Improvement of the Method of Carrying out Tax Audit of the Declaration on the Individual Income Tax in which the Deduction for the Education of Children is Declared

Shemyakina Marina Sergeevna ORCID: 0000-0003-3515-2680 PhD in Economics Associate Professor, Department of Accounting, Taxes and Economic Security, Volga State Technological University 424000, Russia, Yoshkar-Ola, Lenin Square, 3 sh.marina.s@gmail.com Other publications by this author

Introduction. In a Message to the Federal Assembly, the President of the Russian Federation ^[1] Vladimir Putin on February 21, 2023, noted the need to complete the tax system: tax deduction should be provided in a proactive mode, quickly and remotely, not burdensome for citizens. This cannot be done without a prompt and high-quality desk tax audit. The total number of declarations submitted on Form 3-personal income tax by individuals who do not belong to the categories: individual entrepreneurs; heads of peasant (farm) farms; notaries and other persons engaged in private practice; lawyers who have established law offices; arbitration managers – for 2021 in the Russian Federation amounted to 15320557 ^[2]. The burden on one inspector performing desk control of such declarations differs depending on the staffing of the department. For example, in the Republic of Mari El, taking into account the average number of tax inspectors of the department of desk control of personal income tax and insurance premiums (12 people) one inspector accounts for 3208 declarations for inspection during the year, or an average of 13 inspections per 1 working day, which is a fairly high indicator. In this regard, the relevance of improving the efficiency of tax control of personal income tax declarations through the introduction of new control ratios and improving the mechanism for conducting a desk tax audit using cloud technologies is beyond doubt.

Literary review. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study is the scientific works of Russian scientists on the methodological support of tax control, including desk tax control of personal income tax declarations. The development of tax control in Russia is reflected in the works of L.I. Goncharenko ^[12], I.A. Mayburov ^[13], G.G. Nesterov ^[14], M.V. Mishustin ^[15], N.V. Tchaikovsky ^[16] and others. In publications devoted to the control of personal income tax, situations are considered when, during a desk tax audit of the calculation of 6-personal income tax, the tax authority may have questions to the tax agent^[3,4], some authors propose the introduction of new tax reporting ^[5] and the methodology for its verification ^[6]. Particular attention is paid to the legalization of the tax base and the problems of tax control when individuals receive income from leasing real estate ^[7].It should be noted that the issues of optimizing the desk tax audit of the 3-NDFL declaration in the works of Russian scientists are considered from the position of non-fulfillment by the payer of the obligation to submit a 3-NDFL declaration when receiving a gift of real estate or when selling it ^[8] and the application of blockchain technology to the verification of declarations, which reflect transactions of purchase and sale of real estate with underfunding ^[9]. The issues of optimizing the control of social tax deductions have not been disclosed in modern research.

Materials and methods. An analysis of the number of taxpayers receiving a social tax deduction from a tax agent based on a notification from the tax authority in the Russian Federation as a whole (Fig. 1) for 2019-2021 allows us to conclude that these persons have decreased by 28.3%, as well as the amount of social deduction provided by 24.5%.

Figure 1. Social tax deduction for personal income tax provided by tax agents.

Source: developed by the author based on the reporting of the Federal Tax Service of Russia in the form 5-NDFL

At the same time, the number of tax returns on Form 3-personal income tax, in which a social deduction is claimed, is increasing (Fig.2). The deviation from the trend is 2020. First of all, this is due to the pandemic and its impact on the organization of the educational process: many educational institutions either stopped their activities for the period of quarantine restrictions, or switched to distance learning, partially losing their clients at the same time. The analysis did not include 2022, because the tax authorities form reports on the declaration company and personal income tax receipts from tax agents in the second half of 2023. However, it can be assumed that the number of declarations will only increase – this is evidenced by the linear upward trend over the past 10 years. In this regard, the issue of optimizing the desk tax audit is particularly acute, since there are no plans to increase the staff of tax authorities in the near future.

Figure 2. Social tax deduction for personal income tax declared in tax returns.

Source: developed by the author based on the reporting of the Federal Tax Service of Russia in the form 1-DDK

Using the example of the personal account of a taxpayer of an individual, we will consider some stages of filling out a 3-NDFL tax return, as well as the methodology of its in-house tax audit.

When filling out a tax return, if it is necessary to recalculate standard tax deductions (for example, if the tax agent does not provide them for all the taxpayer's children), a window appears in the personal account in the deductions declaration section (Fig.3), in which information is indicated only about the date of birth of all the taxpayer's children.

Figure 3. Interface of the "Information about children" section when filling out a personal income tax return through the taxpayer's personal account.

In the subsection social deduction in the column "Education expenses", it is necessary to specify the value of the expenses spent on the child's education, if necessary, you can add the number of lines according to the number of children of the taxpayer (Fig. 4), while there is no obvious connection between mother, child, father (also for guardians and trustees).

Figure 4. Interface of the "Training Expenses" section when filling out a personal income tax return through the taxpayer's personal account.

According to Clause 2, clause 1, Article 219 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, a taxpayer-parent (guardian, trustee) for the education of his children (wards) under the age of 24 years of full-time education in organizations engaged in educational activities can receive a social tax deduction in the amount of the actual expenses incurred for this training, but not more than 50,000 rubles for each child in the total amount for both parents (guardian or trustee). The content of the specified rule of law in the part "for each child in the total amount for both parents" means that the expenses for the education of one child declared in the declarations of both parents (guardians, trustees) in the total amount should not exceed 50,000 rubles. At the same time, according to paragraph 3 of paragraph 2 of paragraph 1 of Article 219 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the necessary documents for granting a social deduction for training are the license of an educational institution and documents confirming actual expenses. In the explanations of the tax authorities posted on the official website of the Federal Tax Service, details are given, such documents include ^[10]: an agreement with an educational institution for the provision of educational services with appendices and additional agreements to it (if concluded); payment documents confirming the actual expenses of the taxpayer for training (receipts of cash registers, receipts -cash orders, payment orders, etc.); documents confirming the fact of guardianship or guardianship – an agreement on the exercise of guardianship or guardianship, or an agreement on the exercise of guardianship over a minor citizen, or an agreement on a foster family (if the taxpayer spent money on the education of his ward). Thus, a birth certificate is not a mandatory document for granting a deduction. Therefore, the desk tax audit of such a declaration should include: a request for information to the Registry Office of the Registry Office about the presence of a second parent in the child for whom the deduction is claimed, as well as a mandatory check in the AIS "Tax-3" of the presence/absence of the provided deduction for the child's education in the declaration of the second parent and the fulfillment of the condition on the maximum limit for deduction in aggregates on both parents.

The methodology of conducting a desk tax audit is a set of methods and techniques used by the tax authority when checking a tax return (calculation) or an application and documents submitted by a taxpayer, as well as other documents on the taxpayer's activities available to the tax authority. The methods and techniques (actions carried out in AIS "Tax-3" automatically) of conducting a desk tax audit of the declaration on form 3- NFDL include (the scheme is shown in Figure 5):

- checking the completeness and timeliness of tax reporting;

- visual verification of completeness of tax reporting;

- arithmetic control;

- the validity of the application of tax deductions and tax benefits;

-analysis and verification of comparability of indicators of reporting and declarations of taxpayers, as well as other information.

Figure 5. Methodology for conducting an in-house tax audit of a personal income tax return in which a deduction for a child's education is claimed (or verification of information about the right to a deduction).

Source: developed by the author

It should be noted that the implementation of the second stage – checking the provision of a deduction for education for the same child from the applicant's spouse takes at least 10 minutes of the tax inspector's working time. It seems that it can be fully automated.

Results. The stages of optimization and automation of the methodology described above (stage 2, shown in Figure 5) are presented in Figure 6.

Figure 6. The mechanism for improving the desk tax audit of the personal income tax return, in which the deduction for education is declared.

Source: developed by the author

The implementation of the developed mechanism is carried out in the following directions:

– To link the social deduction for training to the child's SNILS number (for standard deductions, such a binding should also be provided and reflected in the annex to the declaration on Form 6- NFDL in section 3 "Certificate of income and tax amounts of an individual", adding the child's SNILS column to the deduction code). This will allow you to organize a check of the relationship between parents and the child.

– Keeping records of the total amount of the provided social deduction in the context of each child in the deduction calculation card. The developed deduction calculation card is presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Form of the card for calculating deductions.

With the help of the developed register, accounting of the amount of parents' expenses for the education of a particular child is organized.

– setting up control ratios for the declaration: 1. The amount of the deduction for training stated in the tax return + the amount of the deduction reflected in the deduction calculation card provided from the beginning of the reporting period is less than the maximum amount of the deduction for training established by law. 2. The SNILS number specified in the 3-personal income tax declaration corresponds to one of the SNILS numbers specified in the "Certificate of income and tax amounts of an individual". The second control ratio is necessary to exclude errors in writing the child's SNILS number when filing a tax return on Form 3-personal income tax. The integration of these control ratios into AIS "Tax-3" allows stage 2, shown in Figure 5, to be fully switched to automatic mode.

The scientific novelty of the research lies in solving the scientific task of developing theoretical approaches and practical recommendations in order to improve the methodological tools of the desk tax audit of the personal income tax declaration, in which a deduction for children's education is claimed, based on cloud technologies and accounting for the total amount of social tax deduction according to code 321 in the context of SNILS, reflected in the developed form of the deduction calculation card,

The theoretical significance of the study lies in the fact that its main conclusions and provisions develop the methodological foundations of the organization of tax control.

The practical significance lies in the fact that the methodology developed in the study is aimed at improving the effectiveness of the control functions of tax authorities, corresponds to the implementation of the measures specified in paragraph 2.2 "Optimization of the activities of tax authorities taking into account the cost effectiveness of its implementation" of the Strategic Map of the Federal Tax Service of Russia for 2020-2024 ^[11], and is also a tool for digital transformation tax administration and one of the national development goals of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030 ^[18]. The implementation of recommendations in the practical activities of tax authorities optimizes and reduces the complexity of business processes, ensures the development of the automated information system of the Federal Tax Service of Russia "Tax-3" (AIS "Tax-3").

Conclusion. The implementation of these directions will significantly automate (with the exception of documentary control) the process of conducting a desk tax audit of a tax return on the form 3-personal income tax, in which a social deduction for children's education is declared. If we assume that the tax inspector spends up to 10 minutes of time searching for information in the Registry Office and studying the declaration of the second parent in AIS "Tax-3", then the savings with an average load of 13 declarations per day will amount to up to two hours of each inspector's working time daily. At the same time, the implementation of the proposed mechanism does not require any additional costs. It seems that in the future the taxpayer's personal account will be upgraded and information about the SNILS will not have to be entered manually. This technology is already implemented on the Portal of Public Services of the Russian Federation: if necessary, the parent chooses one of the children attached to his personal account. This will avoid mistakes in entering the SNILS number when filling out the declaration on Form 3-personal income tax and will eliminate the need to specify the SNILS numbers of each child in the annex to the declaration on form 6-personal income tax.