THE COURT: TAX CLEARANCE CERTIFICATE DOES NOT CONFIRM A COMPLETE ABSENCE OF DEBTS

An application for the inclusion of the tax authority's claim in the register of creditor’s claims was submitted to the Arbitration Court of the North-West District. The manager was against satisfying the claim, pointing to a tax clearance certificate previously issued by the Federal Tax Service Inspectorate.

The courts of the first and appeal instances upheld the position of the manager, considering the certificate sufficient evidence, and refused to include the tax authority claim in the RCC.

However, the district court considered the arguments of the tax authorities and cancelled the previous rulings, having taken a position diametrically opposed to colleagues.

The tax authority's argument was that the certificate issued earlier reflects the absence of arrears in current payments, and being an internal accounting document, it cannot be relevant and admissible evidence in the case. At the same time, the creditor presented the evidence of the debt presence to the court, and the debtor, in turn, did not conclusively refute the fact of its repayment.

What is more, the debtor did not dispute the presence of taxation objects for which non-payment of taxes was established.

Now the court of the first instance has to reconsider the case, taking into account the mistakes made (decision in case No. A56-115257 / 2019 of December 28, 2020).