Usually, an application for a refund of the amount of overpaid tax occurs after the completion of the periods for submitting tax reports and transfers, when, as a result of rechecking the amounts sent to the tax office, it turns out that for some reason an overpayment has occurred.
Reasons for tax overpayments
A variety of circumstances can lead to tax overpayments. Most often, these are banal errors in the preparation of documents that are made by both company accountants and tax inspectors themselves. For example, the current tax rates are indicated incorrectly, exemptions are not applied, all the necessary values are not taken into account when calculating the taxable base, etc.
It happens that the tax authorities write off the tax twice - this usually happens if one legal entity has several accounts. There may also be situations when excessive payment of tax occurs as a result of advance payments paid on time.
In any case, regardless of the reason that led to the overpayment of tax, the law provides for the possibility of returning the amount paid in excess of the required amount. To do this, you just need to submit an appropriate application to the territorial tax office.
Deadlines for the refund of overpaid tax
There is a clearly limited period for applying for a refund of overpaid tax: three years.
If the fact of the overpayment was revealed later or the taxpayer for some reason could not apply for a refund for this period, it will hardly be possible to do anything in the future.
If the application is submitted on time and in accordance with all the rules, while the tax authority did not have any questions and it agreed with the taxpayer's request, the refund must be made no later than one month after the application was submitted.
If you don't apply for a refund
If there is no requirement to return the overpaid tax, tax inspectorate specialists have every right to offset this amount against the taxpayer's future tax payments or cover any of his arrears, penalties and fines with it.
There are situations when the application is received after the tax authorities have already disposed of the overpaid money - in such cases, only the difference between the covered arrears (penalties, fines) and the overpaid amount will be returned to the tax payer's account.
Return procedure
- Before you run to the tax office with an application for a refund, you need to make sure that you have documents confirming the overpayment on hand.
- After the evidence is in hand, the taxpayer writes an appropriate application, which he submits to the tax office.
For example, if there was an oversight by an accountant enterprises, subsequently discovered, it is necessary to prepare and submit an updated declaration to the tax authorities. Or you can simply draw up an act of reconciliation with the tax - if it reveals an overpayment, then you will no longer need to submit a “clarification”.
Sometimes the fact of a tax overpayment is revealed as a result- in this case, the tax office sends a written notice to the organization.
Sometimes, in search of the truth, taxpayers are forced to go to court, but as a rule, this is a last resort. However, if by court the fact of overpayment of tax will be proved, this will also serve as the basis for a refund.
Tax authorities are required to consider the application within 10 days from the date of receipt.
How to submit an application
The taxpayer has the right to submit the application to the tax authorities in any way convenient for him:
- personally,
- through a representative (if there is an appropriate power of attorney),
- by electronic means of communication,
- via Russian Post by registered mail with acknowledgment of receipt.
Application rules
The application should be drawn up according to a special model developed and approved by the Federal Tax Service. When filling out the form, you must adhere to certain rules.
It is best to write in block letters in the document so that all the information is as legible as possible, while trying to avoid inaccuracies and errors, and if they do happen, it is better not to correct them, but to write a new statement.
A document is being drawn up in duplicate, one of which, after being approved by the inspector, remains in the hands of the taxpayer, the second is transferred to the tax office.
Sample application for refund of overpaid tax
First, in the upper right part of the document, information about the addressee of the application and its author is indicated. This indicates the name and number of a particular tax office, as well as information about the taxpayer:
- If we are talking about an individual entrepreneur or any other citizen of the Russian Federation, then it is enough to indicate his personal data:
- surname-name-patronymic,
- residential address (according to passport)
- and a contact phone number (in case the tax officer needs some clarification).
- If the application is made on behalf of the organization, then you need to write:
- her full name,
- KPP (in accordance with the constituent documents),
- legal address
- and also a phone number.
The main part of the document concerns overpaid tax.
- First, there is a link to an article of the law that allows the return of overpaid amounts.
- Then the nature of the overpayment should be noted: the money was paid voluntarily or collected, as well as the name of the tax collection.
- After that, the tax period for which the overpayment occurred and the tax code for the BCC (budget classification code) is entered - it has periodically changing individual indicators for each tax and a code (depending on the territory in which the tax payment was made).
- Further, in figures and words, the amount that the taxpayer considers overpaid and the account details for the refund are entered into the form:
- name of the bank servicing the account,
- his corr. check,
- taxpayer account number.
- After that, the line "Recipient" indicates the last name, first name, patronymic of the individual entrepreneur or citizen or the name of the organization submitting the application.
- Finally, the form must be dated and signed.
