Vyacheslav Volodin became interested in the finances of bloggers

State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin proposed taking control of the Tax Service of life coaches earning money in social networks, and directing the taxes collected from them to repair schools and support soldiers.

“While making big fortunes on people’s trust, some, as we see, use fraudulent schemes to avoid paying taxes. And we are talking about huge sums: from millions to billions of rubles,” Volodin wrote in his Telegram channel.

How will the tax tracking mechanism work and how effective will it be? Director of the Association of Tax Consultants Vladimir Saskov comments:

“All movements of financial resources on current accounts and the like are quite traceable. And the FTS sees it. And as soon as the state decided to pay a particularly close look at the activities of the Internet business, including bloggers, they will get to everyone. There are tools for this in the form of digital technologies, artificial intelligence, interaction with banking organizations, online cash desks and the like, which collect and accumulate all the information, and they can add two plus two and understand how much a person has received income. There are mechanisms, there is a goal, there is a desire, and I think that today they will collect taxes from everyone from whom they consider it possible and expedient. There are special tax regimes, if a person has the opportunity to read the Tax Code, he will choose the optimal tax regime for himself, the state provides a lot of variability in choosing the optimal tax regime. If a person’s revenue per year does not exceed certain criteria, for example, 150 million rubles, then he can pay 6% of income. If it is large enough, the same Blinovskaya, it is a large business, namely a holding, with a group of companies, the tax burden is the same as for the rest of the large business, that is, the general taxation regime with all the ensuing consequences: VAT, profit or personal income tax, if she acts as an individual. Their main mistake is that they try to optimize their schemes without assessing the risks. To date, three or four bloggers who have encountered problems have already realized that the risk of additional tax charges and criminal prosecution is quite high. If they had taken care of their tax security in advance, built their business based on the possibility of using the mechanisms that are laid down in the Tax Code, they would not have tax risks today.”

Last week, the media and Telegram channels, citing materials provided by the Russian Interior Ministry, circulated a list of about 30 popular bloggers who are also reportedly subject to tax checks. It features Regina Todorenko, Victoria Bonya, Instasamka, Hussein Hasanov and Yegor Creed.

The scandalous machinations of the “marathon queen” Elena Blinovskaya, as well as her colleagues Valeria Chekalina (Lerchek) and Alexandra Mitroshina, became the reason for carrying out measures to identify violations. As the telegram channels write, the list was ready even before the first arrests. At the same time, some bloggers were removed from the list, as they paid off their tax debts. Vasily Yashchuk, founder and creative director of Players advertising agency, says:

“Starting in 2020, most of the relevant agencies and market experts have been saying that influencers should seriously take care of their financial security and financial cleanliness, monitor their accounting and legalize their income. What is happening now is not surprising, it is an absolutely logical step to develop the market and control it. Most bloggers, coaches and those who make money from an information product should build their accounting and be clean before the state from the position of paying taxes. It was a mistake to believe that the state apparatus would not reach this sphere. The advice that should be given now is to transfer the entire financial flow to a transparent, understandable and accessible for tax authorities control as soon as possible, as quickly as possible. Is it possible to control influencers? Of course, yes, as it was possible to do this in all the past years, it’s just that no one really did it. And it’s high time for influencers and infocoaches to understand that they do not belong to any special caste of people and are just as equal before the law, which can quickly check all their tax accruals.”

What about those who sell various courses, run marathons, blogging and take money for advertising? Based on his experience, TikTok producer, director of NERPA Agency Renat Yanbekov advises:

“First, be sure to consult with an accounting and legal agency. I myself resorted to similar services when I had controversial issues. Last year, I was also called to the tax office as the owner of an advertising agency. Such consultations, even with leading experts, do not cost space money. This is 20-40 thousand rubles, and you can paint all the questions with them. In addition to issues related to the payment of taxes, now the law on advertising labeling must also be observed, and bloggers can also be punished for it, and after the fact. That is, during the year a blogger can advertise, and only the next year, after a year and a half, he may receive quite a significant fine, and there may be high-profile cases like Blinovskaya, because the advertising turnover of some bloggers is quite large. There is also such a practice when a blogger, looking at the situation with the same Blinovskaya or other famous people, wants to somehow protect himself, after consulting with specialists, you can always file an appeal to the tax authority and simply mention that something was calculated incorrectly , and offer to voluntarily correct some inaccuracies. This works well, those who feel a sin behind themselves can always fix everything if they come in advance. As a rule, the tax authorities themselves are happy about this, they can charge additional taxes, pay them in order to feel calm and safe. Today, there are modern lawyers and accountants who directly deal with the problems of digital structures, that is, you need to turn to them.”

Earlier, the Presnensky Court of Moscow put blogger Elena Blinovskaya under house arrest, accused of tax evasion in the amount of almost 1 billion rubles. Blinovskaya, a Russian blogger, TV presenter, creator of the popular Marathon of Desires personal growth marathon, was detained the day before while trying to go abroad in a rented car.

In early March, the UK opened a case against Alexandra Mitroshina. She evaded paying taxes in excess of 120 million rubles. At the same time, investigators raided the blogger Lerchek and her husband. A criminal case was opened against the Chekalins for non-payment of 300 million rubles in taxes.