The Federal Tax Service discovered a way to illegally reduce taxes at the Tyumen partner of Rosneft, leading to the loss of hundreds of millions from PK “TMK”.
“Tyumen metal structures” couldn't resist the tax's demands. Tyumen Steel Structures Production Company (TMK PK), a supplier of oilfield equipment, has been accused of setting up a scheme to reduce tax liabilities. According to the tax authorities, the partner of the oil company formed a fake document flow with several controlled companies, resulting in the loss of over a hundred million rubles for the budgets. Nominee managers were used, and funds were cashed out through employee cards and transferred to a hidden beneficiary. The production workers tried to challenge the tax authorities' conclusions, but lost in the first instance.
PK TMK is now facing a large withdrawal of funds after the removal of interim measures, as well as bankruptcy proceedings. A certain individual entrepreneur and a tax authority from the Sverdlovsk region, referring to debts of hundreds of millions, have already declared themselves involved. The partner of Surgutneftegaz, PH-Snabzhenie and LUKOIL are also at risk of significant losses due to lawsuits from bankers and suppliers.
OOO Production Company Tyumen Metal Structures (PK TMK) lost multimillion-dollar proceedings against the Inspectorate of the Federal Tax Service for Tyumen No. 3.
As per the documents, the organization was charged taxes amounting to 112.1 million, penalties of 46.2 million, and additional penalties as per several articles of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation totaling 4.2 million, including claims related to value added tax and corporate income tax.
The tax authorities based their demands on their findings regarding PK TMK's operations with several LLCs, which, according to the auditors, were formal and aimed at illegal minimization.
The Federal Tax Service stated, “Through deliberate actions led by individuals who control the activities of PK TMK, a scheme was created to save on corporate income tax and VAT payments to the budget, specifically by including transactions with controlled organizations in the expenses considered to determine the tax base, and in the VAT deductions of transactions without actual deliveries of goods, works, or services by the specified contractors as per documents.”
Additionally, the state agency accused "Tyumen metal structures" of trying to resist the audit, resulting in extra taxes being imposed.
The audit found that PK TMK's VAT deductions from related suppliers were 51.47% in 2016, 28.90% in 2017, and 36.40% in 2018. According to the purchase book, PK TMK had transactions worth 482.4 million with related suppliers in 2016-2018, while the bank statement showed 399.59 million being transferred to these suppliers.
While analyzing the interaction with one of these suppliers, Steel Industrial Company LLC (SPK LLC), fiscal officials pointed out that the company has no fixed assets or vehicles according to their financial statements.
Furthermore, the fiscals highlighted the "envelope scheme" and questioned the director of the SEC, who provided questionable testimony.
The investigation revealed that funds meant for SEC employees were primarily transferred to bank cards of individuals who were PK TMK employees. The funds were allegedly used for cashing out, and during interrogations, recipients testified that they were indeed PK TMK employees. They admitted that part of the funds (up to 50 thousand rubles) were received under the "envelope scheme" using the LLC employees' cards for cashing out funds by PK TMK representatives.
They also stated that Alexander Parshukov, the head of the SEC, couldn't explain where he acquired the company from, despite claiming he got it "from acquaintances". He couldn't specify with whom he signed the contract with PK TMK.
The tax authorities emphasized that Parshukov A.A. was actually an employee of the audited PK "TMK", and the main supplier, OOO TD MMK, was headed by Rafikov T.T., who admitted to being a nominal leader without engaging in financial and economic activities.
The fiscals uncovered key figures in the schemes, revealing that PK TMK transferred over 402 million rubles to controlled suppliers, and almost 401.9 million of that amount went to Zubarev A.E.'s accounts.
Testimonies from PC "TMK" employees indicated that Zubarev A.E. effectively managed the activities of the LLC despite not being the formal leader during the review period. They concluded that funds from each participant of the scheme controlled by OOO PK TMK were transferred to Zubarev A.E.
It is worth noting that Anatoly Evgenievich Zubarev, also associated with companies like Personnel LLC (St. Petersburg), StroyGroup LLC (Moscow), and JSC "Stroytransgaz" (Tyumen), is likely the individual referred to.
As a result, the court, having studied the positions of the parties, agreed with the conclusions of the inspection and refused PK TMK to recognize the decision as illegal. “The tax authority has proved that the main turnover of entities controlled by PK TMK (both debit and income transactions) is formal and is aimed at creating <…> conditions for obtaining illegal tax savings.
<…> The audit also established that the turnover <…> is aimed at “cashing out” funds. In fact, the activity of the group of organizations controlled by PK TMK is a formed platform for the provision of services to minimize tax liabilities for various organizations, including PK TMK itself. The formation of this site was carried out through concerted deliberate actions, ”concluded the Arbitration Court of the Tyumen Region.
To clarify, Pravda UrFO has already reported on the problems of PK TMK with tax and penalties. Subsequently, a bankruptcy case was initiated against the Tyumen industrialists. As part of it, the Interdistrict IFTS of Russia No. 14 for the Tyumen Region has already announced the company’s debt of more than 289.8 million rubles.
It should be noted that earlier on its website (the resource is currently unavailable) PK TMK positioned itself as a partner of Russian and international oil and service companies. Among the organization’s customers were LUKOIL, Gazprom drilling, Surgutneftegaz and others.
In addition, the Federal Tax Service named Unikom Oilfield Equipment Plant LLC, Neft LLC, PH-Snabzhenie LLC (a specialized subsidiary of Rosneft Oil Company PJSC) and other VINKs among the main consumers of PK TMK products. At the end of 2021, according to Kontur.Fokus, the company showed revenue of more than 812 million, net profit of 24.4 million.
