Senior Legal Counsel at Jingsh Law Firm Ivan Fedorov commented to Kommersant on the difficulties faced by entrepreneurs who encountered restrictions under the new tax regime after switching to the Automated Simplified Taxation System (AUSN).
In 2026, approximately 360,000 taxpayers switched to AUSN. The regime initially appeared attractive to businesses: tax is calculated automatically through an authorised bank, reporting obligations are reduced, and employers are not required to pay social insurance contributions in respect of their employees. However, within several months, some entrepreneurs began experiencing practical difficulties.
The principal issues include limits on the number of employees and annual turnover, the requirement to maintain accounts exclusively with banks approved by the Federal Tax Service, and errors in the classification of transactions and calculation of the tax base.
A further difficulty is that taxpayers cannot voluntarily withdraw from AUSN during the calendar year. As a general rule, a business may return to the standard Simplified Taxation System only from the beginning of the following calendar year. An earlier transition is possible only if the taxpayer loses its eligibility to apply AUSN, for example by exceeding the applicable revenue or employee-number thresholds.
Ivan Fedorov noted that deliberately creating circumstances resulting in the loss of eligibility for AUSN may be regarded as an abuse of rights.
In particular, he stated:
“If a business genuinely grows in the ordinary course, its revenue or workforce increases and the company consequently ceases to satisfy the AUSN requirements, there is no issue: it may simply move to the tax regime that is appropriate for it. However, if those circumstances are created deliberately in order to circumvent the law, this constitutes an abuse of rights.”
Ivan Fedorov also noted that there is currently no established practice of the Federal Tax Service commencing court proceedings or initiating a tax audit solely because of such circumstances. This does not, however, mean that businesses should artificially exceed the AUSN thresholds without first assessing the potential legal and tax consequences.
For businesses, this means that a decision to switch to AUSN requires an advance assessment not only of the applicable tax rate, but also of all restrictions associated with the regime. Where a company is growing, changing its servicing bank, increasing its workforce or approaching the applicable turnover thresholds, it is important to determine in advance which tax regime will apply after it loses its eligibility for AUSN and which notices must be submitted to the tax authority.
Ivan Fedorov’s full comments and the article are available at: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/8675330
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