Letter to the tax office about lack of activity: sample for the tax office and pension and social insurance funds

Reasons for writing a letter of absence of activity

Throughout their business activities, companies may encounter various financial problems. In this case, companies suspend their activities and send a message to certain authorities about the lack of commercial activity. The notification is drawn up in the form of a letter along with reporting and sent to the Pension Fund and the tax office to the Social Insurance Fund. The most common reasons for issuing this notice include the following:

• economic crisis;
• suspension of activities;
• Liquidation of company.

The letter is drawn up as a certificate, the form of which is not provided for by law. This document is of a notification nature, informing government authorities that the company does not have commercial, financial and economic activities . Such a certificate is submitted along with monthly documentation. In the absence of this letter, the tax office has the right to forcibly liquidate the company (Read also article ⇒ Zero reporting of the simplified tax system).

Important! A certificate of absence of company activity is submitted to the Federal Tax Service, Social Insurance Fund and the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation. In some cases, a certificate may be required by other authorities, for example, the prosecutor's office when conducting scheduled inspections. In this case, at the oral request of the prosecutor's office, the company is obliged to provide this document.

Deadline for submitting a letter

There is, of course, no specific deadline for submitting the letter. The letter is submitted solely at the discretion of the tax agent. However, if you have already decided to send a letter to the tax authorities, it is better to submit it immediately after the end of each reporting campaign and not wait until 10 days have passed. After all, if the 6-NDFL calculation is not submitted within 10 working days from the date of its submission, the Federal Tax Service will be able to block the bank accounts of the organization (clause 6 of article 6.1, clause 3.2 of article 76 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). During this period, tax authorities should be reminded that they may not expect a payment from you.

Each company has the right to suspend its financial and economic activities until economic conditions improve. The reasons for this decision may vary. As a rule, this is required in order to avoid large amounts of expenses during unfavorable periods of time. In this article we will look at how to write a letter of absence of activity, how to send it, and also provide a sample of this document.

Suspension of activities

If there is a need to suspend activities in a company, then a certain procedure will be required.

Letter of absence of activity to the Federal Tax Service

As noted above, a letter about the lack of activity of a legal entity is drawn up in free form, since the legislation does not provide for a special form. However, when compiling it, some requirements should be taken into account. So, when drawing up a certificate, the following is indicated:

• full name of the tax office;
• complete information about the legal entity, including contacts;
• name of the document (“Certificate of absence of activities and objects of taxation”);
• This is followed by the notification part, which lists the reasons for the suspension of activities, as well as documentary evidence of the current situation;
• date and signature of the head of the company, stamp if available.

When drawing up the notification part of the letter, it should be taken into account that it should contain the following information:

• information about the period of time during which the company’s financial and economic activities were not carried out (documents certified by the manager are attached, confirming the actual absence of activity);
• list of taxes for which there is no tax base.

Sample tax certificate

Why do you need a letter about zero 6-personal income tax?

Let us say right away that the Tax Code of the Russian Federation does not provide for the sending or submission of any letters about zero calculations of 6-NDFL. However, the advisability of submitting such a letter is due to the following.

The fact is that without waiting for the calculation of 6-NDFL, the tax office has the right to block the current account of an organization or individual entrepreneur. Blocking is possible if the 6-NDFL calculation is not submitted within 10 working days from the date of the deadline for its submission (See “Penalties for late submission of 6-NDFL in 2020”). After all, the inspectorate simply will not know whether the organization or individual entrepreneur is a tax agent or whether they simply forgot to submit 6-NDFL.

Unfortunately, there is a possibility of such a development of events. And in order to protect the business, it makes sense to submit a free-form letter to the tax office, in which it is reported that the organization or individual entrepreneur has neither employees nor contractors and therefore 6-NDFL is not submitted.

Let's give an example of such a letter.

Ways to send a letter to the tax authority

There are several ways to send a letter to the tax office:

1. By mail. In this case, an inventory of the attachments is compiled for the letter and it is sent as registered mail with acknowledgment of delivery.
2. Personally to the tax office. Having appeared at the tax authority in person, the certificate is handed over to an authorized employee. In this case, 2 copies of a covering letter should be prepared for the certificate, one of which will remain with the tax office, and the second will be returned to the representative of the organization with a mark of receipt.
3. Via courier service.
4. By email through the tax website. This method of sending is considered official if the letter is certified by an electronic signature.

Letter of absence of activity in the Pension Fund of Russia

As in the case of tax notification, there is also no approved document form for notification of the absence of activity of the Pension Fund. Therefore, the company has the right to develop it independently. When preparing a certificate for the Pension Fund, be sure to indicate the following information:

• the period of time during which employees were accrued but not paid (that is, insurance contributions to the Pension Fund were also not transferred);
• a list of company employees with whom employment and other contracts have been concluded, under which monetary remuneration must be paid (the full names of the employees, their passport details, registration and actual residence addresses are indicated);
• the reason why employees are not paid;
• list of employees released from work due to layoff procedures or being idle.

The document is signed by the head of the company, as well as the chief accountant (

Beyond taxes

Some payments to employees are not taxed, so there is no need to provide a 2-NDFL calculation for these payments either. These include:

• Payments upon dismissal. There is no need to worry if the dismissal occurred at the beginning of the reporting period. Payments upon dismissal are not taxed. But if the employee was entitled to compensation for unused vacation, then it is impossible to do without replenishing the tax base. When making calculations regarding vacation, 2-NDFL will have to be submitted during the reporting period, even if the employee quit.
• Travel expenses for employees. But they should not exceed 700 rubles per day when traveling on business in Russia and 2,500 rubles per day when sending an employee to foreign countries.

Letter about lack of activity in the Social Insurance Fund

In addition to sending a letter to the tax office and the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, the FSS will also need to notify the lack of activity. When writing a letter, you will need to indicate the following:

• name of the FSS body;
• name, details and contact details of the organization;
• information about the lack of activity, as well as the calculation and payment of social insurance contributions.

Important! This document is needed so that the Social Insurance Fund is informed that the organization did not work for a specific period of time. There is also no special form provided for this document, so the company has the right to develop it independently. The certificate should be accompanied by a bank statement confirming the fact that there were no funds in the account for a certain period of time.

How often to submit a letter

The above letter can be written only once. In this case, the letter should indicate that the organization or individual entrepreneur will submit calculations in form 6-NDFL as soon as such an obligation arises.

However, an even more reliable option is possible - such a letter can be submitted to the inspectorate at the end of each reporting period. Thus, at the end of each reporting campaign, tax authorities will receive a “reminder” that there is no need to wait for 6-NDFL calculations from a company or individual entrepreneur.

Let us remind you that the reporting periods for submitting 6-NDFL are as follows:

For example, you must submit 6-NDFL for the 2nd quarter of 2020 no later than August 1, 2020. Accordingly, after August 1, 2020, you can submit such a letter to the Federal Tax Service.

Answers to common questions

Question: Is there a fine for failure to notify the tax authority of the lack of activity?

Answer: No, there is no penalty for failure to notify. But the company will also have to submit reports and pay mandatory fees.

Question: How can you confirm that the company did not conduct financial and economic activities?

Answer: To do this, you will need to obtain a statement from the bank confirming that there are no movements on the current account. This will confirm that there were no movements on the account with the participation of the company.

Legal basis

The Federal Law “On official statistical accounting and the system of state statistics in the Russian Federation” establishes the obligation of each enterprise to send reports according to the requirements of the territorial service of Rosstat. Information must be provided:

• large businesses (with more than 150 employees);
• medium-sized businesses (the number of employees does not exceed 150);
• small businesses (the number of employees varies from 15 to 100);
• micro companies (with a maximum number of employees up to 15 people).

Large companies must systematically report to Rosstat. Smaller participants in market relations provide information not only according to official reporting forms, but also at the official request of the service for certain indicators. According to selective statistical requirements, reporting to statistical authorities is submitted no more often:

• once a month and once a quarter (by small and medium-sized business entities;
• once a year (micro companies).

The main information that companies must submit to Rosstat is:

• balance sheet data;
• salary level indicators;
• information about workplace injuries;
• information on positions and salaries.

During a random check, the territorial statistical office sends a request form to enterprises in a certain industry or category. It sets out specific questions that need to be answered, for example: “volume of transport, etc.

Some enterprises do not engage in foreign economic activity and do not provide transport services. In this case, the company will not have indicators for the requested information.

However, organizations do not have the right to refuse to provide a report, since violation of the procedure and deadlines for sending statistical information, as well as failure to provide them at all, is subject to liability under the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. The fines vary:

• from 10,000 to 20,000 rub. in relation to managers or individual entrepreneurs;
• from 20,000 to 70,000 rubles. in relation to a legal entity.

To avoid liability, the organization draws up a notice of the inability to provide data upon request.