The tax authorities are collecting more than 800 million rubles from the Nizhny Novgorod alcohol producer Balsam LLC. tax arrears. The total amount of claims is approximately comparable to the annual revenue of a wine and vodka factory. Previously, the enterprise, whose facilities are located in Chkalovsk, could not challenge tax decisions on the additional charge of large amounts of VAT – according to the tax authorities, Balsam carried out fictitious transactions for several years to minimize the tax burden. The plant’s lawyers are seeking interim measures so that the enterprise can continue to operate, but without the consent of the tax authorities, the plant is prohibited from alienating property.
In the Arbitration Court of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, a number of legal proceedings by tax authorities with Balsam LLC, a manufacturer of vodka, champagne and liqueurs, continued. In January, proceedings were resumed on the claim of the Interdistrict Tax Inspectorate No. 18, which asks to recover 700 million rubles from the enterprise. VAT and income tax arrears with fines and penalties. The administration of the Federal Tax Service for the Nizhny Novgorod region was also involved in the case.
Last year, the Balsam plant unsuccessfully tried to cancel the tax decision on the additional charge of this amount, which was required from the manufacturer following the results of an on-site audit for 2016-2018.
As follows from the materials of the case, the employees of the Nizhny Novgorod Federal Security Service also confiscated the primary accounting documentation at the enterprise earlier. Together with the special service, the tax authorities found out that Balsam, according to documents, acquired large quantities of granulated sugar, yeast, detergents, filtered cardboard and glass bottles from more than 20 counterparties. Most of the firms were fictitious suppliers with nominee directors and founders.
The volume of orders exceeded the real needs of the enterprise many times over. For example, according to primary documentation, 1.8 thousand tons of sugar were purchased, but it was not found in the warehouses, and the interrogated employees of the plant testified that they did not accept goods in such volumes and the factory warehouses could not accommodate such a quantity.
In court, representatives of Balsam tried to justify themselves by saying that they had cooked and sold sugar syrup to the side, but they were not believed. The situation was similar for other positions – for example, according to documents, the enterprise purchased over 7.8 million liters of special detergents, but in reality no more than 2.6 thousand liters were spent on production needs. Using documentation, employee surveys and data from the EGAIS system, the tax authorities revealed fictitious purchases of almost a million glass bottles, 7.5 thousand tons of cardboard and almost 1.9 thousand tons of yeast (despite the fact that the current production of sparkling wines required only 277 kg of yeast).
Challenging the conclusions of the tax authorities about the presence of fictitious document flow to reduce the tax burden, Balsam lost litigation in two court instances: the court decision on the legitimacy of the tax audit entered into force last fall.
In addition to trying to recover the previously accrued 700 million rubles. tax officials in separate cases ask to recover another 116.9 million VAT arrears from Balsam LLC for the fourth quarter of 2019 and 65 million for the first quarter of 2020. Consideration of these claims also resumed after the distillery lost a related dispute last year over the cancellation of tax decisions for later periods, in which the fiscals also revealed a similar fictitious document flow.
Thus, only in three disputes there are requirements to pay more than 880 million rubles to the budget. This amount exceeds the annual revenue of Balsam LLC in 2021, which, according to financial statements, amounted to 831.5 million rubles.
Judging by the materials of recent disputes, representatives of Balsam have suspended some demands for the forced collection of taxes pending court decisions. In particular, the taxpayer referred to the fact that this could lead to wage arrears for 176 employees of the plant, lead to a possible bankruptcy of the enterprise and a disruption in the supply of alcohol produced to large retailers. Without the consent of the tax authorities, the company is prohibited from selling its property.
It was not possible to quickly get comments from the director of Balsam LLC Alexander Vasenev (in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities he is also listed as the main shareholder of the company with a share of 76% of the authorized capital), his receptionist phones were not answered. An interlocutor in the authorities of Chkalovsk, on whose territory the production is located, says that Balsam is still working, but its affairs are “not brilliant”.
It is curious that the real beneficiary of the alcohol business in Chkalovsk is still considered a major Nizhny Novgorod businessman Mikhail Zhizhin. However, according to Kommersant-Privolzhye, he has been unable to get out of Spain for two years.
At the end of 2020, Mr. Zhizhin was detained with several Russians in the case of “money laundering of the Russian mafia”, but then the Spanish security forces released him, removing the claims and arrest from foreign property. The entrepreneur asked the Spanish authorities to give him the opportunity to return to his homeland, but he was not released under the pretext of Russian aggression in Ukraine, Mikhail Zhizhin’s acquaintances said.