 "Don", R-22 "Kaspiy" highways, federal highways in St. Petersburg, New Moscow, and the Moscow region.
For example, the company "IC Dorleader" has been awarded more than 776 million rubles at a time, including 248 million rubles in fines and penalties. Due to the inability to pay the debt immediately, the company declared bankruptcy. She built public roads in the city districts of Podolsk, Serpukhov and others.
Avtodor-Tambov, which built highways in the Tambov and Lipetsk regions, as well as sections of the highways R-193 Voronezh – Tambov, R-22 Kaspiy, M-4 Don — Tambov – Volgograd –Astrakhan and others, accrued more than 584 million rubles in additional taxes. According to the Federal Tax Service, the company has implemented 13 government contracts totaling 6.4 billion rubles, according to the materials of the arbitration court.
JSC "Tsentrdorstroy" (CDS), which was engaged in the design and construction of highways, airfields and other elements of transport infrastructure, accrued more than 106 million tax claims. The CDU reconstructed the highway to Domodedovo Airport, built the Maryino– Salarievo, Voskresenskoye – Karakashevo– Shcherbinka roads, participated in work on the M-12 expressway (Kazan), etc.
It follows from the court decisions that the violators used fictitious document management, which is expressed in non-existent transactions with "technical" counterparties, that is, in the formation of "paper VAT" and "withdrawal of money into shadow circulation," said Alexey Kozhevnikov, head of the Risk Control agency.
— The ways of avoiding taxes are the same. The business is divided into counterparty chains, and funds are spent through them, which reduces VAT and income tax," he told Izvestia.
According to him, when conducting scheduled inspections, the Federal Tax Service identifies these schemes and charges additional taxes immediately for the entire three-year period under review, so the amounts are quite large. In general, road builders faced additional charges in the amount of 9.5 billion rubles, Alexey Kozhevnikov noted.
Companies try to challenge these decisions, but in 95% of cases, the Federal Tax Service manages to prove its position in court. Moreover, in some situations, law enforcement agencies are involved in investigations, the expert added. For example, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region was involved in the investigation of the activities of ABZ-Dorstroy from St. Petersburg, which is reflected in the court's decision. The company reconstructed the Pulkovo Highway, roads in the Tver, Novgorod and Leningrad regions, and the Vyborg district and received tax claims from the Federal Tax Service in the amount of more than 285 million rubles.
As noted in the decision of the Thirteenth Arbitration Court of Appeal of St. Petersburg, the organization conducted formal document management for deliberate tax minimization.
Izvestia sent requests to the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Construction, the Federal Tax Service and the listed construction companies.
What could be the consequences for the industry
"A difficult situation may arise for organizations in the road industry that are faced with claims from the Federal Tax Service," Alexey Amelekhin, president of the Commonwealth of Operating Organizations Road Association, told Izvestia. — I believe that most road organizations will challenge the claims of the tax authorities in the courts.
Given the Federal Tax Service's practice of writing off funds or blocking current accounts of tax agents, it is not difficult to assume that enterprises with a long production cycle, having lost part of their working capital, will not be able to fulfill their obligations under government contracts in a timely manner. Even if a court case is won, this can lead to extremely negative results for enterprises and their labor collectives, the expert believes.
According to him, it will be difficult to quickly replace the departed companies, which may make it difficult for a number of infrastructure projects to choose contractors.
Additional VAT and income tax charges of hundreds of millions of rubles to contractors in the field of road construction are the result of stricter control over VAT refunds, lawyer Vasily Vayukin, managing partner of the Tax&Legal Management agency, told Izvestia. At the same time, the construction industry has historically been characterized by a high proportion of subcontracting and complex supply chains.
As a result, in an attempt to illegally avoid tax deductions, businesses face even greater risks, including bankruptcy and closure and the actual inability to pay the amounts being collected, which turns multimillion—dollar claims into "paper" debts, the expert noted.
Approximately 30% of construction companies facing additional charges from the Federal Tax Service are already under bankruptcy proceedings, said Alexey Kozhevnikov. Another 30% are likely to suffer the same fate in 2026, he believes. They don't have the spare funds to pay their debts quickly. In some cases, accounts are blocked and companies are left without money to conduct further business, the expert noted.
The schemes of VAT avoidance in road construction identified by the Federal Tax Service do not differ from practices in other sectors of the economy: everything is like everyone else's — formal (fictitious) document management with subsequent withdrawal (cashing out) of funds through technical companies (LLC) or sole proprietors, tax lawyer Mikhail Prediger told Izvestia.
"But the question arises why evasions are detected for three years or more, and not at the moment, which would minimize possible losses in terms of replenishing the budget and take more effective debt collection measures," he said.
According to the expert, with large amounts of additional contributions, a significant part of companies decides to go into bankruptcy, and in such a situation it becomes extremely difficult to return funds to the budget.
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