Money apart: Russia will create a blacklist of fake taxpayers
A federal register of fake taxpayers will be created in Russia. The Law Enforcement Commission for the prevention of offenses gave such an instruction to the Federal Tax Service. In particular, we are talking about a "mother-in-law scheme", when a real entrepreneur forms out an individual entrepreneur or LLC for a loved one in order to artificially divide the business and preserve the right to preferential tax regimes. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in January – June 2026, more than 3.3 thousand crimes related to tax evasion were detected in Russia. Compared to the same period in 2025, the indicator increased by 17.2%, which is the maximum increase in the last 12 years.
How the authorities deal with tax crimes
The Government Commission for the Prevention of Offenses, led by Vladimir Kolokoltsev, instructed the Federal Tax Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to strengthen the fight against tax crimes. This follows from the minutes of one of the last meetings of the commission, which Izvestia has.
One of the measures should be the creation of a federal register of front persons that businesses use to avoid paying taxes. According to the document, it is necessary to accumulate information about such citizens and increase the effectiveness of operational investigative activities in this area. The Federal Tax Service has been instructed to consider the creation of such accounting before February 1, 2027.
In addition, by March 1, the Federal Tax Service must develop a mechanism for canceling tax returns filed on behalf of front persons, as well as develop a unified approach to identifying signs of forgery (falsification) of invoices and (or) tax returns. In turn, the regional and republican departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as the departments of the Ministry of Transport in the federal districts, have been instructed to take exhaustive measures to identify the property of the taxpayers being audited in order to subsequently seize it.
Using front persons is an illegal but common tax evasion scheme. Real beneficiaries or business leaders register companies, sole proprietors and other structures for nominal persons — relatives, trusted employees or strangers. In this way, they are trying to artificially lower the tax base or obtain unjustified tax benefits.
Those guilty of such crimes may be punished under Articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: 173.1 "Illegal formation (creation, reorganization) of a legal entity or state registration of an individual as an individual entrepreneur" and 173.2 "Illegal use of documents for the formation (creation, reorganization) of a legal entity, state registration of an individual as an individual entrepreneur".
In Russia, there are several tax evasion schemes involving front persons. For example, a company may enter into a contract with a formally independent organization in order to artificially inflate expenses and thereby reduce taxable profits. At the same time, there is no actual delivery of goods, provision of services or payment — everything remains only on paper.
Another option is the artificial division of business between several formally independent companies or sole proprietors registered on front persons. This scheme allows the owner to use special tax regimes and reduce the tax burden, although virtually all decisions and resources are controlled by one person.
Another scheme is the registration of the company's constituent documents for a figurehead, including a relative, which is called the "mother—in—law scheme." In this case, the nominal owner is used to create the appearance of business independence and thus reduce the tax burden.
There are no separate statistics on tax crimes involving the use of front persons in Russia. At the same time, as Izvestia wrote, in January – June 2026, law enforcement officers identified 3,362 crimes related to tax evasion. Compared to the same period last year, the indicator increased by 17.2%, which is a record increase for at least the last 12 years.
Izvestia sent requests to the Federal Tax Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs with a request to assess the effectiveness of the proposed measures and to inform them about the deadlines for fulfilling the commission's instructions.
How does business assess the situation
A much more urgent problem today remains a business that operates without official registration at all, Elena Dybova, Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told Izvestia.
— This is a really serious shadow sector and a real challenge, since such companies are not counted anywhere, checks are not knocked out, they do not incur costs, and they put the proceeds in their pockets. Due to such unequal competition, bona fide entrepreneurs suffer," she stressed.
According to her, this issue was raised at a meeting of the government commission.
— Therefore, business expects that in order to strengthen the fight against tax crimes, not only registers will be created, but also conditions will be created under which work in the shadow sector will become unprofitable, — Elena Dybova believes.
The increase in the number of financial crimes is natural against the background of the tax burden on businesses, says economist Georgy Ostapkovich.
— Do not forget about the difficult economic situation. Therefore, it is logical that entrepreneurs try to avoid taxes and look for semi-legal or illegal ways to reduce the burden. At the same time, the tax inspectorate acts very harshly, since taxes are one of the main sources of budget revenues," the expert noted.
According to him, on the one hand, the fight against violations is necessary, but on the other hand, increased tax control may create an additional burden on businesses and lead to the closure of some enterprises.
Indeed, recently a number of unfair tax avoidance practices have begun to scale up, Oleg Pavlov, head of the Public Consumer Initiative, told Izvestia. According to him, the scheme is especially popular when one large legal entity is divided into several small ones in order to reduce the tax burden by reducing the number of deductions.
However, due to the fact that Russia has a high level of development of government information systems and almost all business areas are digitized (beneficiaries, transactions, counterparties, turnover, personnel, property), the authorities can increase tax collection. Therefore, the more control mechanisms and instruments of influence the Federal Tax Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs have, the more law-abiding the business will be, the social activist believes.
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